The Quindaro Townsite in Kansas City, Kansas — once a stop along the Underground Railroad for people escaping slavery and a home to abolitionists during the “Free State” era — received National Historic Landmark status from the federal government on Thursday.
Quindaro now joins the more than 2,500 national historic landmarks across the U.S. that are “nationally significant in American history and culture,” according to the National Park Service.
“The designation … really cements the site’s status as a truly significant piece of American history,” said Johnny Szlauderbach, director of communications and projects at Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage Area, a group focused on the history of the struggles for freedom in western Missouri and eastern Kansas.
Szlauderbach said Quindaro is an “extremely unique space in American history.”
“It represents, as a site, how we got from the 1850s, and segregation and the division of the 1850s, to the world that we live in today,” he said.
The board of the National Park Service unanimously recommended Quindaro as a National Historic Landmark yesterday; it now goes before U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum for final approval.
The designation opens the site up to more funding opportunities and assistance for some much-requested improvements.
It comes amid President Donald Trump’s attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, and his administration’s attempts to erase and whitewash aspects of African American history. Earlier this year, the National Park Service removed a photo and quote from Harriett Tubman and said the Underground Railroad “bridged the divides of race.” They have since been restored.
But Szlauderbach said Quindaro’s history is one that overcomes ideological differences.
“I believe that the history of Quindaro and the example that Quindaro sets, of groups working together for something bigger than themselves and something better than themselves, is so inspirational that it reaches across party lines,” he said.
Earlier this month, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, from Missouri, and Reps. Sharice Davids and Derek Schmidt, from Kansas, sent a letter to the National Park Service, urging them to recognize Quindaro as a National Historic Landmark.
“Designating Quindaro as a National Historic Landmark would not only honor the site’s historical significance but also ensure the preservation of its legacy for future generations,” the letter reads. “It stands as a testament to the collaborative spirit and unwavering pursuit of liberty that define our national identity.”
After Thursday's announcement, Cleaver told KCUR the designation is a big deal.
“The way we are going now, we are trying to destroy truths,” he said, referring to Trump's DEI attacks. “And you know, Quindaro is the truth. Its existence is still there.”
It’s especially significant, he said, that some of the Quindaro ruins are still standing.
“We want this landmark designation of the Quindaro Townsite to speak eloquently to the history and ingenuity and commitment to freedom these slaves had,” Cleaver said. “As a Missourian, it's very significant to me, and it destroys the myth that the slaves were happy and singing hymns and enjoying their slavery.”
Davids said in a statement that she's proud of the bipartisan effort to secure the designation.
"Quindaro is a rich part of Kansas history, and its role in our country's effort toward equality and justice deserves to be honored and preserved," she said.
‘Truly a port town’
The Quindaro townsite sits on and around the bluffs overlooking the Missouri River. It was established in the 1850s by the Wyandotte Tribe, and was a gathering place for several Native American tribes.
Its proximity to the Missouri River became an advantage, and Quindaro grew before the Civil War into a booming community of Free State abolitionists, formerly enslaved Black people and Native Americans.
Quindaro became an important stop on the Underground Railroad for Black people escaping slavery from Missouri, a slave state. In the latter half of the 1800s, Quindaro remained a bustling port town, Szlauderbach said.
“It had hotels, it had restaurants, it had shops,” Szlauderbach said. “It was truly a port town and the first real stop on one's way westward into Kansas.”
After the Civil War, residents of the town established the Quindaro Freedman’s School, the first school for Black people west of the Mississippi River. It was later renamed Western University, and served Black students until it closed in 1943.
By the mid-1900s, Quindaro began deteriorating and people left the town for better opportunities elsewhere.
“The town emptied out and eventually became a ghost town, to the point that now all that exists on the site are ruins,” Szlauderbach said. “It's overgrown, it's difficult to access.”
‘Safe haven for all’
The hope is that the National Historic Landmark status will make Quindaro, and its history, easier to access. Over the years, Quindaro’s ruins have decayed and the site has become overgrown.
With a new designation, the National Park Service can deploy its experts, preservationists and conservationists to improve the site.
“It's such an inspiring story, too, that these groups were working together before the Civil War and after the Civil War to create this kind of safe haven for all — for people of different races, different religions,” Szlauderbach said. “And finally, we have the resources that we need to tell that story and get the word out.”
Quindaro received National Commemorative Site status in 2019, which advocates hoped was a stepping stone to becoming a National Historic Landmark. Six years later, the Quindaro Townsite is still largely inaccessible to the public.
Szlauderbach hopes its landmark status can lead to trails, signs and a museum in the future. He said he sees Quindaro as the “best representation of the American promise.”
“The fact that we are now grappling with that — the loss of that promise — and learning about how this experiment failed will maybe teach us about how precarious the entire American experience truly is,” Szlauderbach said. “It is a truly American story, a significantly American story, that's right in our backyards that almost nobody knows about.”
