Repatriation Beyond the Borderlands: The Impact of the Depression of 1921 on Kansas City's Mexican Immigrants During the Great Depression

Submitted to the Department of History of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for departmental honors.During the Great Depression, federal, state, and local authorities throughout the United States utilized large-scale deportation raids and repatriation to eject an estimated 400,000 Mexicans and Mexican-Americans from the country. While previous studies of Mexican repatriation during the Great Depression focus on larger communities near the U.S.-Mexico border, there are very few academic discussions of what repatriation looked like in the Midwest and beyond. The Kansas City metropolitan area contains one of the largest communities of Mexican immigrants in the United States outside of the borderlands. Unlike in Los Angeles, San Antonio, or even Chicago, authorities in Kansas City used large-scale Mexican repatriation in Kansas City prior to the Great Depression, and ultimately learned that repatriation is a temporary solution to a perennial issue. This senior thesis analyzes how Kansas City authorities used repatriation during the Depression of 1921, the ineffectiveness of repatriation in slowing the growth of the Kansas City barrio, and the community-building that took place between 1921 and 1929 that proved crucial to the staying power of Mexicans in Kansas City through the Great Depression

“WE’RE BEING LEFT TO BLIGHT”: GREEN URBAN DEVELOPMENT AND RACIALIZED SPACE IN KANSAS CITY

In this dissertation, I explore ‘green’ urban development and urban agriculture projects from the perspective of residents of an African American majority neighborhood in Kansas City—who reside in an area referred to as a ‘blighted food desert’ by local policy makers. In Kansas City, extensive city government support exists for urban agricultural projects, which are touted not just as a solution to poverty associated issues such food insecurity and obesity, but also as a remedy for ‘blight,’ violence and crime, and vacant urban land. Specific narratives of Kansas City’s past are used to prop up and legitimate these future visions for, and development projects in, the city. This dissertation lays out an argument for how, in Kansas City, the dominant narrative surrounding urban sustainability, agriculture, and history came to be constructed and informed by white voices, and documents how these narratives, primarily constructed by upper-middle class white local ‘foodies’, are harnessed to support green development projects that marginalize and displace people of color and the poor. Specifically, I draw on 26 months of ethnographic fieldwork to explore how this narrative was constructed and elevated in local policy circles, document the lived consequences of this whitened narrative from the perspective of residents of “food deserts,” and describe historical and current minority-led agricultural projects—which aren’t included in dominant accountings of Kansas City’s development. I also explore agentive actions of racialized groups in opposition to this dominant whitened discourse, documenting how one neighborhood council in Kansas City strategically utilizes urban food project funding to acquire other, more urgently needed, community resources. I bring light to important acts of resistance by some black and brown urban farmers, who explicitly work to shape city space by reinscribing spatialized histories of displacement and racism in Kansas City. In this project I understand racialization and representation as active, not passive, processes, that have the power to determine whose voices are heard, and who has power to shape city space and its use. By untangling the racialized construction of history and space, and drawing on narratives shared by oft-silenced groups, this dissertation project contributes to scholarly work committed to disrupting hegemonic spatialized whiteness (McKittrick 2011)

Weird Bodily Noises: Improvising Race, Gender, and Jazz History

This dissertation explores avant-garde jazz in Kansas City in the late 20th and early 21st centuries to find out how they both reproduce and complicate narratives of jazz history and norms of race and gender. Working in a city associated with an historical subgenre--"Kansas City Jazz"--and in a style whose histories limit avant-garde activity largely to New York City, these musicians pay respect to that history even while their performances complicate it. As practices of improvisation that use music, dance, costumes, and visual art, their performances highlight the embodied aspects of identity--the ways that bodies move with and against norms of race and gender and through space. My dissertation thus seeks to show how local, avant-garde, improvised performances can speak about power relations on a broader scale. The title of my dissertation indicates three primary questions for this study: How do experimental performances that seem "weird" both challenge and reproduce normative ways of thinking about race, gender, and power? In what ways are bodies constrained aesthetically, socially, and historically, and how do they improvise within those constraints? How do avant-garde performances complicate the dominant history of jazz, making it "noisy"? This interdisciplinary study relies on several methodologies, including ethnographic interviews and participant-observation, oral history, and archival research. Chapter One establishes historical precedent for avant-garde jazz in Kansas City by examining performances and performers in the 1960's, showing how local musicians in the scene both complicated and reproduced dominant historical narratives about one of the "cradles of jazz." Chapter Two analyzes several recent performances in Kansas City that use humor and the bodily noise of laughter to point out and critique social inequities while also reproducing social hierarchies. Chapter Three explores the complex questions of appropriation, cultural borrowing, and influence that arise when three white musicians in Kansas City cross imaginary racial lines to perform avant-garde music. Chapter Four looks closely at several performers associated with musician Mark Southerland, whose "wearable horn sculptures" highlight the role of the body in improvisation while they both reinforce and complicate normative gender roles

