What does it take to preserve the stories that shaped Kansas — and to tell them honestly?

Shane Carter, executive director of the Kansas African American Museum (TKAAM), joins us for a rich conversation about history, identity, and the work of building something that lasts. Shane’s path to Wichita is anything but ordinary: a chance painting job in Newton, a curiosity-fueled afternoon touring Wichita’s historical sites, and a job posting that felt like it had his name on it. What followed was a year of pouring hard-won lessons from 13 years running a community center in Ohio into one of the most important cultural institutions in the state.

We get into the history of the museum’s building — a church hand-built brick by brick by its congregation, saved from demolition by a woman who stood in front of it and said no — and the responsibility TKAAM carries to tell accurate history without pointing fingers or creating shame. Shane is direct, personal, and genuinely inspiring. Stay for the whole thing.

Highlights

• The Retro Future Home — A 1950s all-electric model home in Prairie Village toured by 60,000 people, preserved inside the Johnson County Museum, and a striking reminder of who those “American Dream” suburbs were designed for
• Shane’s Kansas origin story — How a cash job painting in Newton led him to spend his lunch breaks learning about Hattie McDaniel, the Dockum Sit-In, Chester I. Lewis, Nicodemus, and the Exodusters
• The do-gooder’s dilemma — The tension between giving everything to your community and actually making it home for dinner; Shane reflects on what it cost him and what the move to Kansas restored
• The Lincoln Community Center — A one-room schoolhouse turned regional hub: 120 kids daily, a staff of 30, a $6M construction project completed during COVID, and job re-entry for people the system had given up on
• TKAAM’s building history — Calvary Baptist Church, demolished and rebuilt by its congregation in 1916–17, saved from county demolition in the 1970s by Doris Kerr Larkins, and now the home of the Kansas African American Museum
• The new museum and culture center at 201 North Main — A capital campaign with a goal of opening in June 2028, featuring immersive and interactive exhibits on Wichita’s civil rights history
• Telling history without shame — How Shane thinks about creating a genuinely non-political safe space where the Tulsa Massacre, segregation, and civil rights are told accurately to everyone in the room
• Juneteenth programming — Free admission June 19–20, a community mural with Evergy at the museum, and events at McAdams Park with the Juneteenth ICT group

Chapters

• 0:00 — Retro Future Home
• 2:03 — Segregation Reality Check
• 2:38 — Introducing Shane Carter
• 3:53 — Kansas Journey Begins
• 4:41 — Ohio Roots & Leadership
• 8:17 — The Do-Gooder’s Dilemma
• 9:50 — Skills for the TKAAM Role
• 13:29 — Finding the Museum
• 21:36 — Learning Kansas & Wichita
• 23:48 — Museum Origins & Building
• 29:25 — Hidden Stories & Water Street
• 31:37 — Churches as Community Pillars
• 35:38 — Museum Literacy Program
• 36:09 — Museum Programs Overview
• 37:25 — Trailblazers Hall of Fame
• 38:41 — STEM Spotlight at Exploration Place
• 39:21 — Taking Education Beyond Walls
• 41:48 — Building the New Culture Center
• 43:19 — Telling History Without Shame
• 50:46 — Support the Capital Campaign
• 51:33 — Juneteenth Events & Meaning
• 56:48 — Mom’s Knick-Knacks Game
• 1:02:07 — Wrap-Up & Announcements

Resources Mentioned

• Kansas African American Museum (TKAAM) — www.tkaamuseum.org/
• Juneteenth ICT — Community programming at McAdams Park, Wichita
• Johnson County Museum — Home of the Retro Future Home
• Exploration Place — Wichita; site of TKAAM’s African Americans in STEM February projection
• Greenwood Rising — Tulsa, Oklahoma; TKAAM peer and partner
• Cosmosphere — Hutchinson, Kansas
• Sunflower Summer — Kansas free-admission summer program for families

Learn more about the podcast at askakansan.com!

This show is part of the ICT Podcast Network, for more information, visit ictpod.net