Discrimination in housing

Interview with community leader and activist Rosemary Smith Lowe. Interviewed by her great-granddaughter, Lowe discusses the work of the Local Investment Commission (LINC), 

Interview with Missouri state representative, real estate appraiser, and Freedom, Inc. member Phillip B. Curls. Curls discusses his family, upbringing, and education, the start of his political involvement in the early 1960s, the early days of Freedom, Inc., and their Young Freedom youth organization, his work as a Jackson County assistant circuit clerk, and his election and work as a Missouri state representative. He also shares members of Leon Jordan, Bruce R. Watkins, Harold Holliday, Sr., and his thoughts on community and political engagement in the Black community.

Interview with founding member of Freedom Inc. Fred Curls. He discusses his early life, attending Attucks Grade School and Lincoln High, working his way up from a porter job at Myron Green's restaurants, working in an Indian jewelry factory, and shifting to construction work and work at the Lake City munitions plant, as well as racism and discrimination he encountered in those settings. He describes his entry into the real estate business as a realtor and appraiser, the role of redlining and other restrictive real estate covenants and white flight to the suburbs, and the change in community fabric during a time of rapid change. He also describes his experience going back to school to become an appraiser, his role with the Missouri State Highway Commission appraising properties as part of Urban Renewal projects, including the South Midtown Freeway (later Bruce R. Watkins Drive) project.

Interview with local historian and community activist Sonny Gibson about the history of Kansas City's Black community, his experiences seeing leaders including W.E.B. Du Bois and Marcus Garvey, and what life was like in predominantly-Black neighborhoods including 18th & Vine. He also discusses the impact of access to education, money, and drugs on the community.

Interview with Shirley Smith Ramey in which she shares photographs and discusses growing up in Northeast Kansas City, Missouri, her ancestors and how the family came to the area, and how her parents learned trades at a school for the deaf in Fulton, Missouri. She describes being raised by her grandparents and her mother, who worked in the local garment industry, eloping with her husband Owen, and their early marriage and work. She also discusses moving back in with her family while pregnant when Owen left to fight in World War II, later following Owen's orders to San Antonio and Denver, post-war life in east Kansas City, and being part of the "white flight" to Johnson County.

Interview with Lydia Rocha Estevez about her life and Kansas City's Westside neighborhood. Born in 1919, she recalls living within a few blocks in the Westside neighborhood for over 50 years, memories of school and social activities from her youth, protesting public swimming pool segregation, the poor condition of Adams School, which served the predominantly Mexican Westside neighborhood, and being punished for speaking Spanish at school. She also discusses working with her father and brother in wheat fields during the Great Depression, working as a B-25 bomber riveter during World War II, moving away from Kansas City with her husband's job in the foreign service, and working at the Kansas City Public Library and Penn Valley Community College after their return to the area. She notes that her son, Richard Estevez, was principal of Douglass School at the time of her interview.