Urban League

Interview with Lounneer Pemberton, executive director of the Kansas City Urban League. Pemberton discusses his family and early life in Iowa, attending predominantly white schools, attending the University of Minnesota, coming to Kansas City to work for the National Urban League, and actively considering race for the first time as an adult. He also shares memories of the Depression, seeing notable musicians, and thoughts about local activists and politicians, labor unions, local government, Freedom Inc., the passage of the public accommodations laws, and the upcoming national elections.

Interview with pharmacist and former Missouri state representative James McKinley Neal. Neal discusses his path to Kansas City and the pharmacy business, his service in the state legislature from 1946 to 1964, his sponsorship of civil rights bills, being elected by a primarily white electorate, and witnessing and promoting the desegregation of many public facilities during that time. He notes that he was the first Black person permitted to stay in a white hotel in the state of Missouri, having previously been required to stay in Lincoln University dormitories while in Jefferson City. He also discusses the accomplishments of his family members, his involvement in the Urban League and Martin Luther King Jr. Hospital, and shares thoughts about the Model Cities program, employment, and education.

Interview with Judge Howard Sachs about his life, work, and experience as part of the Kansas City Jewish community. He discusses his legal education and evolution on racial issues, He calls cases dealing with the desegregation of the Swope Park and Parade Park pools, the integration of the Kansas City Bar Association, his experience with the Urban League, and working to enact desegregation laws in Kansas City prior to the passage of the Civil Rights Act. He also discusses the support for civil rights issues from area rabbis, his work on the Kansas City School District desegregation committee, and his support for the Equal Rights Amendment.