Dividing Lines: A History of Segregation in Kansas City

(1275 reviews)

Kansas City, Missouri audio tour: Dividing Lines: A History of Segregation in Kansas City

This is a 24.3mi driving tour

It takes an average of 90 mins to complete.

Kansas City, Missouri

The United States

Free

Access all 77 locations offline with the VoiceMap app

Reviews

About the Tour

Journey through the history of segregation in the Kansas City metro, primarily through its real estate. The tour is designed so that you can safely drive through the city at your own pace while hearing stories about each area you travel through.

Nathaniel Bozarth, ethnographer and host of the “Wide Ruled” podcast, narrates this 90-minute drive, bringing in interviews from several area students and notable city figures Sid Willens, Bill Tammeus, Mamie Hughes, and Margaret May.

“Dividing Lines” was created as a part of the Johnson County Library’s “Race Project KC.” The Library’s Civic Engagement Committee and Tanner Colby’s book “Some of My Best Friends are Black: The Strange Story of Integration in America” inspired much of the ongoing work of Race Project KC. This tour was made possible by support from Johnson County Library and the Kansas Humanities Council. It was produced by Brainroot Light & Sound. Written by Nathaniel Bozarth and Christopher Cook. The tour features music from Hermon Mehari and KC Jazz LP.

The content of this tour may contain controversial material; such statements are not an expression of library policy.

Banner Photo: David Wilson

Tour Producer

Johnson County Library

1 tour

The Johnson County Library nurtures the community’s collective wisdom by providing access to ideas, information, experiences and materials that support and enrich people's lives. We aim to create an environment for people to learn, explore, enjoy, create, and connect.

Johnson County Library got its start in the 1950s in the homes of neighborhood families. Before they had funding, dedicated community members ran volunteer libraries out of their basements, schoolhouses, a barbershop, a plumbing company, a shopping center and a traveling bookmobile. Their hard work and passion soon led to an official Johnson County Library in Merriam, Kansas, which is now our Antioch location.

Today, Johnson County Library serves over 4.3 million in-person and online visitors annually 14, library locations in Northeast Kansas. And one thing hasn't changed — the Library staff are helped by 1,202 volunteers who donate more than 50,000 hours of their time each year!

Preview Location

Location 1

Introduction

NARRATOR:
“In the twentieth century, Kansas City produced two uniquely American geniuses who would both forever alter the physical and cultural landscape of the country. One of these men built a magic kingdom, a fantasy world that offered nonstop, wholesome family fun and a c... NARRATOR:
“In the twentieth century, Kansas City produced two uniquely American geniuses who would both forever alter the physical and cultural landscape of the country. One of these men built a magic kingdom, a fantasy world that offered nonstop, wholesome family fun and a complete escape from reality. The other one moved to Hollywood and opened a theme park.” - Tanner Colby. In his book Some of My Best Friends are Black: the Strange Story of Integration in America
Hi. I’m Nathaniel Bozarth. This is the Dividing Lines tour - a tour of the history of segregation in KC primarily through its real estate. I’m gonna be your guide as we drive through the metro and hear from a variety of Kansas Citians.

This tour was designed so that you can safely drive through the city at your own pace while hearing stories about what you’re seeing. But if your own pace is faster than the speed limit, the stories won’t fall in quite the right places. To fully be able to take in your surroundings, we recommend you drive at or below the speed limit at all times. The tour is best experienced in a group so that the passengers can safely look at the spots we pass. If you’re driving on your own, that’s totally cool. You may, however, feel the need to pull to the side of the road from time to time. Please feel free to do so, as the road allows. Regardless of what you do, please obey all traffic laws. The great thing about VoiceMap is that I take my cues from you...well, your location at least. Because VoiceMap is location-aware, you may experience a brief silence from time to time, but don’t worry, it’s because app is just waiting for you to arrive at the next location. If you hit any detours, follow the signs and then, when it’s safe, refer to the mapped route on the app and use the “Previous” or “Next” buttons to get the audio back on track

The building outside your window is Shawnee Mission East high school. We're starting here because if you ask any middle class family with kids about why they moved to their current house, they’ll probably tell you it had something to do with the schools available to their kids. So much of Kansas City’s current make up is the consequence of these seemingly individual family decisions.

While you’re still parked, here’s Lauren Cole, a 2017 graduate of Shawnee Mission East, sharing her thoughts.

LAUREN:
Shawnee Mission East which is fed into from Mission Hills, Kansas. Which is one of the most expensive zip codes in Kansas. And there's a lot of things going on in the hallways and in like in a high school experience that I wouldn't say were necessarily bad but ...there isn't a lot of change between person to person. And a lot of people have the same experiences growing up, hitting country clubs in the summer, awesome vacations, driving nice cars, and once you get beyond that in Shawnee Mission East and delve into our teachers and stuff, you've got like incredible teachers that are really a lot of incredible teachers that are really open and not only in their fields but want to expand kids minds in every way.

