Let's celebrate Kansas Day.

Our beautiful state is amazing.

We want to remember the history of Kansas through the eyes of powerhouse women in Kansas history.

Coming up next on Inspire, Inspire is sponsored by the estate of Ray and Ann Goldsmith and the Raymond C. and Marguerite Gibson Foundation and the Friends of KTWU.

We appreciate your financial support.

Thank you.

[Music] Hello.

Welcome to Inspire and a wonderful time to learn about history with my sisters, Danielle Norwood and Leslie Fleuranges and some wonderful women that you're going to be so thrilled to see.

I'm honored to be a part of this show about the history of Kansas and some wonderful women therein.

And we take a trip to Paola, Kansas, the very city where Kansas Day originated.

To learn more about the history of Kansas, day and Danielle, it sounds like we get treated to a DIY project.

That's right, Leslie.

I was able to join our fabulous inspire creative entrepreneur, Cheryl Clark, and I learned how to create my own Kansas Wreath, which will be featured later on in this show.

But now I'm excited to introduce Kerry Winn who is Washburn University professor of history, and Sarah Bell, who's director for the Kansas Museum of History.

Ladies, is so good to have you back on Inspire!

Thank you.

Thank you.

It's great to be here.

When we talk about the settling of Kansas, we often overlook the ladies that were a part of it.

So tell us about how the women were a major part of the settling of Kansas.

Well, I think when we're talking about Kansas history and the settling of Kansas, I think we also need to pay attention right from the beginning to the fact that there were a lot of factors in how women experienced the beginnings of what we call Kansas.

So indigenous women, for example, are fighting for their sovereignty and for their homeland against those who are coming in from the east to found what we think of as the state of Kansas.

Also, in the beginning, in the territorial period, there was still slavery in the Kansas territory.

So African-American women could be fighting for their freedom, as well as experiencing what many women were experiencing across the board.

So I think kind of taking a broader look is something that we should do from the beginning.

But also, there were women who participated in the creation of the state.

Okay.

And one of those women that I'd like to mention from this period is Clarina Nichols.

She and her husband were both abolitionists, and they were drawn out here with the opening of the Kansas Territory in 1854 to fight for to make Kansas a free state.

But in addition to being an abolitionist, she was an advocate for women's rights and she had this great phrase that she thought that she could do more in the new state of Kansas than she could in conservative old Vermont where she was from.

And I think what that speaks to is that this newness and this idea that in the act of the state being settled, that women could make a difference and what those laws are going to be.

And so for Clarina Nichols she actually was able to attend after gathering a lot of petitions, the fourth and final Constitutional convention in Wyandotte, where she tried to convince those men who are all in the room and talking about the Constitution to have full voting rights for women included as well.

She was not successful, but she did for women that when we became a state in 1861, women were able to vote in school board elections.

White women, I should clarify.

And married women, had property and guardianship rights, which at the time was something that not every married woman was able to have.

So this set Kansas apart at this point as being a mark of making those progress things to women like Clarina.

Yeah.

I mean, one of the things that I was amazed about is that women in that time even got divorced and remarried.

You know, that was something that you couldn't do in a lot of states.

They couldn't get a divorce.

And then my most fascinating piece was to find out that one of the women who was a teacher in the schools, she went to a segregated school.

She was African-American, but she also was one of the women who had such an influence and taught Langston Hughes.

So this state just has such an amazing history of what women can do and have done and have been doing for years.

Who's your favorite?

Well, one of my favorites is the one that you just alluded to, Mamie Dillard.

She was grew up in Lawrence and lived there her whole life.

And she was the teacher who taught a young Langston Hughes when he was a Lawrence for a few years during his elementary school time.

She attended Lawrence High School, graduated in the 1890s, went on to attend and graduate from the University of Kansas.

She became a teacher and actually continued to go back to graduate school and became a principal of Lincoln Elementary, which at that time was the African-American school in North Lawrence.

So she had a really impactful career within education, but she was also a suffragist.

Her home in Lawrence, which is still standing today, was really a safe space for those women to gather and share those ideas and concerns, particularly for black sorority women that she helped to oversee.

That's amazing.

And Kerry, you have somebody that to tell us about that had some reporting skills, very important reporting skills.

