Education Archives – The Kansas City Defender

Mizzou Protected a Student Who Joked About Killing Black People. Then It Defunded the Only Black Student Government in America.

By Ryan S. ● Education ● April 7, 2026

On Monday night, students packed every seat in the Schlundt Hall auditorium and lined the walls. More than a thousand watched on a livestream. They’ve toppled a Mizzou president before. They can do it again.

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The Defender’s Abolitionist Freedom School Is Back — Cohort 3 Applications Now Open

By KC Defender Staff ● Defender People's Programs ● February 10, 2026

The Defender’s Abolitionist Freedom School is accepting applications for Cohort 3. The 14-week organizer, activist & Black study training program for Black people across Missouri and Kansas launches this spring. Applications close February 21st.

Fear Over Facts: Mizzou’s President Puts Columbia’s Unhoused Residents at the Center of a Public Safety Debate

By Kayla Sydnor ● Campus Life ● December 19, 2025

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.

Lloyd Gaines vs. Missouri: When an Entire State Tried to Break One Black Man

By Kayla Sydnor ● Education ● October 31, 2025

A lynching? A self-imposed exile? A bribe? What really happened to Lloyd Gaines, the law school applicant who put Missouri’s racist education system on trial and eventually went missing?

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.

The One Big Ugly Mess: How Trump’s Budget Cut Bill Will Affect Black Students in Missouri

By Kayla Sydnor ● Education ● September 8, 2025

Federal budget cuts and rising education costs are colliding across Missouri’s public universities. And for Black students, especially those who are low-income, first-generation, or disabled, the consequences are disproportionately devastating.

TONIGHT: Kansas City Hosts Howard W. French and Baba Mickey Dean in Historic Conversation on Nkrumah, and the High Tide of Global Blackness

By Ryan S. ● World ● August 21, 2025

Legendary Black author Howard W. French joins National Black United Front KC’s Baba Mickey Dean for The Second Emancipation talk on Nkrumah and Pan-African power. Aug 21, Plaza Branch.

BLK + BRWN Bookstore Celebrates 4 Years with Juneteenth Block Party

By Lynnie Holl ● Arts & Culture ● June 25, 2025

Local bookstore BLK + BRWN hosted their annual Juneteenth Block Party to commemorate the bookstore turning four years old.

Kansas City Public Schools Is Hiring A School Spy to Investigate Students

By Ryan S. ● Justice ● June 20, 2025

Imagine dropping your child off for school, only to find out a former cop was paid by the district to watch them — from your front lawn, from the corner store, from the bus stop. Parents call KCPS’ newest job listing a dangerous escalation of school-based policing, especially in an era of ICE raids and state violence against immigrant families.

From Freedom Schools to Fascist Bans: Missouri-Kansas Educators Fight Back

By Ryan S. ● Justice ● June 5, 2025

As fascist lawmakers in Kansas and Missouri escalate their war on truth — banning books, censoring history, and silencing teachers — educators and freedom-fighters are gathering in Kansas City for a mass Teach Truth Day of Action.