Local history
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Douglas County Commission meeting room renovations are nearing completion
The Douglas County Commission’s meeting room will have space at the dais for the two new commissioners joining in the new year. The room has also undergone restoration, renovation, reconfiguration and more.
Lawrence Times in-depth series
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Free State High School student wins Equal Justice Initiative essay contest
“A Black body is the most disposable body in America. America has proved this time and time again,” Free State High School student Ryan Brown read from her prize-winning essay Tuesday.
Who killed Nick Rice? Epilogue: An eyewitness still grappling with painful memories of a tumultuous era
As an epilogue to The Lawrence Times eight-part series on the death of Nick Rice in July 1970, read a personal account of the night’s events from a bystander just feet away from Rice when he was killed.
Work begins in Oak Hill Cemetery to pinpoint grave sites of Black men lynched in 1882
Though a final answer is likely still a few months away, work began Monday to solve a question that originated just over 139 years ago: where are the three Black men lynched in Lawrence in the summer of 1882 buried? One Kansas researcher is using ground penetrating radar technology to find out.
The KBI declined to release its case file on Rick ‘Tiger’ Dowdell’s 1970 killing by Lawrence police; here’s why it matters (Analysis)
The KBI will, at least temporarily, continue to keep in the dark records that could finally shed light on a case of police violence that has been imprinted in the fabric of Lawrence for exactly 51 years.
Residents select new name for Pinckney neighborhood: Pinkney
The residents of the neighborhood formerly known as Pinckney have spoken.
Garcia family’s imprint on Lawrence Mexican food scene felt through museum exhibit
Starting with the El Tampico Club in the 1940s, the Garcia family quickly expanded its footprint in Lawrence. Mementos from the family’s time in town and their efforts to introduce authentic Mexican food to the community are on display through October at the Watkins Museum of History.
As federal government begins study of Native American boarding schools, history of Haskell likely to see spotlight
A federal government investigation into its own oversight of Native American boarding schools — used in the late 1800s to mid-1900s to force children into cultural assimilation — will most likely include an examination of Haskell Indian Nations University.
Lawrence’s Grover Barn tapped for federal grant preserving Underground Railroad sites
A federal grant will help the city of Lawrence conduct a drone study of Grover Barn’s structural integrity. The barn was a site on the Underground Railroad, and a local group has big hopes for its future potential.
What’s the status of the historical markers for Nick Rice and Tiger Dowdell’s deaths?
In the nine months since the Lawrence City Commission unanimously approved creating historical markers to memorialize two teenagers killed by Lawrence police, the conversation on what those markers might look like, where they’ll be placed, and how much they’ll cost has mostly gone silent.
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