This past Sunday the Kansas City Star carried an article about the remembrance of black soldiers in World War I:  http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article134779824.html

The point of the article is well taken.  Black soldiers in the Great War are too easily forgotten.  We’ve tried to do our part with articles about African American soldiers.  The biographies are brief, but we do encourage those who may have additional information about those who are featured to provide it.  Likewise, if there are other African American soldiers from Kansas that have a story that needs to be told, we encourage you to provide that as well.

We do not stop there.  The same is true for Native American and Latino / Hispanic soldiers from Kansas as well.  In fact, we look for stories of ANY Kansan in World War I to record for posterity.

We are even interested in those soldiers who may have come to Kansas after the war but may have fought wearing a different uniform, whether it be English, French, German, Russian, or representing any of the countries that fought in the War.  The chances are good that there are a few of those stories out there.

When the Centennial has passed, the contents of this blog will be saved by the Kansas State Historical Society.  Isn’t it worth contributing their stories so that the information is always available . . . and remembered?

 

Blair Tarr is the Museum Curator of the Kansas State Historical Society. He oversees the three-dimensional collections of the Society, but has special interests in the Civil War, Wichita-made Valentine diners, and Leavenworth's Abernathy Furniture. In the last few years he has also done a lot of cramming on The Great War. He is a past president of the Kansas Museums Association and the Civil War Round Tables of both Kansas City and Eastern Kansas. He is currently a board member of the Heritage League of Greater Kansas City.