Zoom link: https://success.zoom.us/j/3448335044

Featured speaker: Erik Stafford, “The meaning of Juneteenth, the impact of the Underground Railroad and the Emancipation Proclamation Reconstruction on Kansas City, and the origin of the police force”
Musical guest: Jeff Harshbarger (https://music.ku.edu/jeff-harshbarger)
Community moment: Hannah Keim

Erik Stafford will discuss the meaning of Juneteenth, the impact of the Underground Railroad and the Emancipation Proclamation Reconstruction on Kansas City, and the origin of the police force.

Erik is a native of Kansas City, Missouri. He and his wife, Carla Stafford, have three daughters. After graduating from Raytown South High School, Erik remained in Kansas City to attend Penn Valley Community College, where he discovered history. Erik later received his Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Central Missouri State University.

He then returned to Kansas City and taught social studies at Genesis School for three years, where he and his students gave tours of the historic sites in the Kansas City area. It was also during this time that Erik published his first book of poetry, Native Life, a collection of poems and pictures. Erik went on to earn his Master of Arts degree in business from Webster University.

In 2009, Erik became sole proprietor of the Kansas City Tour Company and began conducting tours of the historic sites in the Kansas City area and creating interactive, historic slideshow presentations that allow people to make the connections between the past, present and future through history. In May 2017, Erik published “Script From 12th to 18th Street,” a condensed, factual account of Jim Crow segregation in the Heart of America. In August 2018, Erik was referenced in the New York Times article “On a Civil Rights Trail, Essential Sights and Indelible Detours,” written by Ron Stodghill and discussing 18th and Vine’s contribution to the National Civil Rights Movement.