Abolition Archives – The Kansas City Defender

Abolitionist Architecture: How Black Designers Are Building a Liberatory Future

By Ryan S. ● Arts & Culture ● December 2, 2025

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

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FOOD IS FREEDOM: Hamer Program & Black KC Farmers Continue Free Food Deliveries as SNAP Cuts Loom

By Ryan S. ● Agriculture ● October 29, 2025

The evening the food boxes arrived, a Black neighbor wept.

Wyandotte County Jail Cops Brutally Execute Black Man Then Engage in Coverup

By Ryan S. ● Justice ● September 15, 2025

Charles L. Adair, a 50-year-old Black man, was arrested on traffic warrants and brutally killed less than 24 hours later inside the Wyandotte County jail. An autopsy shows jail cops violently knelt on his back, breaking bones and suffocating him. Officials lied to the public, covering up his brutal killing with a fraudulent press release that blames Adair’s death on him being an alcoholic.

From Quindaro to B-REAL: KC’s Long War for Liberation in a Second Trump Era

By DJ ● Abolition ● May 22, 2025

Excavating Kansas City’s layered history of racial violence—and the insurgent tactics our ancestors deployed—reminds us we’ve survived this storm before and we’ll outlast it again. Professor DJ shows how Black Study itself is a frontline of struggle, and a live, breathing tradition in the City of Fountains.

We Lost the Vote. But We Will Win the World.

By Ryan S. ● Abolition ● April 9, 2025

This essay from The Defender’s Executive Editor mourns the passage of the human caging facility tax while offering a radical, abolitionist vision of what comes next. Drawing from the Black prophetic tradition, it exposes the jail as a parasite — and imagines a future we are already building.

A Slave-Era Jail in 2025? The KC Star Said Yes. We Say Hell No.

By Ryan S. ● Justice ● April 4, 2025

The Kansas City Star endorsed an $800 million jail project with no guaranteed mental health services, no data, and no plan—just more cages. We respond with facts, history, and the clear alternative

B-REAL Academy Launches: A Radical Space for Black Study and Abolitionist Education

By KC Defender Staff ● Abolition ● February 25, 2025

The Defender’s inaugural Freedom School cohort brings together multiple generations of Black radicals, equipping them with organizing skills, Black radical history, and the tools to resist oppression.

INVESTIGATION: How Missouri Handed Prison Healthcare to a Corporation with a History of Violent Neglect & Death

By James Anderson ● Abolition ● February 10, 2025

They chain sick prisoners to benches for hours without treatment. They ignore pleas for help until it’s too late. They watch as people die. This investigation exposes how Centurion Health transforms its $1.4 billion Missouri prison healthcare contract into a machine of medical violence, leading to deaths, lawsuits, and countless untold stories of suffering behind bars.

St. Louis Police Authoritarian AI Program Leads to Innocent Black Man Caged for 17 Months

By Ryan S. ● Technology ● February 8, 2025

How St. Louis police are using AI facial recognition technology to extend America’s legacy of anti-Black surveillance and control.

Members of Decarcerate KC are standing on steps and holding signs

Decarcerate KC to Launch Citywide Campaign Against New Human Caging Facility

By Mili Mansaray ● Abolition ● January 30, 2025