Key takeaways
- For the first time in the city’s history, Prairie Village held an official celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on Saturday, Feb. 26.
- The event was delayed more than a month because of the January spike in new COVID-19 cases fueled by the Omicron variant.
- The focus of the event was on housing equity and affordability and how the city’s history of redlining and racist deed restrictions still impact Prairie Village’s diversity today.
Prairie Village officially celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. and his legacy for the first time in the city’s history this past weekend.
Hundreds of people gathered at Village Presbyterian Church on Saturday for the event, dubbed the I Have A Dream (Home) Action and Celebration.
Stand Up For Black Lives + Prairie Village, Johnson County’s National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples, Race Project KC, Shawnee Mission East and Prairie Village’s diversity committee hosted the event.
The proceedings were postponed from Jan. 16 due to a COVID-19 surge at that time.
Saturday’s event focused on the theme of equitable and affordable housing in the Kansas City metro, but particularly in Prairie Village and featured a number of musical performances, a poem recited by George Williams, a Stand Up For Black Lives + PV member and event organizer.
Several videos were shown, including one about Johnson County’s history with redlining and racist deed restrictions, both of which shaped the Prairie Village of today.
‘We have work to do’
Mayor Eric Mikkelson spoke about a number of city efforts to address diversity and housing issues in the city such as the diversity committee and the sustainability rebate program.
Mikkelson said as great as Prairie Village is, he’s “always believed its greatest opportunity for improvement is its lack of diversity” of all types.
“Not only will this make us a stronger city, this I believe is a moral imperative given some of the less-than-innocent reasons we’ve heard about — and we’re all familiar with — for why we’re such a homogenous city,” Mikkelson said. “Clearly we’ve got some work to do on diversity.”
One of the keynote speakers was Elisha Williams, the newly-elected first vice president of Johnson County NAACP and Martin Luther King Jr.’s great-nephew.
Williams, who grew up in the South, gave an overview of King’s life and efforts from his childhood to the progress he made during the civil rights movement.
Williams said “Dr. King understood his assignment,” and left behind a path for the world to follow.
“There is still an assignment that is required from all of us, and that is for us to keep the work going when the change needs to be seen,” Williams said. “When the innocent and the less fortunate are mistreated, we all have a responsibility to do what is humanly right.”
Focus on housing
Jacob Wagner, co-founder of Center for Neighborhoods and director of urban studies at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, also gave a keynote address.
Wagner referenced civil rights expert John Powell and said the path to racial justice is through housing justice.
Wagner said the fact that parts of Prairie Village are 96% to 99% white and there are parts of the Kansas City metro that are 99% African-American is no accident.
Wagner said the community needs to do what it can to create a more diverse housing stock and slow down the tear down-rebuild trend.
Wagner said the conversation about affordable housing in Prairie Village will be continued on April 3 at the Meadowbrook Park Clubhouse, 9101 Nall Avenue, at 2:30 p.m.
A live stream recording of the entire event can be found online here.
Below is a look at some of the scenes from Saturday:
