Key Points:

• A GoFundMe campaign for Yvonne Starks Wilson Park in Kansas City was announced at a brunch.
• The park currently has limited amenities and the planned improvements include a parking lot, playground, and more.
• The park is located in the Leeds-Dunbar neighborhood, the oldest neighborhood built for Black home ownership in Kansas City.

The late Missouri State Senator Yvonne Starks Wilson was a grand lady, and members of the Heart of America Neighborhood Association (HCNA), believe the park that bears her name should be equally as grand.  

Toward that goal, at a brunch held Saturday at Bruce R. Watkins Center to celebrate what would have been the late senator’s 95th birthday, a GoFundMe Campaign was announced to raise money to fund improvements to the park.   

The Yvonne Starks Wilson Park is located in the Dunbar-Leeds neighborhood at East 34th Street Terrace and Stadium Drive.  The sparse park currently has only a playground and a small shelter house.  

Planned improvements include a 40-45 space parking lot with lighting, a new ADA-accessible playground with lighting, a walking trail with fitness stations and sitting areas, an amphitheater, basketball court, landscaping, pet stations, restrooms, and a second shelter house a water feature and a donor wall that includes the neighborhood history.  

The estimated cost for the renovations is $3.9 million.  Kansas City MO Council has agreed to provide $1 million in funding for the park during their 2025-26 fiscal year, but that leaves a shortage of almost $2 million.  

The projected cost for Phase I of the improvements is $2.25 million.  The GoFundMe Campaign goal is to raise the $1.2 million shortage needed for the first phase of improvements.  

History of the Neighborhood 

The HCNA includes an area designated as the Dunbar-Leeds Neighborhood which is the oldest neighborhood built in Kansas City exclusively for Black home ownership.  The area was founded in 1915.  

The neighborhood’s boundaries are 31st St. on the north, Stadium Drive on the east, Leeds Trfy on the south and Emanuel Cleaver II Blvd on the north.  The neighborhood remains a predominantly Black neighborhood, with at least 40 long-time residents still residing in the area who are between 75 and 92 years old.  

The neighborhood produced a number of great Kansas City leaders including community leader Alvin Brooks and Senator Wilson.  

History of the Park

The Yvonne Starks Wilson Park originally was named Liberty Park opened in June 1922 as a privately funded park and as an alternative to Swop Park, where Black people weren’t welcome.  When it opened, The Kansas City Call described the park as “the only amusement park in America today for the exclusive use of Negroes…”  

Entertainment at the park included boating, a figure-eight speedway, a miniature golf course, picnic area, sports events, horseback riding, a merry-go-round, swimming pool with sand beach and a dance hall that could accommodate 300 people for live performances.    

The park was purchased by the city in 1950 and in 1953 purchased adjacent properties to expand the site to 17.78 acres.  

In 2019, KC Parks identified Starks Wilson Park as one of 38 Quality of Life Improvement District (QLID) Parks, located in zip codes with exceptionally low life expectancy.  Most of the QLID parks, almost predominantly located in minority communities, scored poorly on KC Parks Safe, Healthy, Attractive, Public Environments (SHAPE) program.  

As part of the QLID project, KC Parks was supposed to pay special attention to maintenance, upkeep, and improvements in the QLID parks and to invest in making improvements that can be used to help improve the life expectancy of residents in the area.  

The Brunch

The brunch included comments from Starks Wilson’s daughter Alycia Nichols and niece Dee Evans as well as a photo and video tribute.  Recognition was also given to Mary Williams Neal, a former KCMO council member who also served on numerous boards including the KC Park Board. Williams Neal passed away on April 2, 2023.  

In addition, HCNA presented Yvonne Starks Wilson Achievement Award to neighborhood and community leader Linda Brown, not only for the work she does for her Blue Hills neighborhood but for her support of the community as a whole.