NARRATOR:
In many ways, it’s the ideal American high school experience. Exactly what parents intended for their kids when they decided to move into this well-funded, affluent school district.

Lauren mentioned that, at this school, you might be in class with somebody whose last name is on a skyscraper downtown.

LAUREN:
Like definitely look around right before you leave, see all the nice cars in the parking lot. Understand we had to expand parking lots because our school didn't have enough parking spaces because everyone singularly drove a car to school.

NARRATOR:
Ok, so here’s where I become your GPS Navigator. I’ll give you directions like this throughout the tour. And if you ever miss one, you can use the Step-Back button - the 15 with a circular arrow around it - on the app to go back 15 seconds at a time.

Let’s start by navigating out of the parking lot. Head north (which is your left if you’re facing the school) toward 75th Street. Once there, take a right to go west onto 75th. Read More

View locations and route

How VoiceMap Works

Focus on your surroundings, not the screen

The VoiceMap app uses GPS to play audio automatically, at the right time and place, so you can focus on your surroundings, not the screen.

Follow a route with turn-by-turn-directions

VoiceMap tours follow a route from a fixed starting point. That lets us give turn-by-turn directions and use context to tell a better story.

Resume playback to go at your own pace

If you'd like to stop for a drink or go into a museum, end your tour then use the Resume feature to pick up exactly where you left off.

Listen as many times as you like

You can listen to your tours as often as you like using both the VoiceMap app and website.

Take virtual tours anywhere, like a podcast

Select Virtual mode in the VoiceMap app to listen to tours like a podcast - at home or in transit.

Buy for less on voicemap.me and sync

Once you've purchased a tour, it's added to your VoiceMap library. To access it in the app, just sign in using the same account.

Do tours without paying for data

Tours work offline, so you don't have to pay roaming fees. Just download them over WiFi before you get started.

Major Landmarks

Country Club Plaza

Getting There

Route Overview

VoiceMap tours follow a route from a set starting point. It’s how we give turn-by-turn directions and tell a story greater than the sum of its parts.

Start location
38.99233793, -94.63288844
Total distance

39km
Final location
3704-3728 Woodland Ave, Kansas City, MO 64109, USA
Distance back to start location

10km

Directions to Starting Point

The tour begins in the north parking lot of Shawnee Mission East High School (address below). The school has several parking lots. The correct starting point is located in the parking lot accessible from 75th Street, just west of Mission Road.

Don’t go to any of the school’s parking lots accessed off of Mission Road, these parking lots don’t connect to the starting parking lot.

School Address:
7500 Mission Rd, Prairie Village, KS 66208

Show Directions

Gift vouchers

Buy tours for friends and family who delight in discovery

Buy Now

License this tour

Adapt this tour to use your brand and suit your guests

Find out more

Tips

Places to stop along the way

The tour is best experienced in a continuous session. Therefore, no stops are recommended.

Best time of day

From dawn to dusk.

Avoiding work-days from 7:30 AM - 8:30 AM, and 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM will help you avoid heavier traffic on some sections of the tour.

PLEASE NOTE: Parts of the road near the start of the route have been affected by road closures. The road is now open to vehicle traffic with only intermittent lane closures expected. No closures or interruptions are expected over the weekend and the work is scheduled to finish by January 2021.

Precautions

DRIVE SLOW: If your own pace is faster than the speed limit, the stories won’t fall in quite the right places. To fully be able to take in your surroundings, we recommend you drive at or below the speed limit at all times. Regardless of what you do, please OBEY ALL TRAFFIC LAWS.

SILENCES: The great thing about VoiceMap is that we take my cues from you...well, your location at least. Because VoiceMap is location-aware, you may experience a brief silence from time to time, but don’t worry, it’s because app is just waiting for you to arrive at the next location.

GROUPS: The tour is best experienced in a group so that the passengers can safely look at the spots we pass. If you’re driving on your own, that’s totally cool. You may, however, feel the need to pull to the side of the road from time to time. Please feel free to do so, as the road allows.

DETOURS: If you hit any detours, follow the new route that the detour signs advise until you’re out of the construction zone. Then, when it’s safe, pull to the side of the road and refer to the mapped route on the app and use the “Previous” or “Next” buttons to get the audio back on track

Get The App

Download tours to use them offline

Listen hands-free with GPS playback

Get turn-by-turn directions

Scan the QR Code

“This app has become my go-to app for audio tours. I pretty much use it for every trip and it works wonderfully. I highly recommend VoiceMap for travelers to truly experience cities.”

App Store Review

“Great app. walk around at your own pace, stop where you want, move on or speed up when you want. Read the script before you go or during the commentary, speed it up or replay it. Repeat the tour whenever you like.”