18th and Vine, the Negro National League, the Monarchs and the jam sessions that ran past sunrise.
18th And Vine
In the first half of the 20th century, the 18th and Vine district was the center of Black cultural life in Kansas City, and it is still the metro area's historic center of African American culture. It is recognized around the world as one of the places jazz grew up.
Kansas City Jazz
In the era of the political boss Tom Pendergast, Kansas City's clubs stayed open late and its jam sessions ran past sunrise. Its jazz was built on riffs, with whole sections of the band trading phrases. Bennie Moten's orchestra emerged in the 1920s as the city's top jazz ensemble, and in 1929 Count Basie joined it. Charlie Parker, born across the state line in Kansas City, Kansas, learned his music hanging around the nightclub alleys of Twelfth Street, and he was one of many musicians of the 1930s and 1940s who got their start around 18th and Vine.
The Negro National League
On February 13, 1920, team owners met at a YMCA in Kansas City and, led by Rube Foster of the Chicago American Giants, founded the Negro National League. The Kansas City Monarchs were a charter member and became the longest-running franchise in Negro league history, playing from 1920 to 1965. They won the first Negro World Series in 1924. Satchel Paige became their biggest draw, a young Jackie Robinson played shortstop for them in 1945 before he signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers, and Buck O'Neil played first base and later managed the club.
The Call
In May 1919 Chester Arthur Franklin founded The Call, which grew into one of the six largest African American weeklies in the country and still serves Black readers on both sides of the state line. Roy Wilkins was its managing editor before he went on to lead the NAACP, and Lucile Bluford, a reporter and editor who sued the University of Missouri over its segregated admissions, ran the paper until her death in 2003.
Black Kansas City Today
Since 1990 the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, founded by former players, has stood at 18th and Vine beside the American Jazz Museum, and Buck O'Neil served on its board until his death in 2006. Black-owned barbecue joints, salons, shops and brands are part of everyday Kansas City.
Shop Black-owned businesses in Kansas City on CashBlack.
Photo Credits
The Blue Room at the American Jazz Museum. Photo: Jordano53, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons