The Lawrence Times runs opinion columns written by community members with varying perspectives on local issues. Occasionally, we’ll also pick up columns from other nearby news outlets. These pieces do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Times staff.

The Lawrence Times does not publish staff editorials (unsigned opinion columns, usually about the topics we cover, that many news publications run).

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OPINION COLUMNS

Jesse Kielman: In redistricting, Kansas legislators shouldn’t use prison populations as bargaining chips (Column)

“Despite denying enslaved people civil rights, slave states demanded that these men, women and children be included in population counts because it increased their political power. … This exploitation has resurfaced in recent redistricting efforts,” Jesse Kielman writes in this column for Kansas Reflector.

Clay Wirestone: At memorial for Lawrence lynching victims, a crowd faces history head-on (Column)

“On that Saturday morning by the Kansas River, as soil was scooped into glass jars and carnations placed on top of each, a spirit moved among the crowd. They had gathered there, near Lawrence City Hall, to commemorate the victims of a lynching nearly 140 years ago,” Clay Wirestone writes in this column for Kansas Reflector.