GOP’s scheme to split KC along ‘deepest racial divide’
Hello, Star readers.
Today, we’re examining the symbolic significance of Missouri Republicans’ plans to divide KC along its “deepest racial divide.”
Next, we’ll get into:
• Democracy overhaul: In a flurry of action Tuesday, the Missouri House sent a new Trump-backed congressional map and a proposal to drastically weaken the state’s initiative petition process to the Senate.
• Secretly tracked: The New York Times is suing the FBI for answers after a reporter found a tracking device on his family’s car in Kansas.
This week in politics
Nothing represents the history of racial segregation in Kansas City like the so-called Troost Divide.
Troost Avenue, named after a Dutch physician who owned six enslaved persons, serves as a physical reminder of how Jim Crow-era redlining has continued to shape the lives of Kansas City residents along what used to be a de facto racial dividing line.
That painful legacy could take on new significance if Missouri Republicans finalize proposed congressional maps dividing residents on either side of Troost into different districts.
“By drawing the line at Troost, this map weaponizes and further perpetuates Kansas City’s deepest racial divide — splitting and silencing Black voters while cementing inequality into our congressional boundaries,” said Gwen Grant, the president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City, whose living room window faces Troost Avenue.
The GOP plan, hurriedly pursued at the behest of President Donald Trump, calls for dicing up the left-leaning Kansas City area into three separate congressional districts.
The stated goal is to oust longtime Democratic Congressman Emanuel Cleaver and help Republicans hold onto their slim majority in the U.S. House through next year’s midterm elections.
More from this past week
• A leading national expert on gerrymandering says the plan floated by some Republicans to oust this Kansas congresswoman from office could backfire. Here’s why.
• There are now seven Johnson County candidates running for governor of Kansas. The latest contender to enter the race is a prominent GOP businessman.
• After a tenure marked by two firefighter deaths, lawsuits and felony charges against some in his ranks, Kansas City’s fire chief plans to retire in January.
Looking for more?
• For more politics news, follow @bymatthewkelly.bsky.social, @kacen.bsky.social, and @grice1911.bsky.social.
• Want to read more newsletters from The Star? You can subscribe to our free daily newsletters, the Morning Rush or the Afternoon Catch-Up.
That’s all for now! See you next week.
Did someone forward this newsletter to you? You can sign up here. If you’d prefer to unsubscribe from this newsletter, you can do so at any time using the “Unsubscribe” link at the bottom of this message.