KCK native leads effort to raise funds Aug. 17 for new roof on Quindaro museum

Producer Joe Macklin says he wants his son, Micah Macklin, to know the history of the Quindaro area of Kansas City, Kansas. That’s why he is leading an effort to raise funds for the Old Quindaro Museum at 3432 N. 29th St., Kansas City, Kansas. The museum needs a new roof. (Staff photo by Mary Rupert)
The Old Quindaro Museum, 3432 N. 29th St., Kansas City, Kansas, is raising funds for a new roof. (Staff photo)

by Mary Rupert

Joe Macklin recently toured the Old Quindaro Museum at 3432 N. 29th St., Kansas City, Kansas, and wondered why he hadn’t heard about local black history while he was growing up in Wyandotte County.

Macklin, a Grammy-nominated producer whose performing name is Jo Blaq, wants his young son and other youth to know the story of the early days of Quindaro, the people who figured in the town’s history and the legacy of the Underground Railroad here.

“We don’t know about our own history,” Macklin said. For his son and other young people, “I want them to know their history.”

A sign at the Old Quindaro Museum. Appointments are necessary to tour the museum at the current time. (Staff photo)

Quindaro, a pre-Civil War town on the Missouri River, was settled by Wyandot Indians, abolitionists, and African-Americans, and it’s important to learn about those who paved the way for today’s residents, he said.

A display at the Old Quindaro Museum details the Wyandot Nation and abolitionist history of the town. Anthony Hope, museum director, discussed the early history of the town. (Staff photo)

Quindaro was named after Quindaro Nancy Brown Guthrie, a member of the Wyandot Nation who married Abelard Guthrie, the founder of the town. Quindaro translates into “bundle of sticks,” which means “in unity there is strength.” In the past 50 years information has come to light about Quindaro’s role as a stop on the Underground Railroad.

One of the translations of Quindaro is “strength through unity.” (Staff photo)

When Macklin toured the museum, he said he learned a lot about local history.

“The thing that moved me most was some chains that slaves wore,” he said. “It made them hold their heads down. It moved me.”

Also, he said he was surprised to see a picture of one of his mentors, a captain in the Fire Department, in the museum.

A room in the Old Quindaro Museum is dedicated to black firefighters in Kansas City, Kansas. (Staff photo)

The Old Quindaro Museum currently needs a new roof in the worst way. In some areas, daylight can be seen through the roof. Inside the museum are artifacts and photos that tell the story of the early settlers of Quindaro, who included African-Americans, abolitionists and Wyandot Indians in the pre-Civil War era.

Producer Joe Macklin recently viewed places in the roof where work is needed. A fundraiser for a new roof will be held at 8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 17, at Harrah’s Casino, North Kansas City, Missouri. (Staff photo by Mary Rupert)

Macklin is producing a fundraiser show that will raise funds for the roof at 8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 17, at the Voo-Doo Lounge at Harrah’s Casino, North Kansas City, Missouri. The Old Quindaro Museum will receive part of the proceeds from the show.

They have raised about $1,000 to start, Macklin said, with a goal of reaching about $3,000.

Macklin was introduced to Anthony Hope, the museum’s director, by Kathy Hanis of EPlus, a public relations firm. Hanis believes the story of old Quindaro needs to be told, and that Joe Macklin was someone who could help tell it and help the museum survive.

Volunteers continue a labor of love

On the grounds of the Old Quindaro Museum. (Staff photo)

The Old Quindaro Museum, the only African-American museum in Wyandotte County, has been a labor of love for Anthony Hope and his late brother, Jesse Hope. Both have given a considerable amount of time to starting the museum and keeping it running.

In existence about 12 years, it was Jesse Hope’s dream, and Anthony Hope stepped up after his brother’s death to continue the museum. The Concerned Citizens for Old Quindaro, a not-for-profit, is the sponsor of the museum.