Oh, sure.

So one of the I think lesser known women in Kansas history is Marcet Haldeman-Julius who was a publisher and also a reporter.

She also wrote fiction.

She was a banker.

She was all sorts of different things.

And she's often overshadowed by her husband in history.

But she really was a powerful woman in her own right.

So she actually, Marcet Haldeman-Julius was the niece of Jane Addams, the prominent reformer from Chicago, and her parents were quite prominent in Girard in southeastern Kansas.

And so she took over her father's banking interests when he passed away.

And but she then became an investor in and helped her husband to buy.

She was his partner.

The Appeal to Reason Press, which was the socialist newspaper in Girard.

And so they published that for many years.

But her real talent was as a reporter.

She was an excellent writer.

And she reported on stories around the nation.

She reported on the Scopes trial.

She did investigative reporting on mass incarceration.

She authored a report for the NAACP on racial segregation in universities.

And this is all at the turn of the 20th century.

Sounds like a very modern story, but she was really writing from the early 1900s into the 1920s and 1930s.

That's so exciting.

We're learn more from Kerry and Sarah in just a minute.

But we want to take it now to Paola, Kansas to get an inside look on Kansas Day.

Hang with us.

[Music] If you go back in history, you should know why Kansas Day happened On January 29, 1861 And why it was that?

We happened to have been admitted as a free state to the United States of America.

We were a free state.

And that's why we fought so hard prior to that in the Kansas territory days.

And consequently, civil war broke out.

Kansas became a territory in May of 1854.

It became a state.

January 29th, 1861.

But it wasn't until 1877 in Paola, Kansas, where we are right now, that Kansas Day was born.

Not long ago, we traveled to Paola to visit with Phillip Reaka a retired educator and local historian, about the history of Kansas State.

First of all, I just want to know why you think it's important to keep history alive in general.

Oh, my gosh.

Well, let's just say for one, everything is history.

The moment you came through that door was 30 minutes ago.

And that's history.

Hmm.

You don't stop history.

It's a continual timeline.

And you're on a roller coaster, and it's going by right now.

Well, actually, I missed it.

This one over here.

Here it comes again.

It's always moving.

At some point, you got to stop.

Take a snapshot of it so you can remember it.

Why do you think it's important to know Kansas history?

Well, I didn't know it was that important to teach Kansas history until I started working at the museum.

I taught vocational programs and never was a history teacher.

But I always enjoyed history.

And why I think it's important.

It's kind of obvious.

You don't know what our culture is.

Our culture is based on history.

[Music÷} And if we lose our culture, what do we have left?

Phil has worked at the Miami County Historical Society for many years, both as a board member and a volunteer.

It was here that he found documents related to the origins of Kansas Day.

When I first started here, just back room was almost knee high with stuff, and I found what might have been a copy of this original book that was printed about history, History Day, Kansas History Day by a man by name of Copley.

This booklet titled Kansas Day for Kansas Schools was developed as a guide for Kansas teachers.

The document contains information, songs and poems about Kansas,.

All intended to help teachers and students celebrate Kansas Day.

The pamphlet also contains a paragraph on the origins of Kansas Day, which was started in 1877 by L.G.A.

Copley, a teacher in Paola.

[Music] And if you look real close, this is where Kansas Day got started and that building.

While teaching history, Mr. Copley found that his students were more interested in historic events if they were studied on the date that those events occurred.

So the decision was made to study Kansas on January 29th.

The day when Kansas was admitted to the Union as a free state.

And students went out all over the community, gathered material, maps, drives and assembled a whole stack of whatever, and he displayed them all around his classroom and they had a one day event celebrating Kansas Day.

Two years later, Copley left Paola and became superintendent of schools in Wichita, where he promoted Kansas Day in Wichita schools.

Copley also attended meetings of the Kansas Teachers Association, where he spread the idea of observing Kansas Day in classrooms statewide.

This led to the publication of Kansas Day for Kansas Schools in 1882.

And this pamphlet was printed and it actually became a textbook.

It became a textbook for a period of time.

And different schools used it.

And it said in one source of information, it became used in other surrounding states.

I don't know why Nebraska would want to celebrate Kansas Day, but technically it was more than Kansas Day.

It was celebrating freedom.

