Juneteenth

In honor of Juneteenth, local historian Erik Stafford explores how African Americans in Kansas City pursued freedom, from escaping their enslavers through the Underground Railroad to establishing a thriving Black business community in the first half of the 20th century.

As Beyoncé’s 'Cowboy Carter' album makes headlines for the superstar’s fresh take on the country music genre, bestselling novelist, award-winning songwriter, and educator Alice Randall visits the Library to discusses her newest book, 'My Black Country: A Journey Through Country Music’s Black Past, Present, and Future'....

The Kansas Historical Society’s Donna Rae Pearson talks about the 12 Black women who were plaintiffs in the landmark – and now 70-year-old – Brown vs. Board of Education case. Their contributions to the Civil Rights Movement have often been overlooked, yet they are essential to the story of the ruling and its impact on...

Not far from 18th and Vine streets, some of the most notable chapters in Kansas City’s Black history sprang from a single city block on Montgall Avenue. Author Margie Carr recalls this enclave and the influencers who lived there in the first half of the 20th century in a discussion of her new book...

In an online KC Library program, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Annette Gordon-Reed discusses her new book On Juneteenth, in which she weaves American history, dramatic family chronicle, and searing episodes of memoir into a series of essays on our “long road” to the effecti...