Anthony Hope pays the museum’s light bill out of his own pocket, which he says has been a strain at times. Still, he continues volunteering there, leading tours and mowing the lawn.

The city purchased the building for the museum, and after that, there has not been city funding, according to the volunteers.

The museum’s collection includes photos of early-day settlers of Quindaro and prominent residents of the area through the years.

A Western University wall is devoted to the history of the black college established in Quindaro in 1865 and continued through 1943.

Photos of Western University are displayed at the Old Quindaro Museum. (Staff photo)

Touring Old Quindaro

Anthony Hope and Corranzo Lewis give tours of the museum and the old Quindaro area by appointment, for a donation of $10.

The ruins of an old Quindaro brewery building are on a tour given by Anthony Hope. (Staff photo by Mary Rupert)
A spider’s web greeted visitors to the old brewery building. (Staff photo by Mary Rupert)

On the tour, visitors can see the museum, and then travel down Happy Hollow Road to view a partly ruined brewery building that was on the Underground Railroad.

Graves in the old Quindaro Cemetery date to the 1800s. (Staff photo by Mary Rupert)

Then they may visit the old Quindaro Cemetery, high on a hill, where there is a view of the Missouri River.

One of the oldest homes in the area is Quindaro Nancy Brown’s home. (Staff photo)
The Quindaro Overlook provides visitors with a way to see the port area of Quindaro near the Missouri River. (Staff photo)

Hope and Lewis also will tell visitors about the oldest home in the area, Quindaro Nancy Brown’s home, and visitors may go to the Quindaro Overlook to view the old port and the Missouri River.

Also on the Quindaro tour is the John Brown statue at 29th and Sewell. (Staff photo)

The John Brown statue at 29th and Sewell also is on the tour. Erected in 1911, it is the oldest statue known of John Brown.

More fundraiser details

Performers at the show on Aug. 17 at Harrah’s Casino in North Kansas City, Missouri, will include Jo Blaq, host and artist; NowDaze; Kevin Chuch Boii Johnson; Kemet The Phantom; Mae C; and Eddie Moore.

For more information about the Old Quindaro Museum and ticket information for the fundraiser, visit https://www.facebook.com/ccoqmuseum/ or call
816-820-3615.

To reach Mary Rupert, editor, email [email protected].

Prosecutors held in contempt over Leavenworth tapings, judge to hear prisoners’ appeals

by Chris Haxel, Kansas News Service

A federal judge is holding the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Kansas in contempt in connection with a burgeoning scandal involving recordings of confidential conversations between criminal defendants and their attorneys at a federal detention center in Leavenworth, Kansas.

More than 100 people charged with or convicted of federal crimes could have their cases dropped or prison sentences reduced based on their claims of prosecutorial misconduct and violations of the attorney-client privilege.

In a 188-page ruling issued Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson wrote that the U.S. Attorney’s Office disobeyed her previous orders to preserve documents and recordings as part of an investigation into the recordings.

“The elements necessary for a finding of contempt are clearly met,” Robinson concluded. “The (U.S. Attorney’s Office) had knowledge of the… orders yet disobeyed them.”

The detention center is run by CoreCivic (formerly Corrections Corporation of America), one of the country’s largest private prison companies. Defense attorneys and the Federal Public Defender’s Office have alleged CoreCivic made video and audio recordings — which they say should have been protected by the Sixth Amendment — available to federal prosecutors.

The federal government has tried to pin the blame on two “rogue” prosecutors, Robinson wrote. But she says there’s evidence the U.S. Attorney’s Office had a “systematic practice of purposeful collection, retention and exploitation of calls” made between detainees and their attorneys.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office at first denied it had accessed any of the recordings. Later it said prosecutors had only accessed some. And throughout the proceedings, the office has denied it ever violated the Sixth Amendment.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office did not immediately wish to comment on the ruling.

