KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City wasn't built overnight. You can find signs of its history everywhere you look.
As we celebrate Black History Month, we walked down Kansas City's African American Heritage Trail to find how three locations live beyond the history books.
THE GREEN DUCK LOUNGE
One glance at the faded emerald walls and torn tarps show signs of disrepair, but the history of the building remains alive.
For decades, the Green Duck Lounge served generations of Kansas Citians at east 26th and Prospect Avenue. What happened inside its walls inspired a play named after the bar from writer Michelle Tyrene Johnson.
"I can just look in and see the green leather of the chairs and just wish that I could transport myself back in time for half an hour to just soak it all in," she said.
It was the bar's owner, Leon Jordan, who helped build the legacy of Kansas City.
Before buying the Green Duck in 1955, he joined the Kansas City Police Department and served as Kansas City's first Black police lieutenant. Jordan also spent several years in Liberia to re-form a police department in the country.
Jordan later co-founded Freedom Inc., which helps foster economic and political development for African Americans. He took on state leadership by winning a seat for Missouri's House of Representatives in 1964.
He often talked policy while tending bar in the Green Duck.
"He also used it as a political headquarters," Emiel Cleaver, who created Legacy of Leadership, a film based on Jordan's life, explained. "Anyone that wanted to be elected, that needed votes, would come to the Green Duck to try and get his influence to get their campaign."
Tyrene Johnson shared that the Green Duck provided an open spot for leaders to talk politics without abiding by norms of the time.
"It's not about sitting down in uncomfortable chairs in a meeting and just talking policy, it's about talking policy while you're with people who you enjoy and who you have fun with," she said.
Jordan was shot and killed early in the morning on July 15, 1970, after closing the Green Duck for the night. Despite his death, Jordan's legacy lives on.
"I think Leon Jordan is one of the great leaders, not only in Kansas City, but of his era," Emiel said.
KPRS
It's not just policy that shapes Kansas City. Sometimes all it takes is a few tunes to inspire change.
At KPRS, the music over the years has changed, but its DJs never turned the dial on their message.
"It's not about showing off... it's about taking care of what you do," Mike Carter explained.
He is the CEO of the Carter Broadcasting Group, the company at the reins of KPRS. The company began in 1950 when Mike's grandfather, Andrew Carter, opened KPRS on 12th and Walnut, breaking the color barrier with music.
"We have just been doing when we need to do for the last 72 years. And we're going to continue to do that as long as the Lord gives us a breath," Carter said.
But even after its long-lasting legacy, KPRS and other Black-owned radio stations continue to face an uphill battle with representation over the radio waves.
"As time goes on, our radio station, Black-owned radio stations, are diminishing, simply because revenues have gone south, families have died," Carter said.
Though Carter and his staff will stick to the plan that brought them decades of success by bringing people together through music and becoming a pillar of the Kansas City community.
"We're just proud to be a part of that, that history," Carter said.
KPRS has since moved its office to Colorado Avenue just off Interstate 49. It still plays music for listeners tuning in today.
THE GEM THEATER
From music, to the stage, we turn to another cultural icon that serves as a hidden gem for Kansas City's creative minds.
The Gem Theater's marquee and neon sign lit 18th and Vine since its days as a cinema in 1912. It stood as one of the few theaters where African Americans could enjoy a movie in Kansas City until it closed in the 1960s.
"It was ready for the wrecking ball," said Pat Jordan, president of the Gem Cultural and Education Center.
It was after talking with the Black Economic Union of Greater Kansas City when Jordan prevented the demolition.
"I talked with [the president] one afternoon on a Saturday, we sat down, and for three hours we talked and he said, 'Well, why don't you take it on?' I thought about for a couple minutes, and I said 'Okay,'" Jordan remembered.
Jordan's love for theater drove her to lead the renovation efforts in 1989, until lifting the curtain for its reopening as a performance theater in 1997. Those efforts preserved the power behind the Gem.
Rashida Philips, executive director for the American Jazz Museum, shared how she felt being on the stage.
"Even being in the quiet, there's just something that's very meditative about it, and very powerful. As so I feel all of that history when I stand here," she said.
Jordan said she believes that feeling comes from the energy of the performers and the audience.
"It's not just about the walls and the seats, but it's about the human beings," she explained.
These locations only cover a portion of Kansas City's African American Heritage Trail.
You can walk down the trail yourself, or online. You can find a full map showcasing over a hundred locations on the city's website for the trail.
