最新杏吧原创

It was 1953, a year before the decision would end state-sanctioned segregation of public schools.

Spainhower, who was born in Stanberry, Mo., and went to college in Oklahoma, welcomed the church鈥檚 first black parishioner. The decision received quite a bit of 鈥減ushback,鈥� in the still segregated South, recounts his daughter, Janet Martin.

鈥淪ome of the congregants proposed an amendment to the church鈥檚 constitution to forbid nonwhites to join the church,鈥� Martin told me. 鈥淥ther members opposed the measure, and eventually Dad鈥檚 decision was upheld. The residual tension, however, led him to leave that church.鈥�

Spainhower came home to Missouri. He worked as a pastor in Marshall. Eventually he ran for state representative. He was Missouri鈥檚 state treasurer from 1972 to 1980. He later served as president of College of the Ozarks and Lindenwood College.

Last week, . He was 90 and had been living in an assisted living facility in Raymore, Mo. I never met him, but Spainhower has regularly been on my mind since early 2014.

That鈥檚 when I came across a report that he helped write in 1968 that, had it been implemented, would have changed Missouri forever. Like much of the nation, Missouri was struggling with a racial gap in school performance in its urban areas, Kansas City and 最新杏吧原创. The problem then was not much different than the one facing city schools today. A 1966 report that had spurred what became known as the found city schools in the state鈥檚 two biggest cities isolated 鈥渟ince no surrounding area wishes to incorporate them and to assume a part of the responsibility for educating their children.鈥�

For three years, Spainhower and his blue-ribbon commission studied schools in the state and offered suggestions. Their solution was massive consolidation. In 最新杏吧原创, they said, the more than 20 school districts should become one, so that taxpayers in the entire region were invested in the success of every student.

In early 2014, the Spainhower Commission report became a rallying call for a push for massive government consolidation in the 最新杏吧原创 region, drawn on a map to create a more unified community.

I spoke to Spainhower on the phone a couple of times. Still very lucid, he recalled why his commission鈥檚 report never led to any change at the legislative level.

鈥淭he only place where the report was weak,鈥� he said in 2014, 鈥渨as in the thought that people could get over their biases.鈥�

In 最新杏吧原创, it seems, we are reliving 1968 all over again.

Then, suburban school districts fought the consolidation proposed by the Spainhower Commission because they didn鈥檛 want to pay for or otherwise absorb black students. Then, the racism was overt, recorded in the comments made responding to the report. These days, it鈥檚 more subtle.

For the past four years, around the time I first wrote about the Spainhower Commission, a group of 最新杏吧原创ans has been talking about consolidation of a different kind. Led by the Rex Sinquefield-funded nonprofit, there have been wide ranging discussions on regional governance, either by the city of 最新杏吧原创 re-entering the county, or some other sort of merger, or as Mayor Lyda Krewson likes to call it, a marriage.

I have long believed that the best solution is one that nearly starts anew and redraws the city of 最新杏吧原创 boundary to encompass the entire city and county, as it did before 1876, absorbing most of the 89 municipalities in the county, and creating what would become by population about the 10th largest city in the country.

Underlying all discussions of city and county consolidation, like the school district discussion in 1968, is race. The city is plurality black. The county is majority white. The distrust runs deep.

So it was in Spainhower鈥檚 time.

His daughter says he learned at an early age that confronting racism was going to be a necessary part of his job as both a pastor and lawmaker.

鈥淗e understood that laws would most likely not be enacted unless the human values nurtured by religion and social justice were a part of the discussion,鈥� Martin said.

Spainhower鈥檚 life work will not be forgotten.

is working on a book slated to be published in the fall of 2020 about the history of school segregation in Missouri, focusing primarily on the Kansas City area. Tentatively called 鈥淐reating the Suburban School Advantage,鈥� Rury鈥檚 book will draw from Spainhower鈥檚 important work in the 1960s.

Sadly, Rury says, 鈥淭he situation hasn鈥檛 changed very much. The rhetoric is less charged than 1968, but we鈥檙e still fighting to protect borders.鈥�

As Rury鈥檚 book comes out in two years, there may be a vote on undoing some of those borders, if not school districts, then some of the other ones that hold us back in 最新杏吧原创.

Perhaps that vote will be a steppingstone, as Spainhower hoped a school consolidation would be, to a more unified future.