Land of Opportunity

During the Great Depression, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed into law a series of programs called the New Deal intended to rebuild the nation. Some of those programs encouraged discriminatory housing policies such as redlining, resulting in dilapidation of 85% of Kansas City’s black neighborhoods.
Well-to-do black families set their sights on the prestigious Santa Fe Place neighborhood, located just south of the black East Side. Established by rich white elites, the neighborhood association filed a racially restrictive covenant, intended to bar black families from moving into the area for 30 years.
A black physician named Dr. Dennis Madison Miller, among others, took the neighborhood association to the Missouri Supreme Court four times in their attempt to move into the neighborhood. After the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case, Shelley vs. Kraemer, ruling racially restrictive covenants to be unconstitutional, black families moved into Santa Fe Place four times faster than any other neighborhood where they could purchase property.
Land of Opportunity is the story of integration in the Santa Fe Place neighborhood as one example in the fight for housing rights across America following the Great Depression.

[@ianmunro3536]

Very well done! Everyone in KC should see this.

[@NicoGiles]

Thank you Ian!

[@theaustinnull]

This was so great! Thanks for telling this important story!

[@NicoGiles]

Thanks so much, Austin! We really appreciate your support!

[@kelunade]

Thank you for telling this history. So many people in KC don't know about the racist, discriminatory policies that shaped our city. My own home is in an HOA that has these racist restrictions on "negroes" living in them. I may well be the first African American person to live here. The impact of these restrictions don't solely exist in the past. They are still harming residents to this day.

[@davidharrington3798]

Thank you for a VERY well done report !

[@NicoGiles]

Thanks so much for the support, David!

[@kevinwhite1772]

Outstanding work Nicholas.

[@davidharrington3798]

Thanks for posting !(All the way from Morroco!)

[@NicoGiles]

We really appreciate your support, Kevin!

[@murraywoodard2633]

My guy! You did an amazing job on this project!

[@NicoGiles]

Thank so much for your support, Murray!

[@Jaibbyy]

This was very informative to watch. I enjoyed learning something new after watching this video.

[@iivoodoovixen6710]

This was very awesome to hear! You did an excellent job! I feel like everybody who lives in Kansas should watch this so they can learn more about it too!

[@hailycannon1183]

I like how you used full detail to explain and you sounded passionate about this topic.

[@ally_lab]

Fantastic job, Nico. You told the story of racially restrictive covenants in KC (and America) in a really clear compelling way. I loved the way you weaved residents' voices together to tell the story. Really great.

[@NicoGiles]

Thanks so much for the support, Mark! Hope you're doing really well!

[@javontaesloan2643]

Quite interesting and educating video because I never knew country club plaza, ward parkway, and brookside had a history such as that.

[@caseybeckley4142]

This took my breath away on more than one occasion. NEVER taught of these discriminatory practice. The gentleman Reverend Wallace Hartsfield is an inspiration and his words were so forgiving of the decades of discrimination he has endured. To be that full of love for his fellow man...truly how we should all aspire to be. Wonderfully crafted, so happy I clicked play.

[@raheim21]

Great modern documentary in explaining the old times that show us how we are here today. Excellent!

[@latresasaunders1589]

I didn't know that there were streets that divided the races and I didn't know that prospect was included in one of those areas.

[@kcdrew69]

So important. Thank you, KCPT. Now could you please have a HIspanic on both of your weekly news programs every week? "Ruckus" and "Week in Review"? Would you acknowledge them now? Please? Every week? A white woman, a white man, sure. But then an African-American and a Hispanic. They're out here, you know.

[@brainroot]

So proud to have been a small part of this important project. Thank you, Nico!

[@NicoGiles]

You're team was a big part! Thank you for your contributions to the project! Pt 2 & 3 on the way!

[@sesus6]

Disgusting. Shame on you. You live the best place of the world.

[@davidharrington3798]

Obviously, you have never been to Kansas City...in Missouri- a "slave state" until after the War of the Rebellion...