Help Save the Quindaro Site

Inspired by the threat that the site might be become a landfill in the early 1980s, many citizens have worked tirelessly to preserve the Quindaro townsite for future generations— most notably Orrin Murray, Marvin Robinson, Jesse Hope, Betty Roberts, Fred Whitehead, and Jimmy Johnson.

Today the owners of the site of Quindaro, the Unified Government of Kansas City, Kansas and the Allen Chapel of the A.M.E. Church have joined together with educators, activist and community leaders to support a National Historic Landmark desgination.

If you would like to become involved in the Quindaro preservation efforts, contact the following organizations.

Quindaro Ruins
Underground Railroad
Kansas City, KS 66102
913-371-2805

Intercultural Council Office
Kansas City Kansas Community College
7250 State Avenue
Kansas City, Kansas 66112
913-334-1100

The Concerned Citizens of Old Quindaro
P.O. Box 4445, Kansas City, Kansas 66104, 913-244-8497
Jesse Hope III, President

For more information contact Humanities Scholar, Dr. Nancy J. Dawson, efuanjd@yahoo.com

The Concerned Citizens of Old Quindaro is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in the state of Kansas. It was formed in January of 1983 with a three-fold objective:

Protect the community from environmental injustice
Preserve the history of Old Quindaro through research
Act as a custodian to the Old Quindaro Cemetery North at 32nd and Lakeview Drive

Throughout its 24 years of existence, the organization under the leadership of Jesse Hope III has successfully curtailed the landfill proposed by Browning Ferris Industries, sponsored the Quindaro Juneteeth celebration and several voter registration drives. In addition, the organization improved the conditions of the cemetery and co-sponsored several events within the Quindaro area.

The Concerned Citizens received a grant from Kansas Humanities in 2003 to assemble a book documenting the individuals in Old Quindaro Cemetery North and Old Quindaro South located at 38th and Parallel Parkway. The book is currently available for sale. The organization received another grant in November of 2007 to complete an exhibit on the history and culture of Old Quindaro.

Upcoming Exhibit

For several years, members of the Concerned Citizens have been collecting pictures and artifacts relating to African Americans in Old Quindaro, for example, the President has a corn knife that Robert Monroe an enslaved African (his great-great grandfather) used to escape from a plantation in Clay County, Missouri to Quindaro. Dr. Nancy J. Dawson (a graduate of UMKC) also a native of Old Quindaro, and the humanities scholar for the project, has a lock of her great grandmother’s hair, Elizabeth Thompson, who also escaped from Clay County. In addition, Dawson has Thompson’s original book (complete with herbs in between pages) that Thompson used in her midwifery practice. Dawson also has a collection of slave chains from Africa in which she plans to include in the exhibit which will open late March of 2008 at the Quindaro Community Center.

The organization is interrupting the history of former enslaved Africans who escaped across the Missouri River to the Quindaro township--with a focus on the religious, educational and business institutions that these individuals established. In addition, the exhibit will showcase Old Quindaro families who are buried in the Old Quindaro Cemetery North and South. Other topics of discussion will include, Bishop William T. Vernon, Western University, Vernon School, Abolitionism, African Cultural Retentions in Former Enslaved Populations, Civil War Soldiers, School Segregation, and the Concerned Citizens Fight Against Environmental Injustice.

For more information contact Dr. Nancy J. Dawson at efuanjd@yahoo.com.