Dr. Dennis Lawrence
AP English, Hour 3
4 March 1999
In 1904, racial tension was still one of America's problems and Kansas City, Kansas was not an exception at that time. However, unlike the segregated elementary and junior high schools, integration worked as well as could be expected in the high school until a fatal shooting caused the school system to undergo a dramatic change.
Roy Martin was a student at the Kansas City, Kansas High School in 1904. One afternoon Roy Martin and some of his track teammates were practicing together at Kerr Park when Lewis Gregory and a group of his friends allegedly disrupted them. An argument began between the two groups of boys and Lewis Gregory shot and killed Roy Martin [The Kansas City Star, April 12, 1904]. What no one knows, or will ever know, is if it was accidental or intentional. All they knew is that a black kid killed a white kid, and that is all that mattered in 1904.
After the shooting, the news spread quickly through the city. When the black students showed up to the Kansas City Kansas High School for classes the white students refused to let them enter the school building. After failed attempts at reasoning, the black students were advised to go home for the day [Kansas City Star, April 13, 1904].
Anxiety began to build quickly as time passed. Ther was an an armed stand off between blacks and whites outside of the jail house where Gregory awaited his trial [The Kansas City Star, April 14, 1904] and was eventually convicted [The Kansas City Star, June 15, 1904]. With strain continuing to grow through the community, town meetings were held on how to resolve the problem [The Wyandotte Herald February 15, 1905]. The high school was closed to black and white students for a few days to avoid serious trouble [[The Kansas City Star, April 15, 1904].
Both blacks and whites attended the meetings to discuss what would be done. Among people that attended as white representatives were; Mr. Miller ( a member of the board of education), Dr. Harris (a physician), and Mr. Toothaker (a democrat member of the legislature). Blacks that attended the meetings were Bishop Shafer, (AME church), J.J. Lewis (elementary school principal), Rev. Mitchell (First Baptist Church of Kansas City Kansas) [Scottie Davis' History of Sumner].
The group voted to separate the black and white students, and the Board of Education sold $40,000 in bonds to build a manual training for the black students. The group petitioned the state to changethe state law to allow Kansas City, Kansas to build a scjool for black high school students. Kansas, in the early 1900's, was not as racially divided as many states were at this time which is why the effort was made to assist the African American students in their high school education [The Wyandotte Herald, June 8, 1905]. Even if this is true, the actions taken by school and state officials could be described as an overreaction. All of the black students in Kansas City Kansas were punished for something done by a man that did not even go to the Kansas City, Kansas High School. That showed that the white people in the community looked down on the black citizens. They felt they had to teach them a lesson and punish them. It seemed as if they were sending out a message that said, "One of you did something wrong, now we have to prevent this from happening again." It showed that the town could not work together.
In January of 1905, the "Segregation Bill" was passed. It was to change the law that had previously been in effect that integrated the high schools since 1884. The bill was passed that February and Sumner High School was built.
At the beginning of the new school year, September of 1905, Kansas City Kansas High School was opened for all students. Until the new school was ready for the students to attend, the white students went to school at Kansas City, Kansas High School from 8:00 A.M. -1:00 P.M. and the black students went at 1:15 [The Wyandotte Herald, September 14, 1905]. Sumner High School was built out of both racism and racial cooperation.
One reason I think racial cooperation plays a role in this is because of the $40,000 given to the building of Sumner [TheWyandotte Herald, June 18, 1905]. However, many white people moved across the state line so their kids didn't have to go to school with black students [The Wyandotte Herald, June 15, 1905]. (Also, because they split the day into two parts so the black students could go to school in the afternoon.) I think there had to be a little bit of cooperation for them to be able to share the school because the town was mostly white. If the white people of the community didn't want the black students in the school at all, they would have done everything they could have to prevent it. But segregation is still segregation whether it has good intentions or not.
The white officials of Kansas City Kansas acted like they were trying to impress someone by their actions because they pointed out that over $100,00 was spent for the education of the children and that did not include the expenses of the new building or the repair of the old building [The Wyandotte Herald, September 14, 1905]. I think by pointing these things out it made Kansas City, Kansas look good. It made them appear not look like a racist town.
I also think that racial tension in Kansas City Kansas had been building for several years and the event that stirred up everyone's emotions was finally given a "justifiable" reason to come out. For example, in 1890, during a graduation ceremony, a white student, Lawrence Mason, refused to sit next to Dora Evens, who was black. Another student offered to exchange seats with Mason to prevent further disruptions [Greenbaum 65].
There are some problems trying to research the emotions of the whites and blacks of Kansas City, kansas almost a century later. And the sources used in this research have limitations as well. As far as sources are concerned. The Kansas City Star and The Wyandotte Herald were white run papers and only told one side of the story about the shooting and the movement to segregate the schools. There were no interviews or comments from black people at that time. In 1904 it wouldn't have mattered what was said or what proof was given, they would have punished Lewis Gregory no matter what. The reports from the two newspapers are almost identical in information.
Although there were no interviews from any black people, there were oral histories and documents from the black community that were consistent through each source (Greenbaum, The Kansas City Star, The Wyandotte Herald, Scottie Davis). No matter how consistent they were, they were still one sided and that does not make the information accurate just because its all the same.
Davis, Scottie P. Story of Sumner High School, 1935, Sumner High School Collection, Kansas Collection, University of Kansas Libraries
Greenbaum, Susan The Afro-American Community in Kansas City Kansas, 1982
The Kansas City Star, April 12, 1904
The Kansas City Star, April 13, 1904
The Kansas City Star, April 14, 1904
The Kansas City Star, April 15, 1904
The Kansas City Star, June 15, 1904
The Wyandotte Herald, June 8, 1905
The Wyandotte Herald, June 15, 1905
The Wyandotte Herald, June 18, 1905