As punishment for the contempt finding, the U.S. Department of Justice will be forced to pay costs incurred by the office of Federal Public Defender Melody Brannon while litigating the case over the past three years. Those costs have yet to be determined. Brannon declined to comment for this story.

Robinson, herself a former prosecutor in the troubled U.S. Attorney’s Office, also agreed to hear petitions for a writ of habeas corpus filed by the 110 — and counting — prisoners who claim their Sixth Amendment rights were violated.

‘Commingled’

Robinson’s ruling was issued in a criminal case that stems from a 2016 indictment as part of an investigation into alleged drug and contraband trafficking at the Leavenworth Detention Center.

Six people were initially indicted, but prosecutors have said they suspect more than 150 people inside and outside the facility were involved.

As part of their investigation, prosecutors issued a grand jury subpoena to obtain voluminous recordings from more than 100 video cameras inside the facility. They also obtained more than 48,000 phone calls made by prisoners.

While a more targeted request may have been legitimate, the judge said, prosecutors knew that they would be given recordings from cameras in five out of the facility’s nine rooms designated for attorney-client meetings.

And while the U.S. Attorney’s Office has said it only received attorney-client phone calls because they were “commingled” with other calls, the judge again said prosecutors should have known some of the calls would involve attorneys, and the government did not take steps to protect them.

Robinson estimated more than 700 attorney-client visits were recorded inside the facility. The videos do not include audio of the meetings, but Robinson wrote that the recordings can still be valuable to prosecutors.

For example, in one specific case, Robinson wrote that prosecutors “valued knowing whether there was a document exchange between” between a client and his attorney.

Other information, such as knowing whether a defendant is angry, talking to their attorney through an interpreter, or talking to their attorney at all, could be valuable clues for prosecutors engaged in plea negotiations or pre-trial strategy, the judge noted.

‘Misled’

The government has also claimed the inmates should have known their calls were being recorded, but Robinson rejected that claim.

The phones, operated by a third party for CoreCivic, included a warning at the start of every phone call that calls may be recorded or monitored.

The company had a “privatization” process whereby attorneys could file paperwork to have phone calls made to them excluded from recordings.

But CoreCivic “misled” detainees about the process, the judge said, and the company sometimes recorded attorney-client phone calls even after attorneys had completed the process to privatize their phone calls.

“Detainees and defense attorneys were provided with incorrect, misleading, and inconsistent information about how to accomplish a confidential phone call at (the facility),” Robinson wrote. “Scores of defense counsel who testified or submitted affidavits in this case stated that they were unaware that their conversations… were being recorded.”

In total, more than 1,000 phone calls between public defenders and their clients were recorded.

Triage

The Federal Public Defender’s Office had asked that more than 100 defendants whose attorney-client communications were breached be dismissed. Alternatively, the office asked for a 50% reduction in sentences for all affected clients.

Robinson, however, wrote that she “reluctantly agrees” with the government’s claim that she shouldn’t make a blanket ruling on Sixth Amendment violations that covers every case.

Instead, the judge plans to “triage” the cases.

She will consolidate them for the purposes of discovery, so the Federal Public Defender’s Office can seek more documents and records from prosecutors. Then Robinson will issue rulings on a case-by-case basis.

At least one person has already been released from prison in connection with recordings at the Leavenworth facility. Michelle Reulet, of Montgomery, Texas, was freed last year after being sentenced in 2017 to five years in prison for mail fraud.

Former Kansas Solicitor General Stephen McAllister, who was appointed to head the office in January 2018, previously indicated he was willing to work out an agreement to reduce the sentences of inmates whose communications with their attorneys were recorded. Two months later, however, McAllister’s boss at the Justice Department, then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, nixed the proposal, saying that blanket reductions of inmates’ sentences were out of the question.