Which is why it's important for all of us to remember and observe Kansas Day.

It's not just a celebration of Kansas statehood.

It's a celebration of freedom.

A celebration that began in 1877, right here in Paola, Kansas.

What were we fighting for?

We were fighting for freedom.

We weren't the country that we were.

Then when Kansas joined, everything changed.

[Music] And we're back.

Sarah and Kerry let's continue our discussion.

So, Sarah, can you tell us about the museum that's coming up and how you're going to be featuring women of Kansas?

Yes, You know, if I had it my way, I think the whole museum would be about women.

So we I started my new role in September of 2022, just a few weeks after we closed the museum to start our renovation.

And so I stepped into a really big role into a renovation that has been many years in the planning and in the making.

This gallery, unlike the previous one, is going to be more thematic.

So we're exploring these topics and themes within this bigger picture of what does it mean to be Kansas, What is Kansas, why Kansas?

And so what is exciting for me is to think about how we can work in women's stories, in particular in ways that maybe are a little more surprising or haven't been highlighted as much in the past.

I think that's wonderful.

And, you know, back in grade school, we learned about the Meadowlark being our state bird, the Sunflower being the state flower.

But if we go to your class, Kerry, we can learn so much more How so?

Oh, well, I like to think that we take that beginning and we look much deeper into the social things that are going on, right?

So we look at people's lives.

I always say that I'm a historian because I'm nosy.

I want to know, like all the stories, I want to know what's going on.

So really, some of the things that you've just mentioned are symbols of the state, right?

But if you come to a history class at the university level, we can take those as a beginning, but we can really talk about why we have these celebrations in the first place, what they tell us, what they cover up, all sorts of hidden stories of Kansas history.

And that's what we like to try and get into.

So, for example, I'm going to do a class in the spring.

It's the history of health care.

And so, you know, what we have inherited and what we experience is just the beginning of the story.

It goes much deeper if we're telling the story of how we got there so we can tell how the state got to the place where it is.

So now I'm fascinated.

What does it mean to be a Kansas woman since you have Kansas women all around at the table?

I would like to know because it's going to be a theme.

What does it mean to be a woman from Kansas?

That's a great question.

I so I am not a native Kansan.

And I when I came here, I thought I'd be here for my two years to do graduate school and leave.

And yet here I am.

And I what I say to people is I really fell in love with the state because I studied it through the eyes of its women, the history.

And so all of these women, particularly the women I mentioned earlier, Clarina Nichols and other suffragists who really pushed for and advocated for these rights to be so where I am today, it's a really for me, it's a way to honor those stories and to show that all of that progress, which is not always continuous and certainly we have our ebbs and flows, all of it is working to where we can we can have the rights and we can have the access that we have today thanks to these women of Kansas.

And it's these these women that so often, unfortunately, will kind of get hidden away or they don't always get recorded in the same way.

And so being able to draw attention to them is something that I feel very honored to be able to do, whether it's through writing or through a museum, through the exhibits that we display.

So what is it about Kansas women that was different than, let's say, you know, Kentucky women or women up east?

It is interesting to me, one of the things I think that people do not know is that women can vote in Kansas before the 19th Amendment right.

And they had a few campaigns to try and achieve women's suffrage.

But the campaign that really succeeds is one that is much more broadly based.

It's one of coalition building where women come together across many lines and many divisions that they've had in the past to really make a movement of women to fight for suffrage.

So I don't know that that makes Kansas different from any other states, but I think that that's one thing that's really neat about our history is that Kansas unexpectedly is one of the first states to with the 19th Amendment, ratify it to ratify the equal rights Amendment.

Kansas is actually a very early adopter of many of these things that we think about as core to women's rights.

So I think that that if we're not unique, we're leading.

And so many national nationally known Kansas women.

Such as?

There's certainly some women that come to mind that you could say are notable or notorious like Carry Nation.

And, you know, I think for better for good, we have to kind of embrace some of that notoriety that Carry Nation was an anomaly.

She she did not necessarily represent what most women felt when it came to regards for temperance, but prohibition was a big part of our state's history.

Weirdly, when we're rattling off all these first, well, late 19th century, we're the first state to adopt a prohibition amendment to our state constitution many decades before the national amendment.

