- [Announcer] "Flatland in Focus" is brought to you in part through the generous support of AARP, the Health Forward Foundation and RSM.

- Hi, I'm D. Rashaan Gilmore, and welcome to "Flatland in Focus."

For this episode, we'll be speaking to some of this region's civic leaders about the legacy they're leaving behind for Kansas City's next generation of leaders.

(upbeat music) Stan Wright, the first black head coach of track and field for the US Olympics once said that quote, "A relay race is lost or won based on how they pass the baton."

And this quote has inspired Carl Boyd to create a series of interviews between local history makers and the future leaders of Kansas City.

We wanted to start today's episode by sharing some of the clips from the series titled "Passing the Baton" by Carl Boyd and Sandy Woodson.

(peaceful music) - Well, right here in the heart of the community, Mr. Brooks, at Black Archives, there's a lot of history about things that happened throughout this entire community.

AdHoc Group Against Crime is certainly one of those.

Tell us a little bit about it.

- It was conceived in 1977, after 10 women of the evening, known as prostitutes, were killed.

And the African American community thought that there was a serial killer involved.

They thought he was a police officer or some white person who was killing black women, although nine of them were black, one was white.

And so I decided since I was assistant city manager in the city government at the time, Kansas City government, since that was this frustration and anger with the police department, that they weren't doing what they could, in terms of investigating those 10 homicides to let me meet with the person who had been assigned the squad to investigate this, and it was Sergeant Al Lomax.

And we sat down and went over those 10 cases, being a former police officer myself for 10 years, and Al sort of a protégé.

And we sat and went all 10 of those, and found there was no connection to show that there was a serial killer.

And then in January of 1978, we made our first presentation to the Board of Police Commissioners and was welcomed.

And then that May of 1978, we threw a marathon with the black-owned radio station of Carter Broadcasting Group.

We did a 72 hour marathon from 6:00 AM on Friday morning to 6:00 PM on Sunday.

And we raised $60,000 for the reward fund.

And as a result of that, we helped out several of those homicides, and some other violent crimes.

And, of course, as you know, having grown up with the AdHoc Group Against Crime, when you were about eight or nine years old, which was in the early nineties because you led one of the marches for Against Violence, down Troost.

I remember saying to you, get up front and hold that banner.

So that's kind of the history of AdHoc, except one other thing.

Our mission was to be the spokes-organization for the African American community, but also to develop a relationship with the police, with the prosecutor's office, with the courts, and with the civic community because we felt that it took all of those to work with reducing crime and violence.

And now that our Group Against Crime is still functioning under the leadership of Damon Daniel, and I think it's proved that if you develop those relationships with those entities, that you can assist in reducing crime and violence.

Young people, especially in the African American community, have to know their history.

'Cause that helps you identify with who you are.

And they realize that each one of us stands on the shoulders of those that have come before us.

I think you're a role model.

And so I applaud you for what you've learned and how you progressed.

A master's degree in public administration, your own company.

And I think I have to, although this is supposed to be my interview, but it's our interview and I appreciate that.

Love you for it.

- Well, I appreciate that too.

You know, the thing that stands out to me the most is something that one of our mutual friends, attorney John Kirks, often talks about your ability to treat everyone the same.

Whether it's that person at the drug house that we marched on when I was a kid, or to the business person in the corporate office in the suite, you treated all of them the same.

And I think that's part of the reason why folks like myself admire you.

On Wednesday nights, you're still, at 90 years old, convening African American males from around the country and encouraging people to live out their dreams, but then also make a difference.

And so we are so grateful for that and I appreciate you Mr. Brooks.

- Hey, and I love you for it.

- Thank you, thank you.

(peaceful music) - So I'm curious to know what led you to deciding that you need to dedicate most of your life to improving your community?

- We moved to Kansas City in 1962 and I was 12, so I really got started then.

My grandma used to make us, well, we were voluntold to help out with Freedom Incorporated.

And we learned how to canvas.

We learned how to knock on doors, how to talk to people about, you know, who to vote for.

It was during the civil rights era and grandmother made sure that we attended all those meetings and she was very social.

(laughing) - What's the first cause you ever took up as an organizer?

