OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — We celebrate Juneteenth as a whole to commemorate the end of slavery in the U.S., but it’s also a time to remember other ways Black people worked for equality.
“Sometimes I see kids that are walking down the street — free as a bird, no worries — and they have no idea what happened before them. Maybe what their grandparents went through in order for them to have the life that they have,” said Evelyn Sewing Criswell, member of the first Black family in Fairway.
Donald Sewing was a realtor who played a major role in integrating Johnson County neighborhoods when he bought his home in Fairway in 1968.
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Criswell still remembers the day her family moved from Wyandotte County to Johnson County.
She recalled thinking people were waving at the new family on the block, but she later learned some were protestors.
Fairway was a previously racial deed-restricted area, so it was Sewing’s knowledge of real estate that helped him buy the home.
Criswell said her father had to be strategic during the home-buying process, like not being seen in person before the sale went through. Otherwise, she said they may have faced more hurdles in acquiring their new home.
Ever since Sewing and his wife Virginia made the historic move, Criswell and the Johnson County Museum have worked to keep their memory alive through education.
“You have to be not only expecting people to receive you with goodness and kindness, but you have to do the same for others," Criswell said. "That’s a really important lesson for anybody — whether the folks in your neighborhood are just like you or otherwise because eventually there’s going to be someone who isn’t.”
During a time of change, Criswell remembers feeling accepted by her new neighborhood and spending time with other kids playing in the neighborhood or at the Fairway pool.
Just two years after they moved, Sewing had helped nearly 60 other Black families move to Johnson County neighborhoods.
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