Confronting race and denial in Kansas City

By | February 23, 2015 |
Image of African American man standing on street in front of row of American flags.

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…

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KC exhibit celebrates black inventors and innovators

By | February 18, 2015 |
students at museum

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…

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Separate but not equal: KU professor explores university’s complicated past

By | November 14, 2014 |
Photo of man holding book in front of bookcase.

Professor Emeritus Bill Tuttle is himself part of a complicated legacy of race relations at the University of Kansas and the surrounding community. In 1968, Tuttle taught the University’s first ever African American studies course, and has devoted much of his career to examining equality in the progressive burg of Lawrence, Kansas. “I think there…

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