Press Releases

Freeddom's Frontier National Heritage Area News Release

Contact: Jim Ogle
Executive Director
(785) 856-3635
jogle@freedomsfrontier.org

Julie McPike
Managing Director
(785) 856-5283
jmcpike@freedomsfrontier.org

Sonia J. Smith
Communications and Marketing Manager
(785) 856-5304
ssmith@freedomsfrontier.org
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or

Christyn Breathett
Education Director (316) 262-7651
christyn.gunter@tkaamuseum.org


Kansas African American History Trail student group tours Freedom's Frontier partner sites in Lawrence


Wichita students on the Kansas African American History Trail explore Carnegie exhibits, and Grover Barn in Lawrence
On Saturday, July 21, twenty students from Southeast High School in Wichita, Kansas, who are part of The Kansas African American Museum's Legacy Club will explore the Freedom's Frontier National Heritage Area exhibits in the Heritage Room and the Kansas Nebraska Act Gallery at the Carnegie Building, and learn about the Grover Barn in Lawrence, Kansas, as part of a larger tour of several historic sites along The Kansas African American History Trail.

This experience serves as a visual for the history many of the Legacy Club students have learned during Legacy Club sessions over the years. Adventures like this help the students connect the historical dots and take ownership of the history they've been inspired by.

As they tour historic sites along The Kansas African American History Trail, students will travel by charter bus, and stay overnight in a 4-star hotel. This tour is offered by The Kansas African American Museum's Legacy Club program in partnership with Wichita State University Gear Up, and sponsored by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

In many ways, this tour of The Kansas African American History Trail overlaps with Freedom's Frontier National Heritage Area (FFNHA). One of the stops on the tour, the Carnegie Building in Lawrence, Kansas, houses the FFNHA offices. With the exception of Nicodemus, Kansas, the first stop on the tour, all of the stops on the tour are within the borders of FFNHA, a 41-county region in eastern Kansas and western Missouri. The Nicodemus National Historic Site is connected to the themes and stories of Freedom's Frontier, and connected by way of the National Park Service (NPS). National Heritage Areas partner with NPS.


Students will visit the following historical sites:

Nicodemus National Historic Site
304 Washington Avenue, Nicodemus, Kansas
First all black settlement

Brown V. Board of Education National Historic Site
1515 SE Monroe Street, Topeka, Kansas
Landmark school desegregation
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Carnegie Building/Freedom's Frontier National Heritage Area Offices
200 W 9th Street, Lawrence, Kansas
Former city library visited by Langston Hughes

Grover Barn
2819 Stone Barn Terrace, Lawrence, Kansas
Preserved station on Underground Railroad

Quindaro Town Site
3432 N 29th Street, Kansas City, Kansas
Founded by black, Native American, and white settlers

Gordon Parks Museum
2108 S Horton Street, Fort Scott, Kansas
Celebrates the life and work of Gordon, internationally-known photographer, filmmaker, writer and musician

Freedom's Frontier National Heritage Area has more than 200 partner sites in eastern Kansas and western Missouri. More than 150 of those partner organization have historic forts and battlefields; historic houses; museums and archives; artifacts and documents; parks and nature trails. Other partners are convention visitor and tourism bureaus. All of the partners help to present stories of the shaping of the frontier, the Missouri-Kansas Border War and the enduring struggle for freedom.

Learn more about all of the sites by visiting www.freedomsfrontier.org, and clicking on "Places to See". There is also a historic timeline, and an events calendar. Visitors to the website can request a map online, or send an email to information@freedomsfrontier.org.

Follow Freedom's Frontier on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram for more information (Links to all are below.)

The Kansas African American Museum, 601 N Water Wichita, Kansas, endeavors to make the Kansas African American experience resonant with EVERY Kansan. The museum building was once the venerable Calvary Baptist Church, a cornerstone of Wichita’s vibrant black community. It was built in 1917 when the congregation’s leaders worked nights and weekends - separate and apart from their jobs - to finish the church. That community featured restaurants, businesses, and homes. It hosted jazz artists, Negro League baseball stars, and was the home of America’s first African American Academy Award winner and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s lawyer among others.

For more information about The Kansas African American Museum, or the Kansas African American History Trail, visit www.tkaamuseum.org , or call (316) 262-7651.


About Freedom's Frontier National Heritage Area
Location: 41 counties in Eastern Kansas and Western Missouri

Area: 31,021 square miles, approximately the size of South Carolina

Population: 2,883,526 (2017 estimate)

Established: October 12, 2006

Counties involved
Kansas – Allen, Anderson, Atchison, Bourbon, Chautauqua, Cherokee, Clay, Coffey, Crawford, Douglas, Franklin, Geary, Jackson, Jefferson, Johnson, Labette, Leavenworth, Linn, Miami, Montgomery, Neosho, Osage, Pottawatomie, Riley, Shawnee, Wabaunsee, Wilson, Woodson, Wyandotte

Missouri – Barton, Bates, Buchanan, Cass, Clay, Jackson, Johnson, Lafayette, Platte, Ray, St. Clair, Vernon

Website: www.freedomsfrontier.org