Kansas City’s Shameful, Forgotten History At Union Cemetery

KC's oldest cemetery contains thousands of graves with no markers. Volunteers from the Union Cemetery Historical Society are working to learn more about the people buried there, and share it through an online database.

Video by Randy Mason | The Kansas City Star

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[me-myslf-n-I]

I was at my grandpa's and 2 great uncles and 2 great aunts graves last memorial weekend.my grandpa said to me always as a little girl he picked all their plots because he wanted to be buried under the huge oak tree so he could have shade during his last resting place.i hadn't been there since he he passed, i was 9 years old in 1971, ( yes its been to long) anyways that huge beautiful oak tree was dead!!! Most the branches gone n all the bark gone, looked bleached old narly sad looking what was left!! I still was able to find all their graves by that sad reminder of what was left of that once beautiful tree.my grandpa and his sisters were what we would say were very successful back then, one aunt owned the beauty salon in the Kansas City Union station and was left her family well taken care of.Anyways the cemetery was very busy that day and right by us was many black families visiting thier loved ones also, matter of fact there was many different cultures of people visiting their past loved ones with zero racism at that once beautiful cemetery. Race had nothing to do with how bad the cemetery has become!! It has to to with who was whoever was in charge not caring about ALL WHO WAS BURIED IN THAT CEMETERY OR THEIR SURVIVORS!! Im going back in a few weeks to clean my family's stones .so much mold I hope i can clean them without doing any damage to them? Does anyone have suggestions how to treat the gross black and green mold ? I want them to shine again like my family did in my eyes as a child loving them all deeply.every grave should be respected racism has no place anywhere anymore especially a cemetery and I saw zero that day I only saw everyone paying respect to their dearly departed loved ones !!!

[lucious]

Ours is way worse, its so bad people are waljing over geaves because its grown over with grass weeds vines and trash, and its been years since people been asking to do something, also dead animals there open gate ..flooded when it rains.

[Maxwellwayne]

I've been there
We accidentally found it one day
And drove around through it
It was very interesting

[merryhunt]

Like our country needs media reviving old hate and anger. Meanwhile, people of different races are friendly and supportive both financially and culturally, but the newspaper doesn't want to know.

[josephvolz]

The only thing shameful is the KC star's headlines, consistent shameful headlines. The people that made this 'shameful' history would never dream of disparaging their past like you do.

[KHugg]

History is History. This video was a good lesson. Shame on the KC Star for their inflammatory Headlies

[brt]

I mean....I think it's great that there is a program of documentation going on but I really don't understand what the first half of the video was trying to say. My impression was that they are focusing on racial discrimination, but i don't understand what that has to do with the wooden grave markers, unmarked graves and paupers fields and digging up and uncovering bones in an area being excavated. This happens on a regular basis regardless of race. Researching my own family and attempting to track down their burial locations has shown my how pervasive the issue of unmarked and lost graves can be. I have one uncle who died in 1996 and the location of his plot is somehow "unknown". They know what cemetery he is in, I was there as a kid for his funeral and I have the program from his funeral so I am sure it's the correct cemetery, but they just don't know where he is actually buried. It's just due to a mishap or poor record keeping, not racial discrimination.

[aaronsaunders]

another union cemetery in another state (other than ct)

[geekworthy]

Wasting time and energy on people LONG gone.