History
Hands-on history: simulating the end of WWII at the Truman Museum
The highlight of Joe Henke’s summers are his visits to the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum. Henke is a world history and honors government teacher from Boonville, Missouri and has participated in the museum’s weeklong Summer Teacher Institute for the last seven years. This year on the eve of the 70th Anniversary of the…
Kansas City, 1968: Photos of MLK assassination protest found
During a routine inspection of donated filing cabinets, a warehouse worker at Kansas City’s Surplus Exchange made a surprisingly timely discovery: around 24 photos of the April 9, 1968, protest at KCMO’s City Hall following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. According to an article on the Kansas City Public Library’s website, this largely…
Cancer in KC: Ellis Fischel and the History of Cancer Care in Missouri
In conjunction with “Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies,” a three-part, six-hour major television event from filmmaker Ken Burns, KCPT is examining cancer’s impact in our city and Region. “Emperor” tells the story of this history of cancer. In the Midwest, a major part of cancer’s history is Ellis Fischel Cancer Center in Columbia, Missouri….
Confronting race and denial in Kansas City
In 1944, Swedish sociologist Gunnar Myrdal wrote in “An American Dilemma” — his landmark, 1,800-page study — that the subordination of African-Americans is “perhaps the most glaring conflict in the American conscience and the greatest unsolved task for American democracy.” Myrdal’s examination of the so-called “Negro Problem” — and the ways that same problem affects…
KC exhibit celebrates black inventors and innovators
What do a refrigerated truck, a Super Soaker and a golf tee have in common? All were invented by African-Americans, and all were featured in a travelling exhibit at the American Jazz and Negro League Baseball Museum this week. About 15 years ago, Carroll and Sandra Lamb attended a traveling black culture museum, but they…