Don Lambert discusses the efforts of 40 men and women whose so-called Topeka Constitution marked a milestone on the road Kansas would take to eventually enter the Union as a free state on Sunday, July 18, at 2 p.m. at the Central Library, 14 W. 10th St.

On March 30, 1855, a mass influx from Missouri of several thousand armed "border ruffians" overwhelmed voting for delegates to the first Kansas Territorial Legislature, resulting in a landslide victory for proslavery adherents.

Anti-slavery "free-staters" elected to write their own constitution and submit it to Congress.  Although that constitution was not ratified, it paved the way for Kansas to eventually enter the union as a free state.

This presentation is part of the Missouri Valley Speakers Series, a program of the Missouri Valley Special Collections at the Central Library. The series is made possible in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.