Solidarity Archives – The Kansas City Defender

NUCLEAR GUINEA PIGS: How a Small Kansas Town Became the Site of a Nuclear Experiment to Power AI

By Ryan S. ● Investigation ● September 9, 2026

Artificial intelligence needs more power than America will give it, so the industry went looking for ground where nobody gets a vote. In Parsons, Kansas, where one in five residents lives in poverty, that means the first nuclear reactor in history designed to operate underground, drilled through the aquifer, on land where the Army still detonates waste explosives under federal permit.

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Feeding and Clothing Black Students: KC Defender Free Clothing Program Returns in Time for School

By KC Defender Staff ● Mutual Aid & Community Programs ● July 16, 2026

Through our People’s Programs, we have distributed thousands of free items to Black families across Kansas City. This Saturday’s People’s Drop Off gathers clothing and hygiene essentials so our children walk into the classroom whole.

“Suspend Me If You Want”: Lincoln Prep Middle School Threatens Kids With Suspension…They Still Organize Anti-ice Protest Anyways

By Ryan S. ● Justice ● February 18, 2026

Threatened with suspension, these middle schoolers refused to back down and joined the growing MO/KS student movement to denounce ICE and the proposed ICE concentration camps planned to be built in Kansas City

A Brilliant Boy, a Garbage Dump, and the $415 Standing Between Him and Medical School

By Jon Jeter ● World ● February 2, 2026

This story marks the first installment in “The Plunder Papers,” an ongoing investigative series by two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Jon Jeter examining why Africans continue to live in grinding poverty seven decades after the alleged close of the colonial era.

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.

The Empire Trembles: What L.A.’s Uprising Means for Kansas City’s Future

By Ryan S. ● Editorial ● June 9, 2025

Marines, National Guard soldiers, ICE raids and disinformation blitzes. Why the battle for L.A. is a fight for Kansas City’s future… and yes Black people too.

There is No Collective Liberation Without Black & Brown Unity

By 𝔍ulián 𝔊arcía ● Solidarity ● December 12, 2024

Politics won’t save us. The system is designed to keep us oppressed, divided, and controlled. To break free, we must reject the lies that pit us against each other and come together in radical solidarity.