Miner - Chapter 6

Miner – Chapter 6
Chastened and Changed

The early 1900’s saw Kansas involved in: union strikes, Ku Klux Klan, WWI, segregation, concrete highways, airplanes and college basketball. The strip coal miners in SE Kansas were unionized and went on strike. The state took control, brought in troops for protection and then brought in outsiders to work the mines so that people would have coal to keep them warm during the coming winter months.
Kansas was very proud of its involvement in WWI and became one of the leading states in purchasing war bonds or as they were called Liberty Bonds for the war effort.
The Klan became very active during this time and Kansas had over 40,000 members of the Klan. Wichita by itself had over 6,000 members. Thanks to newspapermen like William Allen White who showed the people of Kansas what the Klan was really about. It soon disappeared from Kansas. About this same time a movie called Birth of a Nation came out. The Klan was shown as a positive source in the movie. Kansas censored it and it did not play in Kansas until the Federal Supreme Court overruled the Kansas Court and it was shown.
Kansas like most states had elementary school segregation. This lasted until 1954 when the courts, due to the famous court battle, Brown v. Topeka School Board ruled that separate schools for blacks was inherently unequal and therefore a violation of the 14th amendment. From this court battle black children all over the nation were allowed into public schools with white children.
Paved roads became a hot topic at the turn of the century; Kansas was 2nd in the nation in miles of paved roads. These roads were mostly paid for through fees and gasoline taxes. The farmers in the Western part of the state felt that the sale s tax was going to build better roads for the Eastern part of the state and were most unhappy.
In 1926 Wichita proclaimed itself as the air capital of the world. In 1929 over 26% of the airplanes made in the U.S. were made in Wichita. Such names as Beech, Cessna and Amelia Earhart were common names during this period.
In 1899 at the university of Kansas Dr. James Naismith invented the game of basketball to the college ranks. In 1909 Phog Allen the basketball coach oat K.U. and became a sports hero in the state of Kansas.
While the KKK and Brown case are difficult to talk about at the fourth grade level, they do love basketball. There were many interesting facts about Kansas being on the cutting edge in the basketball world that they would find interesting.