- When my son got shot at 14 years old and somebody called me on the phone and said, oh God, Diane, you live in that terrible neighborhood, where are you moving to?

I said, I'm moving to the moon.

I ain't going nowhere.

And I think that really jumped off my confidence that I could do and make a change where I lived.

- I'm also curious, was there a specific event or thing that brought you to the founding KC Tenants?

- There was two incidences that happened.

Tara Raghuveer came to town to give a presentation at the health department, and she was statistician, is all I knew, is that we were gonna go hear about statistics on evictions in Kansas City.

Everything that I've said for the 40 years that I've been screaming about housing and unfair housing, she had it in data.

And data is the language of today.

When she called me on the phone said, let's meet, I said, well, okay.

We met on 27th and Holmes at a restaurant, and it got me started.

The day that we had our town hall meeting at the Plaza Library and talked about evictions.

And Tara had a lineup of people on the panel, that actually had gone through evictions.

And she said something to us then we always say it now, is the people closest to the problem are closest to the solution.

Consensus is a long drawn out, arduous process, but once you've got everybody on board, we're not geniuses on our own, but together, boy, we are geniuses when there's a group of us, you know?

So to take that genius that we have and come up with ideas of how to fix this problem that we all have alike, then we can all think of in terms of how would we like for the world to be.

- At the time when I joined KC Tenants, I had been away for 15 years and had no real ties to the community at that point outside of like my family.

And so joining KC Tenants was like kind of, you know, putting some roots into the city.

Seeing you at that first meeting, like let me know that I was, I was in the right place.

- Exactly where you needed to be.

- Yes, I didn't know what my place was in that space, but I knew I was in the right place.

- Yeah.

The one thing everybody should know, everyone should know about KC Tenants.

Well, there's two things.

First of all, we're not bullies, but the other thing is that we're fighting for the good of all of Kansas City.

There's not a person within our group that doesn't love Kansas City the way that we all love Kansas City.

So listen to us and help us to be at that table when you make those decisions.

Nothing about us without us.

- All right, welcome back for the studio portion of today's program.

And I am super excited to be joined around the table by some lifelong friends of my own.

And I wanna welcome each and every one of you to the panel today.

First, Mr. Alvin Brooks, a lifetime civic leader and activist in our community.

City councilwoman Melissa Robinson, representing the third district of Kansas City.

Brian, I wanna welcome you to the show and to my new circle of friends.

Brian Hullaby is a leader with KC Tenants and for those of you who don't know this distinguished face, many of you will in our viewing audience, Diane Charity, also with KC Tenants and the longtime organizer in this community.

Yeah, absolutely.

Well, I was just joking during the break that you've got blackmail stories on me 'cause you watched me grow up.

- Yeah, I do.

(laughing) - So, you know, my biggest secret, which is that I'm perpetually 30.

(group laughing) So let's just go with that, and with that we'll jump into the conversation.

Councilwoman, it's so good to have you here.

As we're talking about passing the baton and the next era of leadership in our own community, how did your relationship with Mr. Brooks come about?

- Absolutely, I've known Mr. Brooks for some time now.

I can't be perpetually 30 but we'll just say that as a teenager I was, I am a product of the AdHoc Group Against Crime.

And I'll never forget the day that I met Mr. Brooks where he shook my hand.

He was trying to look me in the eye as I looked at my shoes to introduce myself.

And he told me the meaning of your name and how you should be proud of who you are and to look the person in the eye and taught me how to do a proper handshake.

And you know, he was just so mesmerizing and just inspired me.

And I never met someone outside of my family who cared so much about me as an individual.

And so I went to his secretary and I said, you know, I wanna talk to Mr. Brooks.

I have something I'm working on.

And she said, oh no baby, you have to get on his calendar.

(crowd laughing) And I then said to myself, I'm gonna be his right hand person.

And I set out to work at the AdHoc Group Against Crime as a young person in their summer programs.

And then when it was time for me to graduate from high school, I went to him.

I asked him for a job.

He said, well, we don't have any money for you.

You have to write a grant.

I don't know anything about grant- - It's that you're a high schooler, right?

- Yeah, I was a high schooler.

