Woodrow Wilson had to make a decision. One hundred and twenty eight Americans were killed when they were on board the British ocean liner Lusitania when it was sunk by a German U ship. There was also growing concern that if Great Britain and France were to lose they would not be able to pay their debt owed to the United States for assisting them financially in their war effort. To add to the equation, Army General John J Pershing had been consumed with capturing Pancho Villa and his band of Mexican revolutionaries. They had been had been trying to reclaim the land they lost in the Mexican-American War of 1848. A telegram from Germany was intercepted by British Intelligence known as the Zimmerman telegram which promised the Mexicans they would be given material resources to assist them in reclaiming their land if they combined forces with the Germans. The United States could not in good conscious sit on the sidelines. Even though Wilson had vowed to keep America out of the war. He did not want to be perceived in history as a coward. On April 6, 1917 America entered the Great War known as World War One. Over four hundred Kansas Citians perished in this epic episode. Editor of the Kansas City Journal Celbe Cline suggested the construction of a memorial to those who participated in what was referred to as the “Great War”. At this time Kansas City, located in the heart of the country, was benefitting from a war time economy. The city was full of civic pride and was naturally compelled to rise to the challenge..
There are several realities that speak to the intimate relationship the people of Kansas City have with warfare and political strife.The Civil War started in Kansas City Missouri seven years before its official beginning at Fort Sumter South Carolina in 1861. When the Kansas Nebraska Act was signed in 1854, the territory of Kansas was given the opportunity to decide if it would be a free or slave state. Slave owners in Missouri were concerned because they did not want to be at risk to their slaves crossing the river into freedom. The Border War erupted when "border ruffians" from Missouri trespassed into Kansas to vote on rather or not Kansas would be a slave state or a free state. Kansas was then referred to as "Bleeding Kansas." Both Kansas Jayhawks and Confederate Guerillas would hide along the banks of the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers to either impede or assist runaway slaves along the underground railroad, which ran through the French bottoms. Frank James brother of the notorious Jesse James would hideout in the homes of Confederate sympathizers in Kansas City. He rode with the likes of William Quantrill and Bloody Bill Anderson, whose name was reflective of the blood dripping scalps that dangled from his saddle as he rode through towns to inflict terror on pro-union people. Another example of political contention in the area would be the Jackson County elections of 1894. The son of Irishman Jim Pryor boss of the Fifth Ward in an attempt to help his dad get more votes, physically forced an elderly Republican of German decent to vote Democrat. A brigade of A.P.A. found out about the incident. When the men captured the son at gunpoint, gun play transpired between a group of Irishmen and the APA which left one Catholic dead and six others in critical condition.
Nonetheless, Kansas City would enjoy consistent economic growth from 1905 until the beginning of World War I. ( William Worley J. C. Nichols and the shaping of Kansas Cit page 2d) Growth actually began in 1868 three years after the culmination of the Civil War. Kansas City received the Hannibal Bridge; which was the first bridge to cross the Missouri River. The French bottoms would become known as the west bottoms, and be considered Kansas City’s first downtown. With cattle as the main industry, Kansas City came to be known as a cow town. There were packing houses, grain and feed factories and train tracks. Having easy access to the railroad and being in the heart of America, Kansas City became a major hub able to transport grains and meats all over the nation. Immigrants poured into the area to find work in the packing houses, grain and feed factories and railroads. Many of them were met with challenges and were forced to engage in underworld activities to assimilate and survive within the majority culture. Russians, Croatians, and Slovenians settled in an area that is now referred to as Strawberry Hill which overlooks the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers. The Italians settled in Columbus Park east of the river market area. African Americans, just freed from slavery, were vital in the construction of the Hannibal Bridge. They settled on the east side of the west bottoms near the railroad tracks in a section referred to by the police as Hell’s Half Acre. The Irish set up business in the Westport area and also controlled underworld activities in the west bottoms. The city would grow to have the second largest livestock exchange in the nation second only to Chicago. Many of the Kansas City elite settled in the Quality Hill area overlooking their enterprises down in the west bottoms.
In 1900 Kansas City received nationwide attention for its civic pride when it was selected to host the National Democratic Convention. Ninety days before the convention was supposed to take place the convention hall burned down. Under the direction of Mayor James A Reed, William Rockhill Nelson, J.C. Nichols, William T. Kemper and other civic leaders they were able to launch the Spirit of Kansas City campaign. The city was able to unify their resources and talents to rebuild the convention hall in time to host the national convention as scheduled. Future President Harry S. Truman was a page at the convention. During World War One, he became an officer and commanded an artillery regiment in France. While in the military, Truman met James M. Pendergast the Nephew of political boss Tom Pendergast, the leader of the Jackson County Democratic Party. Twenty three years prior, the Pendergast Political machine backed James A Reed for Prosecuting Attorney for Jackson County to minimize scrutiny placed upon gambling dens.
