KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The University of Missouri - Kansas City is looking for Kansas City’s most influential women to induct into this year’s class of the Starr Women Hall of Fame.
This honor celebrates women past and present who lived or worked in Kansas City to make it a better place.
Past inductees ranged in fields like science, philanthropy, activism and more. Nominations are open now through June 30.
If you’re looking to nominate someone, they must meet all these requirements:
- Made significant and enduring contributions to their fields of endeavor
- Elevated the status of women
- Helped open new frontiers for women and for society
- Inspired others by their example
They must also meet at least one of these requirements:
- Born in the Kansas City area in one of the following Missouri Counties: Bates, Caldwell, Cass, Clay, Clinton, Jackson, Lafayette, Platte, and Ray
- Born in the Kansas City area in one of the following Kansas Counties: Douglas, Franklin, Johnson, Leavenworth, Linn, Miami, and Wyandotte
- Achieved prominence within the area
- A resident of the area for an extended period after achieving prominence elsewhere
Those nominations will be processed at the end of summer with inductees announced shortly after. The inductees will be announced in the fall. This process happens every other year.
The women who’ve been inducted include Operation Breakthrough Founders Sister Berta and Sister Corita, reporter and civil rights activist Lucile Bluford, MLB owner (through the Royals ownership group) Karen Daniel, and more.
KSHB 41 News talked to two of last year’s inductees while they toured the interactive Hall of Fame.
Lea Hopkins is a longtime LGBTQIA+ advocate of the Kansas City area.
One of her most notable accomplishments was organizing Kansas City’s first ever pride parade in 1979.
“I’m very proud of that, especially as an African American woman," Hopkins said. "That trajectory was nowhere when I was growing up. For me to be as out as I have been for as long as I have sets an example for young African American youth who happen to be gay, trans, or whatever. Still not totally as accepted as I’d like for it to be. But it is a struggle and a fight I will continue for as long as I’m on the planet.”
Freda Mendez Smith was also newly inducted as an advocate for Kansas City’s Latino community and for diversity and equality to coexist.
She currently sits as a board member for the Women’s Foundation of Kansas City.
“It’s gotten better, but it’s still not where it should be,” Mendez Smith said. “We’re still set apart when they think about diversity.”
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