Our weekly program, Missouri State Journal, is a collaboration between KSMU Radio and Missouri State University. It's hosted and produced by Missouri State's Office of Strategic Communication, and it airs each Tuesday morning at 9:45 on KSMU.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of Black History Month in America. What began as a singular week of learning and recognition called Negro History Week in 1926 has grown into an overall cultural observance during the month of February.
This year also marks the 100th anniversary of Route 66 forging a path across America. Here in Springfield, we’re the birthplace of Route 66, where the name was formalized all those years ago.
Both these milestone events converge right here on the Missouri State campus at Kentwood Hall. Today, it’s a residence hall, but back then it was the Kentwood Arms Hotel, a very popular resting spot for Route 66 travelers. And by 1960, it was the site of a little-known piece of American history involving Vice President Richard Nixon and two African American members of his press corps.
“The process or the experience of the Kentwood Arms Hotel mirrors the broader civil rights movement and helping people to realize that sometimes there was two steps forward and a step backward and perhaps even a step to the side,” said Dr. Lyle Foster, an associate professor of sociology at Missouri State University and a local heritage organizer.
Today, local residents are remembering that historical moment through a new marker on the Springfield-Greene County African American Heritage Trail.
The Kentwood marker is already installed, but the group will officially unveil it later this month.
