The Kansas City Defender

07/12/2025

Missouri’s oldest Black bookstore flips its last page today, and you’re invited to help write the sequel.

From 2-8 PM @ 5547 Troost, snag Black books for $5 paperbacks / $15 hardcovers.

Come through for FREE soul-food plates, 2 raffles, and an open-mic of stories with Ms. Willa, her fam, and the Freedom-Fighter crew.

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THE BACKGROUND

For more than 40 years Ms. Willa Robinson an 84-year-old Book Collector, Freedom Fighter & Visionary has kept Willa’s Books & Vinyl alive on Troost Avenue.

It is Missouri’s oldest and longest-standing Black-owned bookstore, a living archive of 20,000+ works, including first-edition Frederick Douglass volumes and books printed in 1863, the very year our ancestors seized emancipation.

Last year when she was 1 week from being forced to sell everything to non-Black collectors due to gentrification and her rapidly declining health, The Kansas City Defender stepped in and began covering her rent and also mobilized 40 volunteers to catalog her 20,000 book collection.

Now she is passing the torch to us and we will be converting her storefront into a free public archive, mutual-aid hub, Freedom School site, and the Defender’s first brick-and-mortar HQ.

05/26/2025

Kansas City’s brief invasion by white supremacist fascist group, Patriot Front, made two things clear: Missouri is a central theater for 21st-century neo-Nazism, and our state also houses a growing coalition determined to stop it.

05/09/2025

🚨 Black KC Community SLAMS Mayor Lucas, Shuts Down City Council Meeting & Wins $750K for Sunfresh on 31st & Prospect.

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — With a sea of Black elders, neighborhood presidents, pastors, tenant organizers and young freedom-fighters packed shoulder-to-shoulder in Council chambers, yesterday’s meeting shifted from routine agenda to people’s tribunal in under five minutes.

Urban Summit leaders refused to give the gavel back until the City ponied up the $750,000 it had promised—but never delivered—to keep the city-owned, community lifeline grocery store Sun Fresh at 31st & Prospect alive.

“You’re a duplicitous liar!” Gwen Grant, President & CEO of the Urban League thundered, pointing straight at Mayor Quinton Lucas from across the city council chamber. Dozens of community and faith leaders flanked her knodding and vocally acknowledging their agreement and anger.

Before the end of the day—after chants and procedural stall-outs—the Council voted 12-0 to pass an emergency ordinance releasing the full $750K immediately and waiving red tape that had blocked the funds.

The Urban Summit’s Prospect Corridor Public Safety Task Force says it will continue to press forward until:

- The City of KCMO disburses the $750,000 without further delay.
- The City appropriates at least $1.8 million annually to subsidize operations at Sun Fresh.
- The City fulfills its responsibility to address the crime, loitering, and blight at 31st & Prospect.
- The property manager, CDC-KC, repaves the parking lot, enhances landscaping, and installs the fencing to restore dignity and safety to this critical corridor.

This is a developing story. The Defender will continue our on the ground reporting.

04/24/2025

Join us Tomorrow for Composition Night! —an intimate evening where Black creativity flows freely through poetry and communion. Open mic with a twist!

Come see Hyprocrace, Gie Santana, and more deliver untold truths and connection! Sign up for open mic at event.🫂📺

The Revolution will not be televised but possibly broadcasted?

🗓️ Friday, April 25th @ 6pm
📍Blip Roasters
🎶Poetry | Black Art | Celebration
🎟️ Free Entry but Donations Welcome!

See y’all tomorrow🧑‍🎤

04/08/2025

04/08/2025

🗳️KC ELECTION DAY VOTER GUIDE: Kansas City voters are facing a critical decision on the April 8 ballot—one that’s being dangerously misrepresented.

Question 1, often referred to as the “public safety sales tax,” is being sold to voters as a commonsense investment in safety. But in reality, it would lock KC into paying for a nearly $1 BILLION new city jail—a facility with zero mental health infrastucture, zero trauma care, and no diversion or rehabilitation programs whatsoever.

