Bishop James Tindall, known for lifting the urban core, honored for helping KC minorities
The Rev. Vernon Percy Howard, Jr. describes The Rev. James Tindall Sr. as a Kansas City leader with an emphasis on lifting the inner city and urban core.
Founder of the Urban Summit, Tindall, known by most in Kansas City as Bishop Tindall, has spent his lifetime advocating for issues related to social and racial justice in the inner city. He also previously served as a Jackson County legislator, is a pastor emeritus for the Metropolitan Spiritual Church of Christ, and was former president of Freedom Inc., the Black political club organization in Kansas City.
For that work, Tindall was honored this month as the recipient of the 2025 Evelyn Wasserstrom Award. The award was presented Jan. 12 during the annual Interfaith Service held at Christian Community Church.
The worship service is part of the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration in Kansas City. It brings together people of various faiths, including Protestant, Muslim, Catholic, Jewish, Buddhist and Baha’i.
The Wasserstrom award, named after a founder of the annual interfaith service, recognizes work on behalf of minority groups and oppressed people. Wasserstrom, who died in 1988, was the director of the Kansas City branch of the National Conference of Christians and Jews.
The award was created in 1991 by Tindall and others to commemorate Wasserstrom’s work for civil rights in Kansas City.
Tindall said he was humbled when he learned he was receiving the award that he helped establish.
Today, Tindall is known for his work through the Urban Summit, a civil rights organization, including preparing people of color to take positions such as judgeships, corporate positions in the private sector, public service and politics.
He also had a hand in creating the Central City Economic Sales Tax District Board, which since 2017 has directed about $1 million a year to economic development in the urban core. The urban core, Howard explained, extends from Independence Avenue down to 63rd Street, and from Interstate 435 to Troost Avenue.
“Tindall has engaged himself in founding an organization that has helped to invest in equality for the inner city and urban core as downtown has developed, and the urban core has been forgotten,” Howard said.
Outside of his work with the Urban Summit and the church, Tindall served as the 2nd District Jackson County legislator in Missouri for more than 20 years and was the chair of the justice and law committee. He also served on the health and environment and anti-drug committees, according to his biography on Urban Summit.
Tindall withdrew from the legislator race in 2014 after renewed assertions about his 1999 felony federal tax fraud conviction. He declined to make additional comments on that matter when The Star asked about it last week.
While making the fight for equity his life’s work, Tindall has balanced that task with being a husband and the father of six.
“He has been a source of love and strength for individuals in our community, for other organizations who are part of the Urban Summit, who align with it to bring peace and healing and equity to our community,” Howard said.
Tindall said his life’s work is far from over.
“The work of the worker is never finished,” Tindall said. “It’s always a struggle to get things done, nothing is easy for the African American community. If it was, we would not still continue to look the way we do… There’s always still something to do to make things better for the people who’ve been disenfranchised.”
