Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part 1: The Foundation of a Community: Montgall Avenue from 1904 to 1919

1. Rufus Montgall: The Man behind the Street

2. 2436 Montgall Avenue: Hugh Oliver and Myrtle Foster Cook

3. 2444 Montgall Avenue: Anna Holland Jones

4. 2442 Montgall Avenue: Hezekiah Walden

5. 2434 Montgall Avenue: Frances Jackson, Carolyn Brydie, and Gwendolyn Calderon

Part 2: The Hub of a Community: Montgall Avenue from 1920 to 1940

6. 2451 Montgall Avenue: John Edward Perry and Fredericka Douglass Perry

7. 2453 Montgall Avenue: Homer Roberts

8. 2447 Montgall Avenue: Chester Franklin and Ada Crogman

9. 2444 Montgall Avenue: The Bluford Family

10. 2457 Montgall Avenue: Piney Brown

11. 2449 Montgall Avenue: The Pittman Family

Part 3: The Transformation of a Community: Montgall Avenue from 1941 to 1998

12. Residents Reach Pinnacle of Power, 1941

13. A Black Journalist Covering Public Spaces and a Horrific Crime, 1942

14. The Civil Rights Two-Step, 1955-1967

15. Surviving Riot, Attacks, and Decline, 1968-1998

16. Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index

About the Author

Margie Carr is child advocate freelance writer from Lawrence, Kansas.

Reviews

"Woven with the profound stories of our city’s most influential Black leaders, in Kansas City’s Montgall Avenue, Margie Carr reminds us of the work still to be done in our city and country to address the historical and current underinvestment and systemic racism in our communities through the eyes of one block. We have the power to correct these wrongs of the past and create a truly equitable future."—Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas"Margie Carr’s work is an outstanding addition to the history of Black Kansas City and Kansas City as a whole. By examining the lives of the residents of this one block, Carr teases out important individuals and events that shaped Black Kansas City."—Charles E. Coulter, author of Take Up the Black Man’s Burden: Kansas City’s African American Communities, 1865-1939"Margie Carr’s new book is the extraordinary century-old history of one city block, consisting of sixteen Black-owned houses, which both shaped and reflected the changing status of African Americans in Kansas City, Missouri. Montgall Avenue’s initial residents included Black newspaper editors, educators, and businesspeople, as well as leaders of the NAACP and other civic organizations. And it was a beautiful block; its graceful houses featured lovely gardens, and giant elm trees formed a canopy over the street. Time and racism, however, have taken their toll. Today, most of the houses have been abandoned or razed. Fires destroyed some of them; dynamite hurled by angry whites destroyed others. Intelligently conceived, meticulously researched, and beautifully written, Carr’s book is invaluable not only for those interested in the history of African Americans in Kansas City but also for those concerned about America’s future."—William M. Tuttle, Jr., professor emeritus of American studies at the University of Kansas, and author of Race Riot: Chicago in the Red Summer of 1919 and “Daddy’s Gone to War”: The Second World War in the Lives of America’s Children