white Plaza lights

I think that J.C. Nichols' design and vision for the Country Club Plaza is an amazing story. The shopping area is still beautiful and a pleasure to visit. But J.C.’s covenants which excluded Blacks and Jews from property ownership created a “bosnia” that endures in Kansas City. Those covenants really worked. As folks here are rather polite, it’s one of those things we just don’t talk about. But today, on a local radio discussion program, The Walt Bodine Show, while the panel discussed in usual rosey fashion the lovely architecture and the Plaza Christmas lights to be lit tomorrow night, the festive talk took a turn when a caller brought up Nichols’ segregation covenants. This is a guy who made millions with this business strategy. The panel did a rather lame tap dance, but the caller was quite calm and very informative…so much for the holiday spirit. His design mind was cool, though. For some his legacy is the Plaza and for others his legacy is an enduring racially divided city, still living in the shadow of those incredibly effective covenants.