KTWU Sunflower Journeys 1707C - Making Kansas Bleed

Produced by Amanda Shaw
Edited by Scott Williams

University of Missouri and University of Kanas fans sit side-by-side in Allen Field House in Lawrence Narrator: One hundred and fifty years ago Kansasans and Missourians fought with each other over the issue of slavery often to the death. From the sacking of Lawrence in 1856 to Quantrill's raid during the civil war, the skirmishes between Jayhawkers and Bushwackers, Freestaters and Missourians were known as the border wars. Nancee Thompson, KU fan, Overland Park, Kansas: The border war still exists. It goes back to Civil war days. I remember growing up and being so proud of Kansas being a pro-northern state. Richard Kaiser, Jr., KU fan, Overland Park, Kansas: Other than the north and the south, this is the next biggest thing that goes on for the next 100 years or so, easy. Narrator: This is the shape of the border war today. But does the border war between Kansas and Missouri still exist beyond the sports arena. We asked two local writers, to ponder this question. Tom Averill, author of Secrets of the Tsil Café, and the Slow Aire of Ewen McPherson is a writer in residence at Washburn University and a life long Kansan. Whitney Terrell grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, and in his novel, The Huntsman, as well as in his current project, he explore the divisions of class and race along the state line in Kansas City. Whitney Terrell, Author, Kansas City, Missouri: That sort of rivalry between the two states is played out in a comic level in a sense between...in the universities. Although it strikes me as I've grown older, more important and serious things underlie that sort of division. Tom Averill, Professor of English, Washburn University: I don't really think that sports fans are thinking Sheriff Jones, or William Quantrill, but if you look at the language that the newspapers use... it is very similar to that. You know the invasion of these people and that they are not as good. Whitney Terrell: I think that sports is where its safe to play it out in a public forum. Narrator: The border wars begin in territorial Kansas in the 1850s, and almost immediately the differences between Kansas and Missouri begin to play out. Tom Averill: I teach Kansas literary and one of the images that I see of Missourians and Kansans is that Missourians were of course from the slave state, and Kansans were settled predominately by free state people. Imported say from the North. Missouri was one of those border states. So from the very beginning there were huge tension between Kansas and Missouri. Whitney Terrell: I was brought up in Missouri and I like the "mongrel" flavor of Missouri. I like the fact that Missouri is a bunch of different ethicalities living in it. I like the hurley- burley of Kansas City politics. Tom Averill: Part of the imagery of Missourians were that they came to be southerners, that they cared more about say honor than they carried about principle. That they were prone to alcohol and drink. Narrator: The differences continue long after territorial days. In 1881 Kansas passes prohibition, while Missouri lets the liquor flow, and earns itself a reputation as a good-time kind of town. Whitney Terrell: Yea, how horrible would it be to live in Kansas without Kansas City to go to. That's all I have to say. What would you do? All the music that came out of Kansas City. The restaurants. The complicated politics. The Pendergast era. The sports teams. You know, all that stuff is so essential to a Kansas experience as well as a Missouri experience. And Kansas City embraces all those contradictions. Tom Averill: There is always that ambivalent relationship we have. I mean we love to go to the Nelson Art Gallery, all of us. We love to go to the Plaza, we love to go to those places that seem culturally superior. That only big cities can really afford to have in the way that Kansas City has those institutions. But, but we don't necessarily stay there to make our homes. Narrator: Whitney Terrell sees the border wars of today as a quiet, yet real conflict concentrated in the heart of Kansas City. Whitney Terrell: Kansas City you know is primarily the separation between Johnson County, Kansas and Jackson County, Missouri. You know there is just a difference in philosophy. Jackson County is democratic primarily, Johnson county is republican primarily. You know, those are the kind of representatives that they elect, generally. Also, you know, Jackson county school district is almost all African American. Johnson county is almost all white. So the old racial division that used to play out within Jackson county which was at Troost avenue you know separating white and black residents has now sort of moved to state line where Johnson county is seen as a very white area with an all-white school system and Jackson County's public school system is seen as an all African-American. Tom Averill: In many ways, Kansas City could just have easily grown north into Missouri and not south into Kansas. South and west into Kansas. But one of the main reasons it did was because of race and because of schools and because of certain laws. So I do think there is a border war that comes out of some of those developments. Whitley Terrell: And I think that because of the state line down the middle of our city, its allowed people of different political persuasions and different races to simply get away from each other and run separate governments instead of learning to govern together. And I think that's been an unfortunate thing for Kansas City and a damaging thing. I wish the state line didn't exist within our metropolitan boundaries. ##### This transcript is from KTWU's Sunflower Journeys 2004 season. Sunflower Journeys Home A production of: KTWU Channel 11 Washburn University Topeka, Ks. 66621 785-231-1111 journeys@washburn.edu