may 17, 1920 - Westlawn Cemetery

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Westlawn Cemetery was organized May 17, 1920, and continued to operate until October 15, 1973. The founders purchased the land located 622 North 38th Street Kansas City, Kansas. They purchased the twenty-two and two-fifths acres of land from Henry Arendis, at a price of one thousand dollars an acre.
At the beginning, 2,200 of stock with ten dollars value per share. There were thirty seven shareholders, and they resided not only in the Greater Kansas City Area but in other cities over the nation.
When Westlawn Cemetery was founded, blacks in Kansas City, Kansas did not have much choice of a final resting place. “Although a few cemeteries permitted it, there were not many places where blacks and whites were set down in the earth to spend an eternity together.” The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which opened up Public Accommodations, included cemeteries.
Prominent in the formation of Westlawn Cemetery were: Nathan W. Thatcher, Dr. I.H. Anthony, A.J. Neely, George P. McNair, J.H. Clayborne, Willis Allen, Rev. George McNeal, Dr. S.H. Thompson, Dr. J.G.N. Soanes, Dr. H.D. Voohries, I.F. Bradley, Sr., Nathan Payne, C. Buckner, Elizabeth Buckner, and Sgt. William Patterson.
Some persons who served as officers and managers were: Clifford Woods, W.P. Mims, Rubye McNeal, Dr. J.R. Thompson, Edward Hill, Eunice Clark Minnie B. Cooper and Dr. W.A. Love.
Westlawn Cemetery is the final resting place for many of the black citizens of Kansas City, Kansas. From its founding in 1920 until 1973, a total of 10,000 people were buried at Westlawn. On one of the grave markers, W.L. Hughes, is shown. He was born a slave in Alabama in 1850 and died in 1925. His children brought him to Kansas City, Kansas in the 1920s, and he lived with his daughter, Minnie Daniels, at 1909 North Hallock. (Midwest Mirror Magazine) (Kansas City Star).

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