Miss Joy Barons, my Home Ec teacher.

She helped me write a grant to the Kauffman Foundation.

And it was only a couple thousand dollars, but he hired me to be the runaway prevention and intervention coordinator and the rest is history.

I worked for Mr. Brooks for over 14 years just learning from him.

He taught me how to be a humble servant and how to work hard and to wake up every day with the willingness to serve and to be able to answer that phone 'cause we had many hotlines and be a listening ear on the other side.

- I'm not gonna tease Mr. Brooks, but I have a lot of the fond memories listening to KPRS going now, Tyrone, please come home, call your mama and come home.

That was Mr. Brooks going out in the community and finding folks and getting them home.

But Mr. Brooks, I have to ask, what was it about Melissa that you saw that you were like, you know what, she's somebody that I really want to invest in.

- I worked with so many young people at that particular time back in the nineties when the AdHoc Group Against Crime first had its offices on the 33, 32's, but there was something special about Melissa, and I got to mention her younger brother, Jermaine Reed.

- I was gonna bring him in, yes.

- Different mother, different father, but they're sister and brother.

For some strange reason, you saw a great potential in Melissa.

Mature, a good listener, follow through and work very well with her peers as well as adults.

And I think that's where she is today and that's why she's sitting in the council seat and in the third district and have represented that district the same way she was when she was growing up.

All the things that that we did together.

- There's something to be said about the partnership that has to occur in any kind of relationship where there's mentor, mentee.

And I don't know if that's how you and Brian necessarily define your relationship, but there is a generational difference and you're working very closely together.

I'm interested to know from your perspective Diane, what makes partnership work?

Mentorship partnerships work.

- Now I might be chronologically 72, but I'm really 14, so I haven't grown up and so I can relate to Brian and the things that he talks about.

Young people are absolute geniuses.

And I found that out after my kids were grown and gone.

- Shout out to Michael who's here in the studio somewhere.

(laughing) - Yeah but to know that they do have a lot of answers that we of course never even thought about because we're too busy thinking about how to pay the bills, you know?

So they have a much more creative way that if you just tap into that, you can find out things that you never thought, oh boy, I can do that, you know?

Or you can do that or we can do that.

You know, and that's where that partnership comes in.

I'm so privileged to have Brian as one of my partners.

- So Brian, tell us what is your experience like being a mentee in effect?

Or do you consider yourself a mentee of Diane Charity?

- I do, but you know, she's kind of been that my entire life.

She and my grandmother were close friends when I was growing up, so she's known me- - Gotcha.

- Like literally like my entire life.

And even still now I'm learning about connections I have with Melissa that I didn't know that I had.

And so now I was on the Ewing Marion Kauffman Youth Advisory board.

And so the grant you proposed, me and Jermaine read it.

- You wrote the check.

(crowd laughing) - Yeah, and that's how I met Jermaine.

And so we've been friends since then too.

She's got a lot of fire, and that's something I always admired growing up because it wasn't something that, even though my grandmother was very active, there was not a lot of fire in her.

She was very, she was a thinker.

And preferred to think behind the scenes.

And so I learned how to fight, I learned how to listen, and I learned how to listen to people and how to like actually hear them because they all heard me when I was growing up.

And so I take those lessons and I do them when I use and when I organize.

- So that makes me think, you know, if we think about KC Tenants, and obviously one of the big issues in our own community right now is the lack of affordable housing, right?

And we think about the housing crisis overall that we have.

I'm just interested to know, is there a bridge, and I look to you, Mr. Brooks, and say even around issues like homicide and crime, do you feel like the approaches of some of the younger leaders that are coming up, do they mirror what you all experienced back in the day as it were?

Or is it very different?

What's your take on that, Mr. Brooks?

- Well, first of all, let me say that we as adults talk a lot about involving young people.

I don't think that enough is done in that area.

We did it in the AdHoc Group Against Crime.

I did it when I was with, as a city council person and involving young folks on the board, of the AdHoc Group Against Crime, got young people on the board.

And I think that religious communities failed to do that.

They may have Sunday school and all like that, but in terms of the legacy that's left with young folks, you know, we talk about it, but we don't do it.

