I found the May 2 nd conversation particularly fascinating. It seems impossible to do, and particularly impossible to do so that everyone feels fairly compensated, individually or as a community. But I do believe in the idea. Like every city in America, Kansas City has a lot to account for.
But there is one thing Kansas City does NOT have to account for, and when I heard it referenced several times in the on-air discussion, I was moved to write this piece. These committee members, who included a UMKC professor, not once but twice labeled Kansas City as the home of deed restrictions designed to keep blacks from residing in artificially created whites-only neighborhoods.
Specifically, they laid the blame to just one person, J. But when some months ago I attended a constitutional law lecture from the dean of the Berkley Law School, a leading member of the UMKC Law School faculty, serving as moderator, told the gathering that, in fact, racial restrictions were invented in Kansas City.
There is plenty of documentation on this subjection so if you want some sources, let me know. But if you find yourself in a casual conversation about any of this, there are only two things to understand and share:.
Nichols did not invent them. In their early iterations, racial restrictions started appearing after the Civil War, most particularly with the new Jim Crow laws originating in the late 19 th century.
