Sherrita Jackson was a bus driver for 21 years before she got fed up with abuse from passengers and switched careers in 2021. At the time, a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, passengers were required to wear masks. A passenger not wearing a mask boarded Jackson’s bus and refused to comply with the mandate. “He […]
Mili Mansaray
Mili Mansaray is The Beacon’s former housing and labor reporter and began covering the beat in 2022. She’s documented the concentration of housing ownership by corporate interests and explored challenges to Kansas City’s homeless shelter capacity. She received training through the Solutions Journalism Network’s labor cohort. She has a bachelor’s degree in digital journalism and Africana studies from New York University. She also studied abroad in Argentina. She was a business reporting intern for the Dow Jones News Fund. She was an audio intern for The Urban Scene with Don Frierson on WGCV 105.1 in Columbia, South Carolina. She has lived in Kansas City since 2022.
Posted inHousing
Young and unhoused LGBTQ+ people face barriers in faith-based shelters
Twelve years ago, Scout DeSimio was living out of her car. For 10 months, she would nap during the day while parked at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. At night, she drove around for hours with nowhere to go. DeSimio had recently graduated from college and left El Dorado Springs, Missouri, her hometown, to seek […]
Posted inCivic Engagement
Stay safe and celebrate: Tips for KC Pride and LGBTQ+ living
When Lea Hopkins organized Kansas City’s first Pride parade in 1977, the threat of being exposed as LGBTQ+ kept many people from marching with her. “You could lose your job or get taken out of your apartment,” Hopkins said. Only about 20 people participated, she said, because the stigma around queer identity was so strong. […]
Posted inCivic Engagement
11 ways to celebrate Juneteenth 2023 in Kansas City
As people gather this month for programs and other events celebrating the end of slavery in the United States, they are celebrating more than Black resilience. By invoking conversation, they’re also helping to bridge the gap between Black communities and other communities in Kansas City, said Makeda Peterson, the program director for JuneteenthKC, a nonprofit […]
Posted inHousing
Resource List: Affordable housing for Kansas Citians with disabilities
Kansas City lacks affordable housing options for its residents, and the problem is even worse for people with disabilities. As part of its Zero KC plan to end houselessness in five years, the city needs 17,303 extremely affordable units to accommodate low-income renters. The need for affordable accessible housing for people with disabilities exists despite […]
Posted inHousing
A new solution will address Kansas City’s lack of disability-accessible housing
The Center for Developmentally Disabled is building four-bedroom family houses across Kansas City that are designed to help people with disabilities live with greater independence. The new homes will include automatic doors. The ceilings will be outfitted with lift and track systems to make it easier for a caretaker to get someone with limited mobility […]
Posted inLocal Government
Trans women of color and the KCPD’s rocky, violent history
Four years ago, a viral video showed two Kansas City police officers slamming a Black transgender woman, Brianna BB Hill, onto the sidewalk, kneeling on her in the face, torso and ribs and forcing her cuffed hands above her head. In the time since, the officers pleaded guilty to third-degree assault. And Hill was shot […]
Posted inCivic Engagement
Kansas Citians say the shooting of Ralph Yarl changed them. Here are some voices
More than two weeks ago, 16-year-old Ralph Yarl rapped on the door of a home in Kansas City’s Northland and was shot twice by a man inside. The bullets knocked the Black teenager to the ground and left him with traumatic injuries. And they dealt a blow to the psyche of community members and institutions in and around Kansas City.
“It rocks us,” said Shelton Ponder, a 79-year-old Black man who is a U.S. Air Force veteran and member of the Liberty, Missouri, City Council. “This is going to happen again. We never know where, when or how. And we don’t recover. It stays with us.”
Posted inEconomics
Do major sporting events like the NFL Draft actually increase sex trafficking? The answer is complicated.
Amid the excitement over Kansas City hosting the 2023 NFL Draft and the sizable economic bump that could accompany the three days of festivities, a few people are concerned about an uptick in an unwanted money-making enterprise — the selling of sexual services. “Anytime you get a large sporting event, the World Series, the Super […]
Posted inLocal Government
Why Jackson County prosecutors won’t initially look at race when deciding whether to file cases
In part because of community concerns surrounding missing Black women in Kansas City, the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office has announced it will mask the race of both suspects and victims on documents that prosecutors review to decide whether to file charges. “Bias occurs everywhere. It doesn’t go just in one direction,” county Prosecutor Jean Peters […]