I think that different time, you know, I'm 90 years old.

I know I don't look a day over 110, but I'm 90 years old.

And it was a different day.

Racism was just everywhere you turn.

Even if you grew up in an all-black community like I did.

I didn't go to school with white kids until I was a, white folks, until I was a junior in college.

I certainly don't support segregation and discrimination.

But segregation and discrimination during that period made us as African American kids know who we were.

We had black history every day.

- Well, and then that's a really interesting point because obviously we are filming this show during Black History Month.

We've got all black leaders around the table.

And it raises the question for me of are we doing enough as a community to open up those avenues for quote unquote younger people?

Do you feel like the avenues and opportunities that you had, or maybe you, Brian, are available to younger people like yourself then who was looking for an opportunity and hungry for it?

- Yes, I do feel like there are many opportunities for young people to engage and to be involved.

And it's very interesting because when you think about the two different cultures, when I talk to Mr. Brooks and we talk about cancel culture, there is no way those, you know, old adages that no one is ever canceled.

You always make friends.

They might, the toes you step on might be connected to, you know- - Exactly, exactly, exactly.

(crowd laughing) Words we don't say on PBS, right?

- And so, all of that, you know, and carrying over in these different cultures because we are quick to say, okay, this person is not aligning with my values, with my belief and so we can't deal with them anymore.

And so we have to find those bridges of exchange still, which is challenging, I think between the two generations.

- It is because I, you know, we did a wonderful episode last fall about young leaders and what I was so moved by was how they defined their activism.

And so Diane Charity tell me, is it, enough that I take to my social media where maybe I have a large following and I'm sharing news information or helping organize that way?

Or is that not, that doesn't count.

That's not leadership, it's not organizing.

- That does count because it plants that seed.

And the thing about, I was thinking about people that the olders to the youngers and, you know, knowledge is power.

- Yes.

- And a lot of times, and this is what I experienced when I was at Project Neighborhood and all those other nonprofits that the older people that were involved with that, like Miss Ethel Sutton and those kinds of folks, they were wonderful if you could, you know, get behind them and listen and learn what they're doing, but they didn't wanna give it up.

- Yeah, that's one of the things for sure we mentioned, young leadership from the 22nd to the 25th, the person who's, as far as we know, the youngest mayor of any city in this nation is the young man named Jaylen Smith, 18 years old mayor of Earle, Arkansas.

We're gonna bring him to Kansas City and an 18 year old mayor of a city.

1800 people, 75% black.

And the way he got elected, the 2021 graduating class of Earle High School and the 2022, of which he was, he registered them to vote, that's how he won the election.

- He created his base, that's real organizing.

- And it's Frederick Douglass I think said that, you know, power concedes nothing without a demand.

- That's right.

- Never has and never will.

And so even when you look, you know, historically and generationally we have to make our own seat at the table and we have to power through.

I think oftentimes we can rest on our laurels, but I think this generation is very different.

They see opportunities, they seize opportunities and they have more connections because of social media to be able to act on what it is that they believe.

- And see that, that's why I think it's so powerful that they have learned how to leverage these tools that maybe other generations don't fully embrace or understand, but they have leveraged them to great effect.

And I'm just interested, Brian, to hear your thoughts on if you feel like the tools that you are using today, that they have a place with younger people and do you feel like you are creating avenues of opportunity for younger folk to come up behind or with you?

- One of the great things about KC Tenants is that it's multi-generational and so like that gap that exists in a lot of other organizations doesn't really exist within KC Tenants, and so- - Tell, our viewers how to do that though.

If there is an organization who, or a leader of an organization or a board member of an organization here in Kansas City that is seeking to do what Mr. Brooks talked about and what you're describing now, bringing younger folk along, how do they do that?

How are you operationalizing that specific objective?

- You know, it's weird.

I kind of think the issue comes from younger people.

Not maybe having a full understanding of the kind of activism that the people who came before us engaged in for whatever reason.

Like, I remember like during like when Black Lives Matter first started, there was this whole thing about like, we are not our grandparents.

- Yeah.

- You know, that they were more comfortable with like taking that extra step than our grandparents may have.

