Analyzing the census data from 1950, 2000, and 2010 for the blocks along 35th Street from Agnes to Benton was an illuminating experience. If I had ever perceived dramatic racial turnover as a myth, here was data and proof that it was not. From 1950 to 2000, the area of Kansas City named Oak Park Northwest, where my blocks are located, went from being almost 100% white to almost 100% African American in their demographic makeup. This was especially interesting, as many of the ideas of racial segregation that we typically think of occur before the 1950s and the historical Brown v. Board case, but here it shows that the 50s instead of desegregation were the beginning of a whole new set of circumstances that prevented integration and equal housing.
