Just days after Veterans Day, a groundbreaking project documenting the lives of Black Civil War soldiers from Missouri’s “Little Dixie” region will take center stage at the Black Archives of Mid-America.
The Greater Kansas City Black History Study Group, who’s president Larry Lester helped get Negro Leagues baseball statistics into the official MLB record books, hosts the Sat., Nov. 16 event, from t 1 to 3 p.m.at the Black Archives of Mid-America, 1722 E. 17th Terr, KCMO
Keynote speaker historian Michelle Cook will unveil The Salus Populi Project, a digital initiative bringing long-buried military pension records of Black Union soldiers to light. The project seeks to make these records publically available to help shed light on the soldiers’ lives.
“Little Dixie” – comprising seven central Missouri counties – held one-third of the state’s enslaved population before the Civil War. Many of these men later served in the United States Colored Troops (USCT), fighting both for the Union and their own freedom.
Cook, who co-founded the Salus Populi Project in 2022, has spent over a decade researching marginalized communities in Missouri. As Research Director for the Slavery, Memory, and Justice Project, she works to make these historical records accessible to all, breaking down barriers of cost and accessibility that have kept these stories hidden.
The presentation will offer an early look at pension files from local USCT soldiers, documents that reveal not just military service but the broader struggle for equality during Reconstruction and beyond.
The two-hour event doubles as the study group’s annual membership recruitment meeting. The organization is a chartered branch of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History who founded Black History Month.
Several prominent Kansas City institutions are supporting the program, including the National World War I Museum & Memorial, Clay County African American Legacy, Inc., and the Kansas University Medical Center Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
Those interested in attending should RSVP to kcblackhistory2@gmail.com. The meeting will be held in person only at the Black Archives of Mid-America in Kansas City.
The Salus Populi Project: Bringing Missouri United States Colored Troop Records Home
When: Sat, Nov. 16, at 1 to 3 p.m.
Where: Black Archives of Mid-America, 1722 E. 17th Terr, KCMO
Speaker: Michelle Cook, educator and historian
RSVP: Required at kcblackhistory2@gmail.com
