KANSAS CITY, Mo. — As hundreds of people gathered in Kansas City’s Northland over the weekend to demand justice for Ralph Yarl, a Black teenager shot by a white homeowner in Clay County, Nicole Price heard a shout come from a passing car.
“Trump 2024!” a man who appeared to be in his late 20s or early 30s yelled at the crowd.
Price has lived in the Northland, the vast expanse of Kansas City north of the Missouri River, for more than a decade. But Price, who is Black and owns a leadership development company, said her perception of safety has eroded in recent years amid increasing instances of “prejudice and bigotry and subtle acts of exclusion.”
It’s the stares she sometimes receives while on walks through her neighborhood, for example. “All of those things make me feel not as safe just moving through my own community,” Price said.
The shooting of Yarl, a 16-year-old high school student, last Thursday has provided for many vivid confirmation of the racism they say pervades the Northland. Clay County Prosecuting Attorney Zachary Thompson said Monday there was a “racial component” to the shooting, but didn’t elaborate. Yarl’s family has said he sought help at three homes before someone assisted him.
The shooting has pointed a harsh spotlight on an area with a longtime reputation as a white enclave separated by the Missouri River from the more diverse city core. As local leaders grapple with the fallout, calls are growing for Northland leaders to more fully reckon with racism within their communities.
‘Cultural call-to-question’
White people make up at least 60% of the population in almost every Northland census tract. Under 6% of residents in the tract where the shooting occurred are Black. For comparison, Black residents make up more than 50% of the population in many census tracts on the city’s East Side. About 27% of all Kansas City residents are Black, according to the 2020 census.
At the same time, some officials say the area is becoming more diverse as people of color move in. They say the Northland has an unearned bad reputation, and they argue racism is present across Kansas City.
Hours after prosecutors announced charges against Andrew D. Lester, 84, in the shooting of Yarl on Monday, Jackson County Legislator Manny Abarca posted an open letter to Clay County Presiding Commissioner Jerry Nolte. Abarca wrote the shooting wasn’t an “isolated situation, but a cultural call-to-question” as to what actions Nolte and his fellow leaders had avoided.
“I have known for a long time that once I crossed the river-North, I should expect a change in the way I am treated because of the color of my skin,” Abarca wrote.
Abarca told The Star on Tuesday that he asked himself how he would respond if the shooting had occurred in Jackson County. He said that as he graded officials in the Northland, he didn’t see statements and condemnations of what had happened, and that moved him to release the letter.
“I think for many minority folks, we were like, ‘Yeah, we could see this happening,’” Abarca said in an interview. “But why is that?”
Nolte, a former Republican state legislator who joined the commission in 2015, didn’t respond to a call on Tuesday. But in an email, he wrote that “our thoughts and prayers are with all those who are suffering as a result of this tragic situation.
“It is now in the hands of the judicial system,” Nolte wrote. “Violence knows no political boundaries, no ideology and no demographic attributes.”
Clay County Commissioner Jon Carpenter, a former Democratic state legislator, called Abarca a friend and said his concerns are sincere.
Carpenter, who represents western portions of Clay County, said that as racial resentment is pushed upon society by “grifters and charlatans” on television and other media, “that can lead to people ending up with a lot of hate on their hearts.” He said in the shooting of Yarl, it is reasonable to assume that race was probably the decisive factor.
“I think the vast majority of friends and neighbors and family and colleagues who live in this area are well-meaning good people and I would hope that all of them would condemn the horrific, racist attempted murder of a child who lives right here in our community with us and I would hope people of all backgrounds could join together in doing so,” Carpenter said.
History, perception or current reality?
U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Kansas City Democrat and the city’s first Black mayor, said that when people found out the shooting was in the Northland, many Black people thought the police wouldn’t arrest or charge the shooter. He told them they shouldn’t prejudge the area, particularly when they were pushing not to be prejudged.
“Black people still think about north of the river as the racist area of Kansas City,” Cleaver said. “Not to realize that that area has changed dramatically over the years. I have strong supporters in Clay County in my district, strong supporters. A lot of African Americans are thinking back to the ‘50s into the ‘40s.”
Much of the Northland’s local elected officials are white, and the area of the shooting — in the 1100 block of Northeast 115th Street — is no exception. No people of color currently represent the Northland on the Kansas City Council, although redrawn districts will be implemented later this year after municipal elections.
On the Clay County Commission, Nolte and the three commissioners who represent western Clay County are white men.
Nimrod Chapel Jr., president of the Missouri NAACP, said the elected leadership isn’t representative of the community. He said there has long been a perception that the Northland wasn’t a place for people of color. That ranged from an unwelcoming feeling, he said, to years in the past when individuals felt they couldn’t be there “unmolested.”
“When I learned Mr. Yarl’s shooting occurred there and the circumstances, that certainly hearkens back, if you will, to feelings and sentiment that African Americans, Black people just don’t belong there,” Chapel said.
State Rep. Maggie Nurrenbern, a Democrat whose Northland district includes Gladstone up toward Ridgefield, said the beauty of the Northland is that it is becoming more diverse.
“But we still have a serious race problem in Missouri and a serious race problem in the Northland,” Nurrenbern said.
The troubled relationship with Black Kansas Citians and the Northland goes back a long way, Cleaver said, adding that enslaved people were kept up north and that the area used to have many tobacco farms.
“The Northland was just seen as an area that was not receptive to Black or brown people. But, most of the young people today, they weren’t even alive when it was like that,” Cleaver said.
Cleaver said that more Black people have moved into the area and that judgments about the area are based on erroneous information and based on history, rather than the current makeup of the Northland.
Kansas City Councilmember Dan Fowler, who represents the area where the shooting took place, said racism exists in every part of the city. He said racism isn’t any worse in the Northland than anywhere else.
“I think we get a bad rap here for some of that,” Fowler said.
Fowler said in the Northland, especially within his district, there is “something for everyone,” from housing to education to amenities. By and large, it’s a welcoming area, he said.
Still, Fowler acknowledged a political division between the Northland and the rest of the city, saying the area trends conservative. Describing himself as a moderate, Fowler said the area is very “pro-police” — a posture that has led to conflict within city government.
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas, with a majority of the City Council, in 2021 attempted to exert more control over funding for the Kansas City Police Department, the only police force for a Missouri city that is under state control.
The effort was challenged in court and led to blowback from Republican state legislators and Northland residents. Lucas and the funding plan were denounced by angry residents at town halls and other events. Last year, Missouri voters approved a state constitutional amendment forcing the city to spend more on police.
Lucas’ office initially agreed to make the mayor available for an interview on the topic of the Northland on Tuesday, but then canceled.
Even as demonstrators have gathered in the Northland and the Yarl shooting has gained national attention, Fowler said he hasn’t received very many comments about the shooting from constituents. He said he has heard from some of his colleagues, who he said are very concerned, but beyond that he hadn’t received “much of an outcry.”
“Right now, the email flow is about the short-term rental ordinances,” Fowler said.
