Someone in Kansas We Should Remember During Women's History Month
(The Stockton Sentinel received this article from Dr. Ernest Evans, a professor of political science and criminal justice studies at Kansas City Kansas Community College. He writes a weekly column for the Leavenworth Times. His latest column, published on March 15th, 2023, was on former Stockton Mayor Kim Thomas. We hope you enjoy it.)
February is Black History Month, and March is Women's History Month, so I thought it appropriate to write a column about the first black woman mayor in Kansas. Ms. Kim Thomas was elected to the Stockton City Commission in 1999 and then was elected mayor by the other city commissioners in 2003. She served as mayor for a number of years—and is now retired. Ms. Thomas has deep roots in Kansas. She is a fifth-generation resident of Nicodemus, the historically black town in western Kansas founded by former slaves after the Civil War. In her years as mayor, she made a number of improvements in the city's public utility systems and its housing. Her achievements were sufficiently noteworthy for her to be named 'Mayor of the Year' by the Kansas Mayor's Association in 2014.
Mayor Thomas realized that as the first black woman to hold her job that she would be subjected to close scrutiny, and she acknowledged that she took account of that fact in how she went about her duties. But, in a 2022 interview she said that what defines a person is not the color of their skin but what is in their heart. When I read those words, I recalled Dr. King's famous phrase at the 1963 March on Washington about wanting his children to be judged by the content of their character rather than by the color of their skin.
These are words that need to be said in the current national environment because of a widely shared (but false) narrative about American history. This narrative claims that America's wealth, prosperity, and industrial might is due to centuries of oppression of racial minorities and women.
This is a manifestly untrue interpretation. As someone who has been a political science professor for some 42 years, I am well aware of the reality of racial and sexual discrimination in the United States. But despite the prejudice that they have encountered America's racial minorities, and women have always made major contributions to our society. No, the root of America's success in the world is not our oppressive policies— it is our historic willingness to welcome the contributions to our great nation of everyone who calls themselves an American.
