TBT: Kansas City History

The Past is Prologue: "Sumner High School: The Best Kept Secret" A Documentary Film

Thursday, August 5, 2021
7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Online event

Register for this program online or call 913.826.4600.

The Past is Prologue is a bimonthly program that highlights topics often left out, glossed over, or misrepresented in our history books. In August, we will host a Q&A with filmmaker Kamiasha Moses-Tyner about her documentary film "Sumner High School: The Best Kept Secret." The documentary film focuses on a crime in 1904 that instantly created a racial barrier in the Kansas City, Kansas High Schools. Forced to study in a different facility as the whites, the African Americans created a “league of their own”. These compelling recollections of True Stories and events, demonstrates the power of how a single act of negligence can have over a community and a State.

Join us for a screening of this documentary film shortly before the program on Thursday, August 5 at 4:00 pm on Zoom. Or, watch it on your own time using Amazon Prime Video.

This program will be hosted in Library OnDemand. Upon registering, you will receive an automatic message with instructions on how to access the program. You do not need to download any software or create an account.

Dividing Lines: A History of Segregation in Kansas City

Journey through the history of segregation in the Kansas City metro, primarily through its real estate. Dividing Lines is a tour of the history of residential segregation and its far-reaching impacts.

Dividing Lines Driving Audio Tour
This Dividing Lines tour is designed so that you can safely drive through the city at your own pace while hearing stories about each area you travel through. Download the Voice Map app on Android or iOS.

Nathaniel Bozarth, ethnographer and host of the “Wide Ruled” podcast, narrates this 90-minute drive, bringing in interviews from several area students and notable city figures Sid Willens, Bill Tammeus, Mamie Hughes, and Margaret May.

“Dividing Lines” was created as a part of the Johnson County Library’s “Race Project KC.” The Library’s Civic Engagement Committee, Local History Committee,  and Tanner Colby’s book “Some of My Best Friends are Black: The Strange Story of Integration in America” inspired much of the ongoing work of Race Project KC. This tour was made possible by support from Johnson County Library and the Kansas Humanities Council. It was produced by Brainroot Light & Sound. Written by Nathaniel Bozarth and Christopher Cook. The tour features music from Hermon Mehari and KC Jazz LP.

The content of this tour may contain controversial material; such statements are not an expression of library policy.

Get more information and download the app now.