jan 1, 1924 - Major Hudson segregated elementary school

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1924 Major Hudson segregated elementary school is constructed: Dedicated in the spring of 1924 in the newly-annexed Rosedale district of Kansas City, Kansas, Major Hudson Elementary School was the site of a segregation controversy of national significance.

In September 1924, four Mexican schoolchildren were denied admission by a group of Anglo parents in what contemporary media described as a "near race riot". Over the course of the next 18 months, at the persistent urging of Mexican diplomats, the U.S. State Department intervened and eventually succeeded in requiring Kansas City, Kansas School District to educate the Mexican students. As part of the larger controversy over the creation of segregated Mexican schools in the "separate but equal" era following the Supreme Court's 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision, Major Hudson stands out in that - unlike Emerson Elementary in Argentine and John J. Ingalls in Armourdale - Mexican students were never educated in the new building.

While classes for Mexican students had been formed in the basements of the other two schools, Mexican students were denied admission to Major Hudson altogether. Instead, the school district appointed a teacher to instruct Mexican pupils at the old Melville School that Major Hudson replaced. According to school district records, the Melville School was "no longer needed" and ceased operations in 1940. Mexican-American students were integrated into Major Hudson, which operated continuously as an elementary school until it was closed due to declining attendance in 1983. The building was sold in 1985 to a private developer, who converted the building into Wyandotte County's first residential condominium development. Source: https://khri.kansasgis.org/

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