Ensemble and otherness: The jazz musician in Robert Altman’s Kansas City (1996)

This article examines the representation of the jazz musician in Robert Altman’s 1996 crime drama Kansas City. The film features contemporary musicians playing the roles of notable jazz musicians of the 1930s – including Coleman Hawkins, Mary Lou Williams and Ben Webster – and it places the Kansas City jazz scene at the center of the film’s narrative.In form similar to the cutting contest that lies at the heart of the film’s story, this article offers two differing perspectives on the role of the jazz musician in Kansas City. One perspective suggests that, in the film, jazz makes it possible for people to work collectively, while the other suggests that jazz serves as a marker of otherness and diffe-rence. These themes are examined in relation to the political power of jazz, and the article examines how these are articulated through the music that plays throughout film. The film’s uncompromising engagement with issues of race and representation weaves through the narrative’s fugue-like structure with diegetic and non-diegetic jazz music. At the film’s core is the representation of the figure of the jazz musician and the world they inhabit at the epicenter of the jazz world, Kansas City in the 1930s

The Federal Theatre Project, Kansas City, Missouri, 1936

The Federal Theatre Project (FTP), a sub-program of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), created in 1935, included large and small cities all over the United States. In 1936, from January 8 to October 15, the little-known Kansas City unit employed thirty-one workers, six women and twenty-five men, of whom twenty-seven were on relief. Positions included two supervisory, twenty professional and technical, four skilled, five intermediate, and two unskilled. Four workers were returned to private employment. Contrary to The Federal Theatre Project: Catalog-Calendar of Productions, that lists five productions, evidence from Kansas City FTP reports indicates that the unit only produced and toured Ladies of the Jury for seventy-two performances and Whistling in the Dark for thirteen performances for a total of eighty-five performances. The unit may have rehearsed but never actually performed The Mayor and the Manicure, The Royal Family, and It Can't Happen Here; and St. Louis Vaudeville, from its FTP unit, may not have performed in Kansas City. In sum, forty-five performances were offered in urban areas with an attendance of 21,705, thirty-five performances were offered to rural areas with an attendance of 40, 515, and four performances were staged in institutions with an attendance of 600 for a total attendance of 62,190. The project expenses totaled $25,139.91, with$18,947.29 used toward Project 1261 and $6,192.62 for Project 2407. Although the unit was well-received, the Kansas City unit faced organizational power struggles between WPA State Director, Matthew Murray, who had been hand-picked by Kansas City's "big boss," Tom Pendergast, and State Director for Women's and Professional Projects, Anita Hynes. These state and local factors proved to be too much for the small unit and led to the demise of the Kansas City FTP ten months after its inauguration

Monitoring and Control of Electric Power Usage

At the Armco Kansas City Works the consumption of Electrical Power is monitored and controlled by a General Purpose Computer located in the Electric Furnace Dept. This computer monitors the power used in the entire plant through the power metering system. The computer can limit the\u27 power to the electric arc melting furnaces and in this manner control the demand level during peak hours. The computer can also detect meter failures. The computer system collects data which enables management to detect and analyze variations in electrical power consumption

Internal combustion engines

Every one is either directly or indirectly concerned with two types of power plants. The steam power plants of Kansas City furnish us with light, power, and transportation. In this day these are indispensable. The gas, or internal combustion engine power plant furnishes transportation, mainly and some power. Each of our big buses has an internal combustion engine power plant under the hood. It will be our aim here to show how the internal combustion engines operates and discuss some of the types in use in automobiles and stationary power plants. When one contemplates the immense amount of power developed by the internal combustion engine in this country and how important power is in our daily life, the subject becomes extremely interesting --Principles of Operation, Article I

The feasibility of a randomised controlled trial to compare the cost-effectiveness of palliative cardiology or usual care in people with advanced heart failure: Two exploratory prospective cohorts

