

Shown in photo: Larry Lester(Pres.), Rodney Thompson(filmmaker), Dr. Cecelia Robinson(VP), Dr. Antonio Holland(Historian), and W. Stinson McClendon(filmmaker)
On Saturday, September 21, 2024, at 1:00 pm, the Greater Kansas City Black History Study Group resumed its fall programming with its Founder’s Day Program which was held at the Black Archives of Mid-America-1722 E. 17th Terrace-Kansas City, MO 64108. The 2024 theme, African Americans and the Arts continued to be explored in our program that featured local independent filmmakers, Mr. Rodney M. Thompson and Mr. W. Stinson McClendon.
Mr. Thompson and Mr. McClendon have a well-established record of documenting the history, culture, and lives of Greater Kansas Citians and beyond. Rodney Thompson was a Co-Producer/Director on the documentary, “An Inconceivable Journey,” produced in collaboration with the Black Archives of Mid-America, highlighting the experience of Africans in America from 1619 to the present from a youthful perspective He is currently at work on “Jazz Talk,” an Interactive Video Exhibit featuring historic interviews with noted jazz artists relating first-hand accounts of the origins and evolution of jazz in Kansas City. He also made “My Mother’s Club,” a documentary on African American women’s Kansas City social clubs from the 1940’s – 1960’s. W. Stinson McClendon’s film credits include Confessin’ The Blues, a documentary on jazz singer/musician Jay “Hootie” McShann; Fiddler’s Dream, a documentary on legendary jazz violinist Claude Fiddler Williams; the award-winning short film Tom Bass…Equestrian; and The Garrett Morgan Story, a film that chronicles the life of the inventor of the first tri-functional traffic signal. His film Through the Eyes of a Child, a documentary focusing on four historically black communities in the St. Louis area, won 2nd place at the Hollywood Black Film Festival. His short film, A Room with An Ear, placed 2nd at the Bare Bones Film Festival.
Stinson and Thompson co-produced A Conversation in Dance, a documentary on Kansas City Missouri’s legendary Two Step, a dance that traces its lineage to the Big Band era and, I Remember 12th Street, a documentary film about the history of Kansas City’s storied 12th Street, the subject of song and jazz legends, as told through firsthand accounts by people who lived through one of the most fascinating periods in the city’s history.
The work of Thompson and McClendon further demonstrates how African American artists have used art to preserve history and community memory, as well as for empowerment.