Jackson County (Mo.) Historical Society

Portals to the Past by David W. Jackson

We all stand as witness to historic events

This marks our fourth and final timeline installment exploring local history through A River Runs By It: The Story of Jackson County, Missouri. History happens all around us and we can’t help but be a part of it. Make a New Year’s resolution to give back to your community by supporting local nonprofit local history and heritage organizations.

A raft of events occurred between 1926 and 1976, the last 50-year-increment of our timeline; here are just a few examples.

The golden age of the 1920s came to an end in 1929 when the stock market crashed and the world plunged into the Great Depression. Jackson County, however, fared better than many places, the result of Tom Pendergast’s political creativity and the willingness of Jackson Countians to pass a $50 million dollar “ten year plan” for public improvements, which provided thousands of jobs. It was during this remarkable era of public building that Presiding Judge Harry S Truman orchestrated the construction of roads and many civic structures including the City Hall and County Courthouse in downtown Kansas City.

People could find work here, including musicians. During the 1930s, the best musicians in the country came to Kansas City. Count Basie took over Bennie Moten’s band. Julia Lee’s career took off like a rocket and Mary Lou Williams was one of the best piano players in the business. Pete Johnson played piano for Big Joe Turner, the blues shouter whose raucous style eventually gave birth to rock and roll. By the end of the decade, Jay McShann had his own band which came to include a young sax player named Charlie Parker.

And it was in the 1930s that the newly opened Nelson Atkins Museum of Art was one of the few museums in the country that had any money to buy art, resulting in one of the finest collections in the country.

In 1934, Truman was elected to the United States Senate. By the end of the decade his political ally Tom Pendergast pled guilty to income tax evasion and was imprisoned. The Pendergast Era had come to an end.

The United States entered World War II by 1941. In 1944, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt chose Truman as his running mate, and they won an overwhelming presidential victory. Roosevelt died only 82 days into his fourth term and Truman became the 33^rd President of the United States on April 12, 1945. Truman inherited the task of steering the country through the final days of WWII. In 1948, he was elected to the presidency, in spite of predictions to the contrary.

After the WWII, soldiers came home, started families, moved to new suburbs in new homes financed by the G.I. Bill that along with the emerging interstate highway system, started the trend toward suburban sprawl that continues today. The Civil Rights Movement gained momentum, its progress diligently reported by the Kansas City Call, headed by Lucile Bluford, its long-time editor.

The 1960s brought the Kansas City Chiefs and the Kansas City Royals to town. But, the Armour meat packing company left in 1966, bringing an end to the region’s meat packing industry. Emery Bird Thayer’s downtown department Store closing was one of many indicators signifying rapidly changing demographic patterns in the region.

The 1970s saw the completion of the Truman Sports Complex and the death of its namesake, Harry S Truman, in 1972.

By the last two decades of the 20^th Century, the local political scene became more diverse: Barbara Potts of Independence was elected one of the first female mayors in the region. In 1991, Emanuel Cleaver became the first African-American mayor of Kansas City and in 1998, Kay Barnes was elected the first female mayor of Kansas City.

In the past 180 years, Jackson County has evolved from a wilderness on the edge of the American frontier to the heart of a major metropolitan region. In those years, Jackson County has borne witness to many of the defining moments of American history, and in the process, has met challenges with strength and ingenuity.

Does this timeline in 50-year increments reveal to you that vast events in history are experienced in less than one person’s lifetime? What hallmark events can you identify in your life? Have you recorded your memories in some way? Start by documenting just one memory at a time, and soon you’ll have a nice collection of essays that might be of great benefit to others down the road.

David W. Jackson is archivist for the Jackson County (Mo.) Historical Society’s Archives and Research Library at 112 W. Lexington Ave. Suite 103, Independence, MO, 64050. The society collects and makes available original documents and photographs to the public. For more information, or to donate historical materials, visit www.jchs.org, call (816) 252-7454, or e-mail info@jchs.org.

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