Respcodent: Intervi.ewer: Date:

Harry Ross Ron Hom Januru:y 21, 1969

TAPED Im'ERVIEW

R.H. Na-,, what type rreetings or organizations were afloat the Friday before

the SUnday march and did you students plan to march on the Board of

Fducatim that folla-,ing Monday, that Tuesday, or did you have a march

H.R.

R. H.

H.R.

R.H.

H. R.

of your own scheduled for that Sunday?

VEll, first of all - it was like this- we had just talked at school, you

kna-,, about hCM it happened, feeling bad about hCM it had happened, and

sare of the kids said, you knCM, that we should walJc out the next day, you

kna-,, find out if we get out of school the day of the funeral, you kna-,,

and the kids wanted to kno.v and we found out we didn't and scree of us

said, we should walk out anyway, or sles not care to school and protest

about it, and so a few kids up to Lincoln thought the same thing.

NCM, was this over the week-end or that Monday?

'111at Mcnday. So, a few kids at Lincoln felt the sarne thing, and so-­

everybody agreed on instead of not caning to school, just walk out at

school in a protest manner, and so that day of the Funeral when it did

happen, we all assembled in front of the school building and it was just

a fEM of us and we called ourselves the Young People's Associatim, so

we got the majority of the sttrlents to leave and then we got the massage

that Lincoln was on their way down here to rreet Manual and we net them

half way down in Parade PArk. Then - I can't rerrertber the boy's name that

was leading Linooln- representing Linooln - well, we decided an marching

to Central to get them and then go down to the school board and just

protest, you know, march around the building in a protest manner.

Were you actually leading the group fran Manual, so to speak?

VEll, yes , they considered rre as their representative, all I was doing

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H.R. was talking about iey feelings, how I felt about it, and they was

agreeing with rre- so they ccnsidered rre as their leader.

R.H. Nc:M, lets go back for just a minute, that Friday. No neetings and

no nmors \rere being spread as to the effect that stuclents fran Manual

should walk out or they should march an the Board of Fducaticn or anything

like that?

H.R. No

R.H. You didn't really start planning anything until that 1-bnday then?

H.R. Right. And so, it was really sarething that happened all of a S\.Xlden

thats all, you know, it just happened real quick and surprized every-

body. I was just expressing iey feelings and so \rere many others, you

know, and evei:ybody just agreed to all what happened, really, and so

when we rret Lincoln, we marched out to Central and it was a peaceful

march, you know, wasn't nobody throwing no bricks at no cars or s~ing

cars, We walked in the streets, yes, but we had a £EM escorts from KPRS

and a £EM teachers helping us, you know, and then when we got to central

Central was tearing up, we heard that Central was turning over cars when we

got to ~ and PJ:ospect, but we had gone that far, so wasn't no need in

us turning back, you know, so we kept en. We was hoping that scne carcera

was there and TV 9 did care, you know, and that made it better far us pro­

testing for not being out of school, cause Kansas was out. So, we got to

Central, the kids at Central was just making a lot of noise, really, I

didn't see them tearing up nothing, but they said they was turning over cars

which I didn't see no car that they had tumed over. 'Ibey said they turned

over a little laundJ:y truck, and so, the police threw sare tear gas in a

car and thats what really started it off, because the police, he started

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H.R. panicing, cause he saw a whole lot of kids, he threw tear gas in a

car, and thats what really made the students mad, and sore of the kids,

who don't go to scnool - who just hang around the scnool, you know,

started thro.-ling bricks and rocks at the polioerren, and that started it

all out, and then when we started marching on our way downtown, thats

when the police started follatlng us and circling us and then when we

got to 31st and W:x:xlland, they started throwing tear gas at everybody

that was in the crowd.

