A podcast for Kansans about Kansans.

History.com reports that of the available assassination files – roughly 5 million pages – about 88% have been open to the public since the late 1990s. An additional 11% had been released but in redacted form, with sensitive portions excised.

Sixty years feels like a long time. A lot should have changed. A lot has not.

Today, the children and grandchildren of the “white moderates” King admonished have taken a more confrontational stance, earning them the derisive moniker, “woke.” A new generation of journalists and academics has explored Malcolm X’s observations about desegregation’s failures in efforts such as critical race theory and later, the 1619 Project. Many school districts remain just as segregated today as they were when Malcolm X observed the pattern of white flight.

Today, we aren’t much closer to learning what led up to JFK’s assassination. His election, the first for a Catholic, has led to only one more, Joe Biden.

We’re still entangled with Russians. Political polarization yet abounds. There remain efforts to suppress Black voting rights.

There was more in ’63. The March on Washington and King’s iconic speech. The 16th Street Baptist church bombing that killed four little girls in Birmingham. Fights over voting rights and housing segregation.

Sixty years is a lot of time, in some respects, but in terms of some of our most protracted challenges, it’s sadly not enough.

Mark McCormick previously served as editor of The Journal.