© 2018, © The Author(s) 2018. Background: The effectiveness of cardiology-led palliative care is unknown; we have insufficient information to conduct a full trial. Aim: To assess the feasibility (recruitment/retention, data quality, variability/sample size estimation, safety) of a clinical trial of palliative cardiology effectiveness. Design: Non-randomised feasibility. Setting/participants: Unmatched symptomatic heart failure patients on optimal cardiac treatment from (1) cardiology-led palliative service (caring together group) and (2) heart failure liaison service (usual care group). Outcomes/safety: Symptoms (Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale), Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire, performance, understanding of disease, anticipatory care planning, cost-effectiveness, survival and carer burden. Results: A total of 77 participants (caring together group = 43; usual care group = 34) were enrolled (53% men; mean age 77 years (33–100)). The caring together group scored worse in Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale (43.5 vs 35.2) and Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (35.4 vs 39.9). The caring together group had a lower consent/screen ratio (1:1.7 vs 1: 2.8) and few died before approach (0.08% vs 16%) or declined invitation (17% vs 37%). Data quality: At 4 months, 74% in the caring together group and 71% in the usual care group provided data. Most attrition was due to death or deterioration. Data quality in self-report measures was otherwise good. Safety: There was no difference in survival. Symptoms and quality of life improved in both groups. A future trial requires 141 (202 allowing 30% attrition) to detect a minimal clinical difference (1 point) in Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale score for breathlessness (80% power). More participants (176; 252 allowing 30% attrition) are needed to detect a 10.5 change in Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire score (80% power; minimum clinical difference = 5). Conclusion: A trial to test the clinical effectiveness (improvement in breathlessness) of cardiology-led palliative care is feasible

Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle On-Road Emissions Characterization and Demonstration Study

On-road emissions and operating data were collected from a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) over the course of 6months spanning August 2007 through January 2008 providing the first comprehensive on-road evaluation of the PHEV drivetrain technology. Brought to the Kansas City Area Transit Authority as part of its proof-of-concept testing, the Daimler/Chrysler PHEV was built around the Sprinter chassis and equipped with a diesel combustion engine. Using portable emissions monitoring capabilities coupled with the PHEV's proprietary data-logging-module, the University of Kansas evaluated the PHEV Sprinter's on-road behavior according to different facility types, vocations, as well as investigating the PHEV's ability to fit current vehicle specific power modal models. Even with frequent periods of electric-only, zero emissions driving, the PHEV's on-road data met the statistical criteria necessary to fit the VSP modal model. Facility or roadway type played a large role on the PHEV's emissions and operation with roadway velocity dictating the PHEV's overarching control scheme and respective use of electric versus diesel power. While the PHEV Sprinter experienced increased electric-only driving during periods with elevated battery state of charge (greater than 37%), the Kansas City-based PHEV did not achieve its anticipated electric-only range of 20miles during charge-depleting mode. The PHEV's electric-only potential resulted in increased fuel efficiency and decreased CO2 and NOx emissions, however the transient functioning of the diesel engine during periods of frequent electric motor cycling produced high CO and hydrocarbon emissions. The PHEV was designed to optimize its plug-in potential during urban travel where slow, stop-and-go driving gained the most benefit from its electric drive capabilities. Consequently, these scenarios also promoted transient diesel engine operation and resulted in the highest CO and hydrocarbon loads of all roadways traveled

The Turtle\u27s Beating Heart

“Grandchildren meet their grandparents at the end,” Denise Low says, “as tragic figures. We remember their decline and deaths. . . . The story we see as grandchildren is like a garden covered by snow, just outlines visible.”Low brings to light deeply held secrets of Native ancestry as she recovers the life story of her Kansas grandfather, Frank Bruner (1889–1963). She remembers her childhood in Kansas, where her grandparents remained at a distance, personally and physically, from their grandchildren, despite living only a few miles away. As an adult, she comes to understand her grandfather’s Delaware (Lenape) legacy of persecution and heroic survival in the southern plains of the early 1900s, where the Ku Klux Klan attacked Native people along with other ethnic minorities. As a result of such experiences, the Bruner family fled to Kansas City and suppressed their non-European ancestry as completely as possible. As Low unravels this hidden family history of the Lenape diaspora, she discovers the lasting impact of trauma and substance abuse, the deep sense of loss and shame related to suppressed family emotions, and the power of collective memory.Low traveled extensively around Kansas, tracking family history until she understood her grandfather’s political activism and his healing heritage of connections to the land. In this moving exploration of her grandfather’s life, the former poet laureate of Kansas evokes the beauty of the Flint Hills grasslands, the hardships her grandfather endured, and the continued discovery of his teachings