Editorial Archives – The Kansas City Defender

We Write to Wage War: The Radical Black Press As A Liberatory Technology

By Ryan S. ● Editorial ● March 16, 2026

For 199 years, the radical Black press has been the infrastructure beneath every major turning point in Black American life. In an era of AI and social technologies, what is the role of the revolutionary Black Press today?

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Mili Mansaray, Senior Editor at The Kansas City Defender

Journalism for Us, by Us: The Defender’s Call to Kansas City’s Black Community

By Mili Mansaray ● Editorial ● March 13, 2026

The Kansas City Defender is inviting readers to participate in our 2026 Reader Survey, helping shape our reporting and community programming for the year ahead. Senior Editor Mili Mansaray shares why community feedback matters to the future of our work.

CoreCivic Kills People. Leavenworth Is Voting on Whether to Let Them Do It Here.

By Chris Lopez ● Editorial ● March 10, 2026

Leavenworth was founded by pro-slavery settlers and became the epicenter of Bleeding Kansas. That same city votes today on whether to resurrect a CoreCivic detention facility — a company that has already killed people in its custody — and open a 1,000-bed ICE camp to kidnap, cage, and disappear immigrants from our region. The shackles have always looked different here. This morning, Leavenworth decides what they look like in 2026.

Damning Transcript Exposes Truth Behind Holy Brunch Closure

By Ryan S. ● Editorial ● December 11, 2025

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.

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

Corporate Media Dismisses Jayvon Givan Case as “Rumors”—Despite Outraged Family Demanding Answers, Hastily Cremated Body & Concealed Evidence

By Ryan S. ● Justice ● October 7, 2025

As The Kansas City Defender published deeply investigative reporting on Jayvon Givan’s suspicious public hanging, white-owned corporate media immediately parroted police talking points from a man so notorious that a city ordinance was passed because of him.

Mizzou Targets Black Students With Racist Censorship on 10-Year Anniversary of Uprising

By Kayla Sydnor ● Education ● September 24, 2025

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Concerned Student 1950 protests that rocked the campus and country, but the patterns from back then seem to be on repeat for Black students in present day.

Collage of Keke Palmer, Halle Bailey, Cassie Ventura, and Megan Thee Stallion.

Behind the Glitz and Glamour: Black Women and Abuse

By Kayla Sydnor ● Editorial ● July 3, 2025

On July 2, Sean “Diddy” Combs was acquitted of racketeering and sex trafficking charges. Despite overwhelming evidence against Diddy, the outcome is yet another example of how our justice system, and our culture at large, continue to fail Black women.

Why Black Capitalism Won’t Save Us

By Tiffany Watts ● Black Economic Justice ● June 20, 2025

In a system built on our exploitation, profit will never equal liberation.

Kansas City Lights the Fuse: 1,000-Plus Flood the Streets, Demand KC Shut Down ICE, and Declare a Hot Summer

By Ryan S. ● Editorial ● June 11, 2025

With scarcely a day’s notice, two separate marches smashed together downtown, blooming into a thousand-strong, multiracial roar that blasted Nipsey Hussle’s “F*** Donald Trump” and vowed to keep the heat on ICE—and every system that props it up—all summer long.