Protection, Preservation, and Development

       Through the efforts of Orrin Murray, Marvin Robinson, Jesse Hope, Betty Roberts, Fred Whitehead, Jimmy Johnson, and numerous other community members and organizations, a continuing effort is being made to win National Historic Landmark status for Quindaro. The actions to preserve Quindaro were stimulated by the threat of a landfill which would have covered the site completely had it been allowed to occur in the early 1980s. Instead of burying the town this threat redoubled the efforts of community organizers and enthusiasts for history and education. Nearly two decades later the two land owners in Quindaro, the Unified Government of Kansas City Kansas and the Allen Chapel of the A.M.E. Church have joined their efforts in supporting the National Historic Landmark desgination. The goal of all of the people who have for years helped work toward the preservation of the ruins and the promotion of education about the significance of the site can be achieved through continuing unified efforts.

Sumner Academy has documented much of the history of Quindaro through a video project and has always been at the forefront of efforts to educate Wyandotte County students about the rich history that was Quindaro. Dennis Lawrence at Washington Highschool was awarded a grant and with it promoted the study of Quindaro and other ethnic communities of our city. His Internet site features a step by step guide to studying Quindaro history. Larry Hancks of the Unified Government Planning Division has compiled a history of Quindaro which is the most comprehensive treatment of the subject thus far produced, and he continues to update this compendium of history as new information becomes available. Larry J. Schnmits, Quindaro site archaeologist and supervisor of the only excavation of Quindaro Ruins has uncovered thousands of artifacts during his work at the site. Although a small number of artifacts are stored at the Wyandotte County Museum and Historical Society, we continue to hope that he will be successful in finding a way to make a larger number of artifacts available to the research community and general public in the near future.

Marvin Robinson has for years lead tours of Quindaro ruins introducing hundreds of students to this important historic site and carrying on the work started by the late Orin Murray. It was Marvin Robinson who first approached the college requesting the establishment of the ongoing 'Restoration Roundtables' reported on another page at this site. To encourage documentation of Quindaro and the history associated with the underground railroad there, students in the Mu Delta Chapter of the Honors Program at Kansas City Kansas Community College have accomplished the huge task of indexing the Quindaro Chindowan. The Chindowan was Quindaro's Free State newspaper ably edited by J. M. Walden and assisted by Clarina Nichols during the early period of its publication. The "Quindaro Chindowan Index Project," will culminate with the publication of that searchable index on the KCKCC website by March of 2000. Our theatre department under the direction of Charles Leader has produced a play about Quindaro, and adjunct faculty member Martin Chisolm has just received a grant to develope another historical drama about Quindaro in 2000. All of these efforts and many others both past and in the future can only help move us toward the goal of the preservation of this vital link in American history.

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