This time nearly a century ago, Kansas City was approaching what local historian Joelouis Mattox calls the "Gloomy Years" – a nearly four-decade period in which African Americans were subjected to bigotry and discrimination. They could not stay at “white” hotels and motels, eat at downtown restaurants, ride in Yellow taxis, or use Swope Park’s whites-only swimming pool or golf course. Only once a year were they granted admission to Fairyland Amusement Park at 75th and Prospect. No blacks sat on the city council. None got treatment at the city’s General Hospital. For African Americans, there was General Hospital No. 2. Mattox, historian of the American Legion’s Wayne Minor Post 149, discusses that disconcerting era from approximately 1918-54. Attendees are invited to share what they saw and experienced.