To be clear: This proposed jail would not house people convicted of serious crimes. Those cases are already handled at the $300+ million Jackson County jail currently under construction.
Instead, this facility would target people accused of low-level municipal violations—things like trespassing, public disturbance, sleeping outside, or petty theft from a store (crimes of survival). The overwhelming majority of people affected will be unhoused, poor, Black and Brown, and in crisis.

In fact, we just spent $16 million last year to build a jail inside KCPD HQ with over 100 beds—so we are not lacking jail space. What we’re lacking is housing, mental health care, jobs, and community investment.

And that’s exactly why every major civil rights and community group in Kansas City has come out against Question 1:
➡️ NAACP
➡️ Urban League
➡️ SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference)
➡️ National Black United Front
➡️ Black Student Solidarity Network

They all agree: this tax is mass incarceration in disguise. It is the school-to-prison pipeline on autopilot for the next 20 years.

We all want safety—but true safety comes from care, not cages.

Vote NO on Question 1, and let’s demand real solutions: housing, healthcare, education, and investment in our youth—not another jail.

📢 Please share this with your friends and neighbors—too many people are being misled. The truth deserves to be heard.

04/08/2025

🚨 ATTENTION KC, VOTING TODAY: Black KC residents describes gunshots and why she's voting NO on the Question 1 Jail Tax

03/20/2025

🫑🥦Black farmers and urban growers in Kansas City are reclaiming land and food sovereignty despite systemic attacks.

Join The KC Defender and The Kansas City Call for an Urgent Town Hall to expose the truth, build solutions, and fight back.

RSVP now!

02/19/2025

Lee’s Summit School Board Vice President Heather Eslick unleashed a race-fueled, conspiracy-laden attack against Black parents and The Kansas City Defender’s Editor. But this isn’t new—it’s part of a long history of white supremacist fear-mongering and coded dog-whistles. Here’s why we won’t be silent.

Lee’s Summit School Board Vice President Heather Eslick unleashed a race-fueled, conspiracy-laden attack against Black parents and The Kansas City Defender's Editor. But this isn’t new—it’s part of a long history of white supremacist fear-mongering and coded dog-whistles. Here’s why we won...

02/19/2025

Lee’s Summit School Board Vice President Heather Eslick unleashed a race-fueled, conspiracy-laden attack against Black parents and The Kansas City Defender's Editor. But this isn’t new—it’s part of a long history of white supremacist fear-mongering and coded dog-whistles. Here’s why we won...

01/28/2025

🔥 BLACK STUDENTS & PARENTS: Official Launch of KC Abolitionist Freedom School

THE BACKGROUND 📝

In February 2025, The Kansas City Defender officially launches Black Radical Education for Abolition & Liberation (B-REAL) Academy, a world-class, radical education & organizing initiative born out of crisis and rooted in resistance.

B-REAL is currently accepting applications until FEBRUARY 1st! Please fill out the interest form at the link in our bio if interested. We are currently seeking Age 15-30. Applications are filling up quickly and we only have capacity for 25 in our first cohort, so please apply ASAP!

WHY NOW 🛡️

Under the Trump regime, assaults on Black history, Black children, and Black education will escalate to levels not seen since the antebellum and Jim Crow eras.

The far-right extremist book ban movement arose in Kansas City, where the first banned book was removed from a KC school in 2021, sparking the beginning of a nationwide assault on Black education, and cementing Missouri’s role as a testing ground for policies that disproportionately harm Black students.

WORLD-CLASS BLACK EDUCATION PROGRAM 💡

- The intersection of organizing skills & radical Black curriculum make the program a first of its kind in Kansas City history.

- Real-world organizing & campaign experience. Mentorship from world-class community organizers.

- Hands-on training in radical journalism, writing & narrative change.

- Graduation camping trip to deepen community ties

https://kansascitydefender.com/the-defenders-abolitionist-freedom-school/