University of Missouri President Mun Choi has framed homelessness as a public safety issue following a local student’s killing. But crime data shows no link between homelessness and violent crime. Advocates say that rhetoric has fueled harassment of Columbia’s unhoused community.

What began as a federal RICO lawsuit has become one of Kansas City’s most explosive legal sagas. Now, Holy Brunch’s owner is blaming Black media for his closure and screenshotting a Black woman reporter in an expletive-laden Facebook diatribe. But court transcripts expose what he knew all along.

The newly appointed president of the National Organization of Minority Architects, Bryan C. Lee Jr., sits down with The KC Defender’s Executive Editor Ryan Sorrell to discuss why, in an age of fascism, building a blueprint for liberation means reclaiming the spaces where Black life can flourish

Federal judge allows civil rights conspiracy case to expand after a local Black entrepreneur’s motion sufficiently alleged evidence of “common discriminatory purpose” to exclude Black business owners from Kansas City’s historic entertainment district. At the center: allegations of a weaponized “Good Neighbor Agreement,” brazen threats captured on tape, and a music ban targeting chart-topping Black artists.

This 7,000-square-foot space on Agnes Ave. offers artists, podcasters, and entrepreneurs the access, equipment, and support they’ve long been missing.