Sundown Lounge the wrong name for KC bar: Current fans were offended | Opinion
Hello readers,
Well, it looks like the voice of the people won this time to stop the opening of a bar with a name that nobody seemed to approve of, and with good reason. The proposed name — the Sundown HiFi Lounge — harkened back to a racist time in American history. And that just wasn’t acceptable.
History is so important and that’s why we can’t let far-right conservatives erase Black history from our American history. Here’s another reason: knowing history can sometimes guide our actions and language so that neither triggers unintentional historical trauma for a person or group of people.
And in this case, a better understanding of history and how people feel about it might have saved the young Black man who said he wanted to open a bar that would bring people together in celebration, a lot of grief.
Recently, it was announced that a new bar — with a pretty cool concept — was set to open on the Missouri River’s waterfront under the name Sundown HiFi Lounge.
When I first heard the name, my immediate response was, “Yikes, someone didn’t think that one all the way through.” Turns out Casio McCombs, the bar owner, had given some thought to the name, but apparently, he failed to fully consider the racist history of the term sundown and how folks might not so easily dismiss its connection to Sundown Towns.
On social media, a lot of people were quick to point out the offense, including The Blue Crew, which is the official independent supporters group for the Kansas City Current. In a statement, the women’s soccer fans group called the name “not only racist but incredibly insensitive.”
After so much public opposition, McCombs, days after announcing his bar concept and name, relinquished to pull the idea. “I’m deeply disappointed to share that Sundown HiFi will no longer be moving forward at Current Landing,” an Instagram post read.
The bar was slated to go in the soccer stadium’s Current Landing complex. Neither the Current nor the team’s fan group had affiliation with the proposed bar or the naming of it.
The term sundown is indeed deeply offensive and traumatic to Black people because, for those of us who know the history, it refers to sundown towns, of which Missouri had its fair share. Sundown towns were all-white towns that excluded Black people and made it known, sometimes with a sign at the entrance of town, stating that if a Black person was caught in those towns after dark — sundown — they would likely not be seen again.
Lest you think this was a practice of ancient history, let me say such towns existed officially until the Civil Rights Act of 1968 and unofficially well into the 1980s, because, as we know from current goings-on as it pertains to race, hearts and minds are not necessarily changed by the stroke of a pen. There are probably a lot of Black folks today who remember that history and won’t go into certain parts of the state where sundown towns were known to exist.
And it’s not like this history has not been told in recent years. It’s what the 2019 Academy Award-winning movie “Green Book,” was all about. And then there was the 2020 television series “Lovecraft Country,” starring Courtney Vance, whose fictional character publishes The Safe Negro Travel Guide to help Black travelers navigate a Jim Crow-era America and avoid sundown towns.
I remember that when I was a kid and we used to travel south from our home in New York to Virginia, my mom would pack up a lot of food, so that we — as a Black family — would not have to stop to eat once we passed the Mason-Dixon line, a historical boundary primarily separating Pennsylvania from Maryland and Delaware. There were very specific places along our journey where we could stop to use the bathroom — we stopped there, and only there, every time we made the trip. I remember as a kid, having to run into the woods sometimes when I couldn’t wait.
So, knowing that history, I understand why some Kansas Citians were taken aback hearing that a new space in town was being named sundown anything. Of course, this would not be the only bar in the U.S. with sundown in the name. There are several notable and long-standing establishments across the country with that name, including in Boulder, Colorado; Ruston, Louisiana; Williamsburg, Iowa and Southern California. I don’t know the history behind the naming of those bars.
Here, it seems the intention was not to offend but rather to bring people together in a celebratory way.
In an initial Instagram post, McCombs said that by using the name Sundown for a lounge that is all about music, sound and dancing, he thought he could change the way some feel about the term. I think he miscalculated the depths of that kind of racial pain, even though he said in his first post responding to public outcry, that as a Black man raised in the South, he was “more than aware of the the painful history connected to the phrase.”
“I strongly believe in the power to be able to rewrite narratives, but we’ve heard you and understand not everyone holds that belief,” McCombs said in that first post. I reached out to McCombs on social media, but did not hear back.
He said, “The intention behind the name Sundown was to commemorate the universal gathering that happens around that time.” Except historically, for Black Americans in the wrong place at the wrong time, what happened at sundown was horrific.
McCombs wanted Sundown to be about “transition, release and presence.” He said he wanted it to be “about what happens when the lights dim, the music takes over and people come together at the end of the day. “
What a great concept, bringing people together, execpt the name tainted it with something that represents exclusion and worse, violence against Black people.
Kristin Ross, a leader of The Current’s Blue Crew fan group, said she heard from fans so disturbed by the idea of having a bar with that proposed name included in the complex that they didn’t want to bring their kids to the stadium.
Ross said Current fans were asking McCombs to change the name because offending anyone works against team and fan group efforts to increase the diversity of the fan base. ”You have to be aware.” Ross said.
She’s absolutely right.
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Your voice matters to us. What local issues do you want to hear discussed in On The Vine? Let me, Mará Rose Williams, The Star’s senior opinion columnist, know directly at mdwilliams@kcstar.com. Thank you for reading.
This story was originally published March 31, 2026 at 10:02 AM.