And we can look at pictures and see our grandparents being hosed- - They were no joke.

- Beaten and whatnot too.

- Yeah, that's right.

- And so that kind of thinking kind of leads to a generational gap because one, younger people don't feel like older people did enough, and then the older people don't feel like they're respected for the work that they did.

And so making an organization multi-generational, it bridges that gap because the older people can learn how we organize and how effective it is for us.

And then we can take those lessons from them and use them when we go on the field.

'Cause the internet can only go so far.

Eventually you gotta stay out and talk to people.

And so we get that knowledge from the people who didn't have the internet.

And so the only way for us to be good leaders, and good organizers is to listen to the people who did it before us, but then also, you know, kind of make it our own too.

- Well- - The tragedy is that I believe that young people today really don't know those folks have come before them, that allows them to do the things that they do.

That really, and you, this is, you hear this all the time that standing on the shoulder, but it's true.

They do not realize what we went through to get, to allow them to be in social media and to curse us out and be disrespectful and go and play the shit and go.

That what we did laid the groundwork for that.

Now we were hoping and praying that it wouldn't turn out this way because there were some of us who kind of predicted based on the change of the time and then of course integration really didn't do us what it should have done.

Other folk benefited from that more than we did.

Because one thing that we did during my day is we learned about who we were.

And then when this next generation came through, it was barely touched upon.

And now we've got the whole thing, the CRT and all that- - I was just gonna say, look at Florida, I mean, you've got a governor who is saying that they don't even want African American studies taught or anything that might make, you know, white children shed a tear or something.

- So if you don't know your history and then you don't know where you are, from where you've come or where you are, where you're going, and I think it would, it would benefit the younger generation, the now generation, if you wanna say that to take a look at what did, this is African American History Month, Carnegie Wilson in 1926.

What did all that mean with Negro History Week?

- Right?

- How do we get from that in 1970, the establishment of Black History Month or Negro history, or African American History month.

None of these folks that you were talking about know anything about going in the back of the bus or the back of the train, to make you all rounded, to make you better socially, politically, economically savvy with some spirituality to put in there.

You oughta know something about that.

- What is your message, Ms. Charity to either those who are seeking to engage younger people more in that process of passing the baton or the message perhaps to those who are younger and seeking an opportunity.

- I had a drug problem.

My mother drug me to everything, okay.

She drug me to all your meetings, and at 12 years old, and that's when I started coming.

I know you think that I'm, you and I are the same age.

But, setting that example for me and what Mother did for me to make sure that we were engaged and when we were downtown marching with our signs at 12 and 13 years old, you know, and following the organizations that we're trying to integrate, Macy's and all those kinds of places, it was because I kept following you and then I also bring my son along and he tells everybody, oh my mom, I've got a drug problem.

You know, she drug me everywhere in the church and the, you know, this thing and that.

What mother was doing in her planting that seed in me was saying, this is what we've gotta do.

This is what we've gotta do.

I can tell Brian, I can tell all the youngers in KC Tenets and everywhere at Cristo Rey and everywhere else I am, hey man, we depend on you because this is what we've got to do.

- If you see a young person in your community that's looking for that opportunity, or if you see that spark in them that Mr. Brooks saw in you and in Jermaine, invest in them, give them that opportunity.

I could go on with this conversation and this topic and with these guests for a very long time, but then we wouldn't be able to pay the bills.

So that's where we wrap up today's conversation for this episode of "Flatland in Focus."

And you've been hearing from Mr. Alvin Brooks, A.K.A Mr. Kansas City, Missouri.

Kansas City, Missouri Councilwoman Melissa Robinson, Diane Charity, and Brian Hullaby with KC Tenants.

And thank you for your leadership there.

You can find additional interviews with Kansas City leaders and the folks they inspire at flatlandshow.org.

And please join us on Instagram @flatland-_kc for the Flatland Follow Up.

It's an open discussion where we invite anyone to come and talk more about our monthly topic.

This has been "Flatland in Focus."

I'm D. Rashaan Gilmore.

And as always, thank you for the pleasure of your time.

- [Announcer] "Flatland in Focus" is brought to you in part through the generous support of AARP, the Health Forward Foundation and RSM.