While the civil discussion of leaving or removing the Confederate monument in Fairview Cemetery is welcomed, it has significantly disparate sides. We, as a diverse coalition of Clay Countians, support its removal. The monument represents and honors a time when Blacks were treated as property, less than human. It’s true that history matters in that…

Over the last several months, sparked by the Confederate monument in Fairview Cemetery, I have studied the installation of similar monuments across the country near the turn of the twentieth century, cemetery law, current-day supporters of the Confederacy, Civil War history, and, most importantly, the experience of Black Americans. I have also spent a great…

Dear Mayor Brenton and members of the Liberty City Council – I write to you as a fifth-generation, former resident of Liberty, Missouri. I am the son of former Liberty Mayor, Robert Weagley, Jr. and the great-great grandson of Elvira Murray. Granny Murray, as she is called by her descendants, and her husband moved to…

History lesson today in celebration of the First National recognition of Juneteenth via a National Holiday. On “Freedom’s Eve,” or the eve of January 1, 1863, the first Watch Night services took place. On that night, enslaved and free African Americans gathered in churches and private homes all across the country awaiting news that the…