Interview with community leader and activist Rosemary Smith Lowe. Lowe discusses her work with others in desegregating Kansas City, working with the local police department, and her hopes for young people.

Interview with community leader and activist Rosemary Smith Lowe. Lowe discusses her work with others in desegregating Kansas City, working with the local police department, and her hopes for young people.
Interview with community leader Bruce R. Watkins, Jr. Watkins discusses his early life and education, the history of the Watkins family including his father Bruce R. Watkins and grandfather T. B. Watkins, the founding of Freedom Inc., and his work to share the story of slavery, former slaves, and the Watkins family in Platte County, Missouri. He also shares thoughts on the importance of leaving a legacy and learning personal and family history
Part 3 of an interview with former Kansas City mayor Ilus W. Davis. He discusses his election to city council, his campaign for mayor, the development of Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial Hospital, his thoughts on racial issues and the civil rights movement, the city's public accommodation ordinance, and Black political engagement. He also discusses the protests that happened in the wake of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination, his disinterest in future political office, and remarks on the importance of access to education and jobs for the Black community.
Interview with state representative Henry C. Ross. Ross discusses his family and early life, attending Lincoln High School, his early jobs and involvement in politics, being elected to the Missouri House of Representatives in 1964, the work of lawmaking and politics, and his plans to run for state senate office. He also shares thoughts about Freedom Inc., prominent Black Kansas Citians and other politicians, local political factions, the upcoming Republican National Convention, and the role of the police in the protests following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
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 Ruby Jackson of the Human Resources Corporation. Jackson discusses her early life growing up in Kansas City, Kansas, her memories of the World War II era, nightlife on the Missouri side of the state line in the early 1950s, her thoughts about prominent Black figures including Madam C. J. Walker and Marcus Garvey, marrying, divorcing, and remarrying and having children while working at various jobs, including the Human Resources Corporation. She also discusses her involvement with the Congress of Racial Equity (CORE) and multiple community and political groups, her feelings about contemporary politicians, intellectuals, and activists, and numerous issues of public policy including the Equal Rights Amendment.
Four part interview with attorney, activist, and former Missouri state representative Harold Holliday, Sr.
In Part 1, Holliday discusses his family and early life living between Oklahoma and Kansas City, growing up in the then-rural Leeds area, his high school and college experiences, the Lloyd Gaines lawsuit, being drafted at the start of World War II, and his experience as a Black soldier stationed in Mississippi.
In Part 2, he discusses his work history, including stints with the Works Progress Administration and Veterans Administration, finishing Officers Candidate School, being stationed in England and Fort Knox, Kentucky, among other locations, and includes some explicit discussion of relationships with women during the war years. He also shares thoughts on the Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Pearl Harbor, Missouri Congressional representative Richard Bolling, the Pendergast era, efforts to make lynching a federal offense, and numerous contemporary politicians.
In Part 3, he discusses the Nixon administration and Watergate, whether America is susceptible to dictatorship, his thoughts on nationally and locally prominent Black intellectuals and entertainers including Paul Robeson, Lucile Bluford, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and D. A. Holmes, the difficulties and advancement of Black people, including his family members in academics and public life, considers the legal profession and his work in bringing the Kansas City public accommodations ordinance to the Supreme Court, and choosing to leave elected office.
In Part 4, he considers what changes he might make to his life if he could live it over again and whether he believes himself to be a good man, his hopes for the future, more thoughts on the Pendergast era, as well as memories of Harry Truman and other local politicians. He also shares thoughts on civil rights efforts and the US Constitution.
Interview with UMKC English professor Robert Farnsworth. Farnsworth discusses his family background, his early life in Detroit, attending high school as a white student and athlete in an integrated school in the early 1940s, studying English at the University of Michigan (later getting graduate degrees from the University of Connecticut and Tulane University), developing his sense of politics and racial justice, his involvement with CORE (Congress of Racial Equality), his experiences with other activists including A. Cecil Williams, Bruce Watkins and Leon Jordan, and the friction around white participation in CORE. He also discusses shifting away from CORE involvement, the importance of teaching Black literature, covering Black culture in his published work, obtaining the papers of the poet and academic Melvin Tolson, and hosting the 1973 African and Caribbean Writers Conference at UMKC.
Parts 1 and 2 of an iterview with former Kansas City mayor Ilus W. Davis. Davis discusses many aspects of his life and career, including his upbringing and education, memories of the Great Depression, his career as a lawyer, his time as an army officer during World War II on bases through the United States and in the Pacific on General MacArthur's staff, and his views of the Pendergast machine and Harry Truman. He also discusses segregation in Kansas City and the efforts to desegregate venues including the Music Hall and Municipal Auditorium and his election to the Kansas City city council.