And yet the fact that Carry Nation felt the need to smash salute saloons showed that perhaps it wasn't quite as effective as what people were hoping.

And yet most women, what they did and said they also were not supportive of drinking alcohol, but they would do prayerful protests or do petitions or do things that were not maybe quite as extreme.

But Carry Nation gets that spotlight because we're fascinated with someone who would dare to break the law in this way.

Yes, I love that Georgia Neese Gray... We like to highlight the first.

Right.

So we talk about this a lot with suffrage, but we have our different firsts.

And Georgia Neese Gray was the first woman to be appointed as a US treasurer.

It was a banking family, so she was following in her father's footsteps and was helping to run the bank.

She was a prominent Democrat and so she was very supportive of Harry Truman.

And so she came to his attention when he became president and when he asked her to be the US treasurer, she accepted.

And so her name was a name that so many Americans saw on the US currency for all those years.

And that is so cool.

And the fact that right here in Topeka, Kansas, we honor her with the Topeka Performing Arts Center.

The whole theater is named after Georgia Neese Gray.

Yes.

Yes.

It's this has been an amazing discussion.

And we're just scratching the surface because we didn't talk about Amelia Earhart.

We didn't talk about Irene Ryan, who played granny on The Beverly Hillbillies.

I mean, there's so many important women from Kansas that we could talk about who are a part of the fabric of this state.

So we've got more powerhouse women of Kansas that we want to be chatting about with Sarah and Kerry.

[Music] And coming up next, I had the honor of joining Cheryl Clark, who showed me how to make my own Kansas wreath.

What a great time we had.

We'll be right back.

[Music] Kansas Day is going to be quickly approaching, and I know a lot of us who love the Sunflower State, we would like to do a little something decorative for our houses, maybe even our front door.

And we have Cheryl Clark from Dare to Dream Event Management.

She is our girl.

And I'm so thrilled that you're going to walk us through what we can do that's kind of on a budget, but it's going to make our space look beautiful.

So tell us about what we're going to see today and tell us how easy it is.

Yes, but even an eight year old, like those of us who just barely got through art can do it So this is for new decorators, children, old people, young people, whoever wants to be inspired to make a wreath, they can.

So I kind of partially put it together a little bit just so you guys can kind of see how how it will look towards the end.

Okay, I have to do this is a bushel of sunflowers and I took the shears and just cut them to create individual ones so we can keep it keep our cost down.

Otherwise, If you buy single stems, it costs more money.

Okay, So we'll just take this on any way you want it.

You can just stick it in.

Some people want to hot glue it or even wire it because they don't want to repurpose it later.

But if you choose to repurpose it, you don't have to hot glue or wire it.

Yeah.

And they'll stay in just fine?

Yes, they will, because there's grooves in here.

You can just stick it right here in the wooded area.

So this is just a wood frame that you would get at ...?

Hobby Lobby.

Michaels.

You can order it online.

Nice.

Are they expensive?

No.

This one right here probably cost me $6.

If you catch it on sale, it would be $3.

Okay.

So nice.

Yes.

And then these florals, these the eucalyptus, they came in a bushel as well, and I cut them down.

So you can use those as picks as well.

Okay.

So we can take a pick here and put it in here just to fill it out.

So you're spacing to make it more full because we don't want to see any holes, don't want to see the holes.

But sometimes it's okay because you will get this other side open.

That's what I decided to do, is just do one side of it so so you can have great visual interest on the other side.

So Miss Leslie, you can put them in up here at the top.

Go, Leslie.

Well, let's push it all the way.

All the way.

And I love the idea of using the eucalyptus which is different than what is typically on a sunflower, right?

So it really gives it that “vavo Yeah.

The contrast.

The contrast.

These are the leaves that actually came on.

And I didn't think that that would look good, would it?

I agree.

So that's the reason why I decided to to add that.

And I love the idea that it's only one sided.

Yes.

Just so sophisticated.

Classy.

Very classy.

Very classy.

And when you're the decorator, you get to actually choose what it is that you want.

Some people may want the whole thing.

I personally like the half way, the whole thing.

This is kind of what it will start looking like.

Some people like that and, you know, it makes it great for a great selfie wall.

Yeah, that's true.

