LAWRENCE — Freedom’s Frontier has received the half-million dollars the federal government held hostage for six months, ensuring the organization can continue for another year to preserve the story of the struggle for freedom through historic sites across Kansas and Missouri.
Freedom’s Frontier is among 62 National Heritage Areas that recognize historic, cultural and natural resources, with an emphasis on preservation, recreation, tourism and educational projects. NHAs are supported through public-private partnerships, and the Trump administration had refused to release congressionally approved funding for them.
A Freedom’s Frontier spokesman said during a conversation for the Kansas Reflector podcast in June that the organization would cease to exist without the federal support. He urged anyone who cares about preserving history to contact their representatives in Washington.
The funding was released on Tuesday.
IN A STATEMENT, Lucinda Adams, executive director of Freedom’s Frontier, said “advocacy turned the tide.”
“Because of the dedication and advocacy of our friends and partners across the region, we are now able to continue our core mission of promoting tourism and economic development in rural Kansas and Missouri,” said Lucinda Adams, executive director of Freedom’s Frontier. “Your calls and conversations with your representatives mattered. We are deeply grateful.”
U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, a Kansas Democrat, and U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II, a Missouri Democrat, sent a letter in June to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget urging the release of funds for Freedom’s Frontier and other National Heritage Areas. The freeze was lifted in July, but reduced staffing at the National Park Service caused further delays and uncertainty, according to a statement from Freedom’s Frontier. The funding would have expired if not distributed before Sept. 30.
FREEDOM’S Frontier unites more than 200 sites across 41 counties in eastern Kansas and western Missouri. Collectively, they preserve the story of the border war that preceded Kansas’ entry into the union, the enduring struggle for freedom and the settlement of the western frontier.
The sites include the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum in Independence, Missouri, the Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park in Topeka, the Little House on the Prairie Museum in Independence, Kansas, the Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum and Hangar Museum in Atchison, and the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City, Missouri.
Johnny Szlauderbach, director of communications and strategic projects at Freedom’s Frontier, said on the Kansas Reflector podcast in June that the organization was working to “make sure that people understand that these stories are nationally significant.”
“This area is interesting in that it’s served as a kind of microcosm for concepts of freedom throughout American history,” Szlauderbach said, from the abolition of slavery to the fight for women’s suffrage, to the landmark legal battle that ended segregation in public schools.
“This is a testing ground. We serve to be stewards of that nationally significant story,” Szlauderbach said.
