Segregation

Interview with Mark Turner about his and his family's history in Westport. Turner discusses recreation in Swope Park, Fairyland Park, and Mill Creek Park, his experience of segregation at local businesses, finding ways to make money as a kid, and attending an integrated school with primarily white teachers after Brown vs. Board of Education. He also shares memories of St. Luke's Hospital, including its segregation policy in his early life, neighbors working in the laundry, and their chaplain helping the community after a fire at St. James Church. Turner also discusses his experience in higher education as a professor with Metropolitan Community Colleges, and his view of the different expectations of and skillsets taught to white and Black students. 

Interview with former Steptoe resident Mary Stone. Stone shares memories of growing up in the Steptoe area of Westport, attending Penn School and St. Luke's AME Church, her friends and neighbors, and recreation opportunities in other parts of the city. She also discusses her parents' jobs, including her mother's work supervising staff at the Riviera Apartments, changes in Westport due to demographic shifts and St. Luke's Hospital expansion projects, and holding Westport reunions with friends and former neighbors at Loose Park. 

Interview with Mary Louise Hinton, resident of the Steptoe neighborhood. Hinton discusses her family and early life in Deer River, Minnesota, moving to Kansas City, briefly attending Penn School, relationships with neighbors and involvement in the church, getting married to her husband Carl in 1938, and having two children. She also discusses attending and later working at Lincoln High School, having to take public transit to get to a school that was much further away than Westport High School due to segregation, and making a deal with St. Luke's Hospital in which she could maintain lifetime occupancy in her home while receiving an annuity. She also shares memories of social clubs and writing letters to the Kansas City Star.

Interview with former Steptoe resident Beverly Avery Hill. Hill discusses her family moving to Kansas City in the early 1930s, attending the segregated Penn School, attending St. James Baptist Church, and social life and business within and outside of the neighborhood. She also discusses meeting her husband, attending college, and becoming a teacher in the Kansas City, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri school distrusts, and shares memories of playing in city parks and other memories of her family and the neighborhood. 

Interview with former Penn School teacher Mai Gray. She recalls her early life and education in Tennessee, attending college and meeting her husband in Atlanta, Georgia, and moving to Kansas City with him as he became pastor of Centennial Methodist Church. She discusses his work there in the 1960s and '70s, her teaching career which began at Penn School, and the Steptoe community surrounding Penn. 

Interview with Joe Avery, former resident of the Steptoe neighborhood in Kansas City, Missouri. Avery discusses his childhood and family history, including growing up at the corner of 43rd Terrance & Washington, attending Penn School, his father's work at Manor Bakery, the Steptoe community and St. James Baptist Church, recreational options in the rest of the city, and encountering segregation. He also discusses living in Flint, Michigan and working in the automotive industry before moving back to Kansas City, and shares memories of St. Luke's Hospital. 

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. Interviewed by her great-granddaughter, Lowe discusses the work of the Local Investment Commission (LINC), 

Interview with community leader Rosemary Smith Lowe. Lowe discusses her family and early life in Arkansas, attending Wendell Phillips School after moving to Kansas City, her early involvement with Freedom Inc. and their work to pass public accommodations desegregation laws, her work as a cosmetologist and service as the commissioner of the state cosmetology board, serving as president of the Santa Fe Neighborhood Association and commissioner of the Kansas City Parks and Recreation Department, and her work as a founder of the Local Investment Commission and Neighborhood Alliance. She also discusses buying a home in a predominantly white area, her thoughts about her church, and memories of family and friends. Lowe's son James E. White, Sr. was present at the interview and shares memories of his mother's life and accomplishments.

Interview with Kansas City, Kansas resident Luther Smith about growing up in the Quindaro area and in Welborn, Kansas. Smith discusses his family and experience as a young student and athlete in the 1940s and '50s, the changing retail landscape of Minnesota Avenue, being drafted into the army in 1960, encountering segregation and discrimination, and shares information about the earlier history of Quindaro.