Missouri Valley Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library

Interview with Alice Nast Statland about her husband Nat Nast. She recounts her husband's history, their move to Kansas City, and his desire to go into the sport shirt business, and his later shift to specializing in bowling shirts. She discusses the business's popularity through the 1950s and '60s, and diversified into caps, jackets and other promotional apparel, and was sold by the family in the early '70s. The brand was revived as Nat Nast Luxury Originals menswear line by their daughters several decades later and garnered a lot of media exposure. She also notes that original Nat Nast shirts could command two to three hundred dollars at the time of the interview.

Interview with civic leader Alvin Brooks. Brooks discusses his family's move from Little Rock, Arkansas to Kansas City during the Depression, growing up in the Dunbar/Leeds area, his experience working for the Kansas City Police Department during the 1950s and 1960s under Police Chief Clarence Kelley, protesting segregation and displacement for urban renewal projects, city and Kansas City Public Schools leadership, and his hope to remain involved in city goverment or to work at a small Black college or university.

Interview with Ann Brownfield about her experience as a designer Kansas City and other Midwestern cities. She recalls her start designing shoes in St. Louis, later teaching pattern-making in Grand Island, Nebraska, and working in sportswear, coat, and suit design at Brand and Puritz after moving to Kansas City in 1960. She describes opening her own factory in Kansas City, Kansas, designing and sewing small collections for a variety of clients, including making warm-up suits for the 1972 US Olympic ski team; and her later closure due to the decline of skilled sewing machine operators. She also discusses the decline of the local industry, manufacturing moving overseas, and later working in retail, giving tours of the old garment district, and beginning to collect clothing and other items from local manufacturers.

Interview with UMKC chemistry professor Dr. Antonio Sandoval about his life. Born in 1931, he recalls his early childhood on a New Mexico ranch in a Mexican American community, moving to Colorado to be able to attend high school, doing agricultural work, and notes that of his graduating class of 100, he was the only one to go on to earn a PhD. He discusses his mother's hope that he would become a priest but instead majoring in chemistry, enlisting in the army where he worked to support nuclear testing at locations including Los Alamos, going on to earn his PhD from Kansas State University where he almost met his microbiologist wife, and coming to Kansas City where he was on faculty at UMKC and his wife taught at Avila, Rockhurst, and Donnelly colleges. He also discusses his participation in United Mexican American Students (UMAS) and working with his wife in the Catholic church's Marriage Encounter program.

Interview with boxing coach Arrington Bubble Klice. Klice discusses his family and background in Arkansas, early childhood in St. Louis, attending school in Kansas City, his involvement in sports including basketball and swimming, his memories of World War I and life during the Depression, working various jobs at St. Regis Hotel, recalls the nightlife and culture in the 18th and Vine neighborhood, and describes his start in boxing in California. He recalls training alongside champion boxers including Jack Johnson, shares his thoughts about other high profile boxers and athletes he coached as well as thoughts about the business and ethics of boxing, and discusses his time in the service during World War II.

Interview with Arthur Brand about the history of the Jewish community and his family in the Kansas City area. He describes that he and his extended family came to Kansas City from New York City in June 1928, starting Brand and Puritz garment company, and the development and decline of Kansas City's garment industry from the 1930s through the 1970s. He also discusses at length the evolution of the Jewish community from its beginning in the urban core to its eventual shift south Kansas City and later to Johnson County; issues such as assimilation and intermarriage; and the development of institutions including Menorah Hospital, the Jewish Federation of Kansas City, Jewish Vocational Services, and Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy, named for his father; and his involvement with a Judaic Studies program at University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Interview with activist and veteran Arthur Bronson. Bronson recalls his family background, his early life and education, his memories of the Watts Riots and the deaths of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, the evolution of the civil rights movement, his experience in the Air Force, his involvement with the Black Panthers and the Nation of Islam, and his later engagement with Cuba politics.

Interview with Asencion Hernandez about his life, work, and involvement with numerous organizations. He recalls growing up as the son of immigrants in the Topeka Mexican-American community, attending segregated Catholic schools, memories of church-centered community activities, and World War II. He also discusses attending college at Washburn in the early 1960s, earning a graduate degree in social work at University of Southern California, working for the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, and his involvement in organizations including LULAC (League of United Latin American Citizens), IMAGE (Incorporated Mexican American Government Employees) and Trabajadores de la Raza, a Hispanic social worker organization.

Interview with labor union secretary and business manager Augustus Moore. Moore discusses his family and early life in Arkansas and Oklahoma, harvesting cotton and spinach as a young man, moving to Kansas City where he trained in the masonry trade, and becoming a member and later secretary and business manager of the local mason and plaster tender union. He also discusses the masonry trade and the role of the union.

Interview with Barbara Bloch about her family's history in the Kansas City garment industry. She discusses her family history in the business, sewing in the factory at 12 years old, and entering the restaurant uniform business by selling aprons to Kelly's Bar in Westport. She discusses the growth of that venture, her later work in direct sales of high-end clothing and accessories, and later opening Her Majesty's Closet, a luxury consignment store in Prairie Village, Kansas. She also notes new and remaining people in the local garment industry, as well as describing the business of operating her consignment store, and they discuss the prevalence of Jewish business owners in the industry.