In 1980, the Kansas City region witnessed a historic occasion:

The National Archives in Washington, D.C. lent the actual Emancipation Proclamation to the Midwest for the first time. This four-day exhibition was the result of a community partnership between the Black Archives of Mid-America, Inc., in Kansas City and The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Mr. Horace Peterson III, found director of the Black Archives, and Mr. Ralph Coe, third director of the Nelson-Atkins, made this possible. From May 15–18, over 8,800 people saw this important historic American document at the museum