Making History: Kansas City and the Rise of Gay Rights

Built by students in the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s public history program, the Making History exhibit explores the activism of gays and lesbians in the decades before the 1956 uprising of gay youth at the Stonewall Riots, “including Kansas City’s surprisingly pivotal role in helping to launch America’s gay rights movement. Focusing on ordinary people who accomplished extraordinary things, the exhibit explores how history is made.”

Making History originated as a project in the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Public History class following the installation of the commemorative marker by GLAMA and LGBT-KC. This website is the digital version of the traveling exhibit, which is touring the Kansas City metro area at libraries, community centers, and museums. For more information or to find out how you can host the traveling exhibit, contact the curators here.

Making History Credits

Curators:

Christopher D. Cantwell, Stuart Hinds, and Kathryn B. Carpenter

Contributing Curators:

Taylor C. Bye, Samantha Bradfield, Allie Donnell, Avery Goetz, Samantha Hollingsworth, David Jenkins, Tyler Johnson, Gaile Juknevicius, Gaetano Mondello, Maria Olson, Leah Palmer, Kevin Ploth, Jennifer Tufts

Making History is made possible by:

Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage Area
The Gay and Lesbian Archive of Mid-America
UMKC’s Center for Midwestern Studies
UMKC’s Department of History

For rights, reproductions, permissions, and support, the curatorial staff would also like to thank:

LGBT-KC
LikeMe Lighthouse
Watkins Museum of History
Christopher Leitch and the Johnson County Public Library
Ross Freese
Kay Madden
David Jackson
Kevin Scharlau
Mickey Ray
Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut Libraries
Cushing Memorial Library and Archives, Texas A&M University
San Francisco GLBT Historical Society
National Archives
Kansas City Public Library
John Long, CAMP
New York Public Library