R.H. Was that near or in Troost Park

H.R. vell, when we asserrbled in Troost Park, it was the day after, when all

that started. After they threw that tear gas, the students continued

still, going on downtCMn, thats the best part about it, you k.nCM - even

though they had thrown tear gas, trying to tum them back, they were

still making their way dCMntCMn. So, finally, when we got down to Para'.ie

Park, after we got past the polioerren, the mayor cane down there and he

was talking to us, and then, the stwents were listening to him, you kncM,

even people that ~rked on the Public PArk Department, they was all out

there, they was even letting students ride in their trucks if they was

tired, you know, and we locked up and we saw two busses full of policerren, (across Truman Road )

the riot squad and they' lined all up in a rx:M, going to block the way, and

thats what made the students want to cross

R. H. And they had tear gas masks?

H. R. Yeah, they had tear gas masks , they had the ~ks and thats what made the

students want to go ahead, because it locked like they was overpowering

them and they didn' t want nobody to be overpowering them because of the

Martin Luther King, that really did hurt them, and I guess their feeling

for the cposite race was really caning out. And so, the mayor talked to them,

H.R.

- R. H.

H.R.

Harry Ross

and he wasn't talking about nothing and thats when they- the students

decided to go ahead and thats when Leo Bohannan talked them into going

ahead and getting on the freeway and going on downtown. The riot squaj

was tl:ying to stop them but the mayor told them to let them go ahead

cause they was circling around them anyway and so they got on the freeway

and went oo downtown and then everybody started asserrbling downtown and

then the riot squad was downtown on the City Hall building, in the screets

and everywhere. The thing that made ne mad and a lot of others that was in

there, the mayor talked and Jahn L was talking and I.eo talked and they

talk.a:! the kids into going down here to Holy Narre Church and dance, you

knCM - to exx>l them off. And a lot of people realized that, yoo. knCM, that

didn't make no sense to dance, you knCM, .they oould you knCM, sit up all

night and talk, instead of dancing. "We didn't do all that just to go

sarewhere and just dance, and really, as many people as there was acwn

there, everybody couldn't have got in Holy Narre no way, especially to

dance, no hCM. After all the kids were talking - scree of them said, to

go head on down there and lets go dance , and sare of them had in their

minds to tear up, you knCM, instead of going to dance. Thats when the riot

squad started thrCMing that tear gas, and even hit the mayor up side the

head. They was jsut throwing it just for the fun of it, you know, to them

the riot was fun for them, it was sacething exciting, because it was nosily

nothing but young cops and that was a thrill to them, they ran us all the

way back dCMI1. to. 12th and Paseo, and then on the way running, a l ot of

kids was breaking in places

You nean they ran you all the way £ran Holy Narre Church to 12th and Paseo

No they ran us all the way fran downtown at City Hall down to 12th and

Paseo. Arrl then on the way as they was running , the kids was throwing

H.R.

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bricks, you knCM, and stopping cars and busting people in the head.

Thats 'What really made them mad, because that t.ear gas, really makes

them mad, and thats 'What really made them awful mad, because they say

that tear gas calms people down - but thats 'What really made them mad

and thats what made them really mass up. After they got dCMrl in that

secticn, they decided to just really tear it up, cause they felt- I felt

too, that the whit.e man was really trying to mess over us. This riot

really surprized everybody in Kansas City because they thought the Negroes

here in Kansas City didn't have that much sense, because Missouri used to

be a slave stat.e and they thought these Negroes were scared, but they tricked

them. Thats what them kids felt gocrl about, because they was trying to shCM

them that they had rights themselves and that they lmew hCM to mess up them­

selves and get action, and so all that night, thats 'What they was doing,

tearing up, and seem like every st.ep they took a policemen threw sare kioo of

t.ear gas, just for the fun of it, you know, he just got a kick cut of it. That

night I was riding around with sare friends of mine, trying to find out 'What

was going an, 'What was happening , you know, and sare of them that was in

the organization. Police was driving up beside of us just looking at us and

laughing, and they threw sare tear gas in the car, just for the fun of it,

and kept following us. We was 't do" othin ,.,.,, .... ~. ·ust "din d n mg n g , ev<--.L..l'""-AA.l J ri g an

it's still daylight, and they was jst t:hra,rlng tear gas just for the fun of it

R.H. What time was this

H.R. Oh, I'd say it was about 2 or 3 o'clock, and there was about 4 polioerren in

R.H.

H.R.

a car. Just riding around thrcMing tear gas.

Was this Tuesday or --

Yeah this was Tuesday

R.H. What did you do later that evening?