Chris Haxel is a reporter for KCUR 89.3. Email him at [email protected], and follow him on Twitter @ChrisHaxel. Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished at no cost with proper attribution and a link back to kcur.org.
See more at https://www.kcur.org/post/prosecutors-held-contempt-over-leavenworth-tapings-judge-will-hear-prisoners-appeals

Sporting KC visits Orlando tonight

A pair of clubs looking to boost their playoff odds will square off Wednesday night as Sporting Kansas City (7-10-7, 28 points) ventures southeast to face Orlando City SC (8-11-6, 30 points) at Exploria Stadium in Florida.

The interconference clash will kick off at 6:30 p.m. with three hours of live coverage beginning at 6 p.m. on FOX Sports Kansas City Plus, FOX Sports Midwest Plus and FOX Sports GO. Sports Radio 810 WHB and ESPN Deportes KC 1480 AM will air local radio broadcasts, while fans beyond the FOX Sports Midwest viewing footprint can catch the action streaming live on ESPN Plus.

Both teams approach Wednesday on the wrong side of the playoff line heading into the regular season’s stretch run. Eight points separate Sporting from the seventh and final playoff spot in the West, while Orlando trails seventh-place Montreal Impact by three points in the East.

Under the guidance of Manager and Sporting Director Peter Vermes, Sporting have reached the postseason every year since 2011 and boast four major championships this decade. With second-year head coach James O’Connor at the helm, Orlando continues to chase its first MLS Cup Playoffs appearance after joining the league via expansion in 2015.

Sporting suffered a frustrating 2-1 home loss to Real Salt Lake on Saturday, taking the lead on a magisterial free kick from Johnny Russell before RSL struck twice through Corey Baird to emerge victorious.

Russell now has eight league goals this season, second-most on the team behind Felipe Gutierrez’s 10, and leads MLS with four strikes from outside the box in 2019.

With Daniel Salloi serving a red-card suspension and Gerso Fernandes (ankle) and Krisztian Nemeth (abdomen) potentially missing out through injury, Sporting may have to cope with as many as three attacking absences on Wednesday.

Center back Botond Barath (back) is also ruled out, having missed two straight games with a back problem. Conversely, Benny Feilhaber is set to return from his yellow card suspension and will be available for selection alongside fellow midfielders Gutierrez, Roger Espinoza and Ilie Sanchez.

The summertime stretch of Orlando’s campaign was highlighted by an impressive run to the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup semifinals. The Lions were edged in the penultimate round of the tournament, falling 2-0 at home to archrivals Atlanta United FC last Tuesday, but rebounded with a well-earned road result on Saturday as substitute Benji Michel bagged his second MLS goal in a 1-1 stalemate at Toronto FC.

Orlando has labored offensively throughout the summer, mustering just 11 goals in their last 10 league games and ranking 19th in MLS with 1.32 goals per match.

That’s no fault of Portuguese star Nani, the World Cup veteran who boasts a team-best eight goals and eight assists in his first MLS season. A former UEFA Champions League winner with Manchester United who later moved to Valencia and Lazio, Nani is one of four MLS players (Carlos Vela, Carles Gil, Alejandro Pozuelo) with eight goals and eight assists this year.

Among Orlando’s other offensive options is Dom Dwyer, who amassed 67 goals for Sporting in all competitions from 2012-2017 before joining the Lions in a high-profile trade two summers ago. With two goals in his last 14 MLS appearances, the English striker has yet to catch fire in 2019.

Uruguayan playmaker Mauricio Pereyra signed a Designated Player contact with Orlando at the end of July and could be lined up for his MLS debut against Sporting. The 29-year-old most recently played in Russia for FC Krasnodar, where he appeared in 201 games and recorded 29 goals and 33 assists across all competitions. He has also featured for Club Nacional in Uruguay and Lanus in Argentina.

Sporting leads the all-time series against Orlando with a 2-1-1 record, including a 1-0 victory spurred by a Gutierrez strike when the teams last met on Sept. 8, 2018 at Children’s Mercy Park. The most recent meeting in Orlando produced a 2-2 draw on May 13, 2017.

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