In 1921 when the American Legión selected Kansas City to host its annual convention it was well established as a wide open town and a destination for those that sought pleasure. Downtown Kansas City was vibrant with activity. The city was full of brothels and prohibition was not enforced at the local level. There were clubs everywhere. Mary Lou Williams in Nathan Pearson's Going to Kansas City says there were thousands of clubs. I've never seen so many clubs in all my life. On Twelfth Street there must have been fifty. Twelfth Street Rag recorded by Euday L. Bowman in 1914 immortalized Twelfth Street, which was in Tom Pendergast’s red light district. Kansas City was referred to as Paris of the Plains.
Due to the custom of segregation and the horror of Jim Crow, before and beyond World War One, African-Americans were treated unjustly. In Kansas City they were confined to live in small pockets. Most lived in the Churchill area around Tenth and Charlotte or what is now known as the historic jazz district of 18th and Vine. Harlem Renaissance Poet Langston Hughes would look forward to meeting his mother in Kansas City. They frequented the opera and also visited his Uncle Dessailines who owned a barber shop in Kansas City. The majority of African-Americans lived in fear. However due to the evolution of jazz and the creation of the National Negro Leagues, the segregated section of eighteenth and Vine would eventually achieve everlasting fame. James Reese and the Harlem Hell Fighters played jazz around the country to recruit African-Americans to fight in the war. W.E. B. Dubois encouraged African-Americans in 1918 to “Close Ranks” “We of the colored race have no ordinary interest in the outcome. That which the German Power represents today spells out death to the aspirations of Negroes and all darker races for equality, freedom and democracy. Let us not hesitate. Let us while the war last, forget our special grievances and close our ranks shoulder to shoulder with our white fellow citizens and the allied nations that are now fighting for democracy. We make no ordinary sacrifice, but we make it gladly and willingly, with our eyes lifted to the hills." The following summer or 1919 was referred to as "Red Summer." Twenty six African-Americans were lynched throughout the nation from April through October. Six thousand African-Americans were displaced from their homes, due to labor disputes that led to race riots in East St. Louis. Just outside of Houston Texas, thirteen African-American soldiers were hung for coming to the aide of a woman who protested the invasion of her home by white law officers while she was dressed inappropriately.
In spite of all the hypocrisy and injustice in our society, Kansas City was well represented in a cause that would bring all races, classes, sexes and ages together. Four hundred and four Kansas Citians died in World War I. Army surgeon Lieutenant William Fitzsimmons of Kansas City was the first American officer killed in the Great War. He was twenty eight years old. General John J. Pershing was born in Laclede Missouri. He commanded the American Expeditionary Forces, which were the United States Armed Forces that were sent to Europe in World War One. He is distinctively the only person promoted to General of the Armies, during his lifetime. It is the highest rank a person can hold in the United States Army . Kansas City Monarch “Bullet Joe” Rogan served in the 25th Infantry.” Vernon Coffey was among the rank and file of the 93rd Division. He fought for the French on behalf of America and was awarded the Croix de Guerre medal of bravery. There were eighteen blacks from Kansas City who died in World War One. In the final hours of the Great War, African-American, Wayne Minor of Kansas City was the last American to die in the war .http://www.theycametofight.org/kansascity.html
It was because of this Great War that business and civic leaders were uncharacteristically generous with their time and resources in planing the campaign to construct the memorial. Lumber barón R.A Long and real estate developer J.C. Nichols spoke before the Negro Ministerial Alliance. Physician William J Thompkins and educator J.R. Lee of the black community also spoke that day at the Paseo YMCA. An agreement was reached by the Negro Ministerial Alliance that $75,000 would be the quota for the African- American population. Dr. T.C. Unthank was chosen as the director of this unprecedented campaign.Throughout the city church service and school lesson plans would now focus upon the significance of the memorial and the message was resounding and clear that this was a victory to be celebrated by all. On October 27, 1921, the whistle blew at the Armour meat packing plant in the west bottoms to gather employees for a company- wide prayer on behalf of the citywide campaign to raise 2.5 million dollars for the erection of the memorial. A half- million dollar donation would be given to charitable organizations here in Kansas City. So finally after the sacrifice of over 400 lives and meeting after meeting filled with volumes of minutes, R.A. Long, Chairman of the Liberty Memorial Committee, wrote a check for eighty thousand dollars and the campaign to construct the only World War One memorial in the nation, placed on the National Historic Registrar had begun. “The face of war is my face
The face of war is your face
What color
Is the face of war
Brown, black, white
Your face and my face.”
From “War” by Langston Hughes
No comments:
Post a Comment