I'm always thinking about where are we going to do a selfie?

Yeah, and it should be a perfect.

And then the bow is so elegant as well.

I love this.

This is a pre-made bow.

Oh, you can choose any type of bow you want.

I started to use a black and white bow to give it a little bit of pop, but you know, with, with everyone else they may not like that.

So I thought, let me just do something basic and people can kind of be inspired that way and decide what they want to do.

Very natural looking.

Yep.

Yep.

Burlap.

And this this is a wire.

So I love this because then you can just make the bow as wide or as fat as you want because you can just and store it.

You can press it down, throw it in the closet to repurpose it another time.

Pull it right back out.

Yeah.

No, I love that.

And this doesn't have to be for just Kansas Day because again, sunflowers are popular in the fall and they're beautiful.

So it's certainly...

Yes our state flower.

Yeah.

And we have one of the best looking ones if I do say so.

Yes we do.

Yeah.

Well if people are interested in knowing more about decorating from your perspective or they want you to customize an event because you are the woman when it comes to this how can we get in touch with you?

You can visit our website at daretodreamevents.com and there's a link in there that you can email us and just get in contact with us.

[Music] Thank you for being on with us.

Thank you for having me, I appreciate it.

[Music÷} What a cool wreath.

We thank Cheryl for sharing that great inspiration and expertise.

Now, Sarah and Kerry, we need to get back with you.

We want to talk women in politics.

Well, I'm always going to default back to my 19th century women.

So let me just briefly mentioned that one of the interesting little side effects that occurred was in this fight for women's suffrage is that in 1887, Kansas women got the right to vote in city elections.

And at that time, that was the most voting rights that any women in a state had.

And so roads, all of that is that not only could women vote in city elections, they could be voted into office as well.

So you may have heard the name of Susanna Salter.

She was the first woman in Kansas who became a mayor, actually the first woman in the United States.

But it didn't end with her.

There were so many other women during the same time period that ran for office in positions of city council and mayor and were successful everywhere from Syracuse, Kansas, out in western Kansas to to Oskaloosa with Mary Lowman in 1888 with her All Women City Council to Lucy Sullivan in Baldwin City.

So it's just a really interesting little tidbit of Kansas history that shows that we have some great roots of Kansas women doing really well in politics.

And I'm so impressed by the number of Kansas governors that are women.

Talk about that.

Well, Joan Finney, of course, start us off in the 1990s and then Kathleen Sebelius.

And then finally, of course, with Laura Kelly.

And there are some states that have never had a woman as governor.

So we do we do pretty well in that regard.

That's right.

And shout out to Nancy Landon Kassebaum, because, you know, forget about the fact that a woman senator.

That's right.

And Kerry, you have someone that's very important to you as well.

Oh, well, sure.

I just wanted to mention Lucinda Todd, of course, who is from Topeka, and she was one of the original plaintiffs, one of the first plaintiffs in the Brown versus Board of Education case.

She was the secretary of the NAACP here in Topeka, the local chapter.

And she, in 1948, walked door to door canvasing neighborhoods with another woman, Fayetta Sawyer, And they gathered over 1400 signatures in a petition.

My students can't believe it when I say that.

Right to so many to protest segregation in Topeka public Schools And also the national NAACP wanted local chapters to pay for the attorneys for their cases.

And so she went and she gave speeches in towns and locations all over, raising $10 and $5 and $25 to really support the case.

Her kitchen table or dining room table is in the Smithsonian today because it was the place where they planned a lot of the actions of Brown versus Board of Education.

So, I mean, she is definitely a person who should be whose name should be remembered for that lady in that case.

Definitely.

Thank you very much.

[Music] Well, unfortunately, that's all the time we have for today.

We hope you've been inspired by today's conversations.

As a reminder, you can watch this program again at watch.ktwu.org And if you're so inspired to learn more about our wonderful guests, find out more about what is coming up on future programs and get access to additional content, visit our web site www.ktwu.org/inspire inspiring women inspiring women in Kansas history inspiring you on KTWU.

Thank you for watching.

[Music] Inspire is sponsored by the estate of Ray and Ann Goldsmith and the Raymond C. and Margaret Gibson Foundation and the Friends of KTWU.

We appreciate your financial support.

Thank you.