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Feb 21

[ARCHIVED] Western University: An African American College in Kansas

The original item was published from February 21, 2019 11:20 AM to February 21, 2019 11:22 AM

As African American History Month comes to a close we'd like to share a real gem recently added to the State Library of Kansas' KGI Online Library... digitized from a copy lent to us by the Kansas Historical Society.

"Western University, Kansas City, Kansas, 1923-1924 : the great educational institution of the Mid-West" [published in 1923 by the State Printing Plant]  

...is a photographic look at this educational institution for African Americans, located in Kansas City, Kansas.  The state of Kansas supported the State Industrial Department at the University for many years and published annual reports, school year schedules, etc of the University as a whole.  The Western University campus closed in 1943. That same year the Kansas Legislature passed a law for the consolidation of Western University with the Kansas Vocational School in Topeka. You can read a short history of Western University on the Kansas Historical Society's KANSAPEDIA website. 



The booklet gives a  wonderful, detailed look at student life in the 1920s.  You can view it here:





Interested in seeing what else we have on Western University in the KGI Online Library? Click here:



The Kansas Historical Society's KANSAS MEMORY website also has online resources on Western University:



Tag(s): Western University, Historically Black Colleges in Kansas, African Americans Vocational Education, African Americans Education, African American colleges and universities