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Category Archives: Gordon Parks Museum
Presentation Explores Wichita’s Dockum Drugstore Sit-In
Fort Scott, Kan. – The Gordon Parks Museum in Fort Scott, KS will host “The Dockum Drugstore Sit-In,” a presentation and discussion by Dr. Prisca Barnes on Monday, January 19, 2026 at 12:00p.m. at the Danny & Willa Ellis Family Fine Arts Center. Members of the community are invited to attend the free program. Contact the Gordon Parks Museum at 620-223-2700 ext. 5850 for more information. The program is made possible by Humanities Kansas.
This is a free Lunch and Learn event, with gumbo soup lunch provided by Great Western Dining. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend this celebration event” said Museum Director, Kirk Sharp.
Seeking racial equity and an end to segregation, Wichita’s Black students organized and staged a sit-in in 1958 at Wichita’s Dockum Drugstore. Long denied entry into the city’s movie theaters and restaurants, students exercised their right to peacefully protest over a three-week period at the popular lunch counter. What transpired, how it ended, and the lasting impact it had on race relations in the city is the focus of this talk. More broadly, the talk will explore how these types of protests transformed the struggle for racial equity in America.
Dr. Prisca Barnes is the founder of Storytime Village, Inc., a nonprofit organization in Wichita that promotes reading among low-income children and families. She is a passionate advocate for equity in education and literacy.
“The Dockum Sit-in was one of the first student-led lunch counter protests of the Civil Rights era and it happened here in Kansas,” said Barnes. “It’s important to revisit its circumstances.”
“The Dockum Drugstore Sit-In” is part of Humanities Kansas’s Speakers Bureau and “21st Century Civics,” a collection of resources that invite Kansans to participate in community discussions and learn more about the history of American democracy and the shared responsibilities of citizenship. “21st Century Civics” is made possible with support from “A More Perfect Union: America at 250,” an initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
For more information about “The Dockum Drugstore Sit-In” in Fort Scott, KS contact The Gordon Parks Museum at 620- 223-2700 ext. 5850 or visit https://www.gordonparkscenter.org/
About Humanities Kansas
Humanities Kansas is an independent nonprofit leading a movement of ideas to empower the people of Kansas to strengthen their communities and our democracy. Since 1972, our pioneering programming, grants, and partnerships have documented and shared stories to spark conversations and generate insights. Together with our partners and supporters, we inspire all Kansans to draw on history, literature, ethics, and culture to enrich their lives and serve the communities and state we all proudly call home. Visit humanitieskansas.org.
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Gordon Parks Museum celebrating the life of Martin Luther King Jr.on January 15
Fort Scott, Kan. – The Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration events will be held in Fort Scott. All of the events will take place at Ellis Fine Arts Center (2108 Horton Street) and are open and free for the entire community to attend.
The events will start on Thursday, January 15, 2026, at the Danny and Willa Ellis Family Fine Arts Center with a free (Lunch and Learn) event that will be held at 12:00 p.m., featuring Fort Scott Community College Students and Pittsburg State University Students for a Tribute Reading of the “Letter From the Birmingham Jail” a written letter by Dr. King. Tomato soup, dessert, birthday cake and drinks will also be provided by Great Western Dining Services.
The celebration will wrap up on Monday, January 19th, with a film showing of the PBS home video documentary In Remembrance of Martin., (Lunch and Learn) event and Canned and Non-perishable Food Drive. Food items will be collected at the museum from 9:00am – till 2:00p.m. The film In Remembrance of Martin will be shown at 10:30a.m. The (Lunch and Learn) Speaker Presentation Event “The Dockum Drugstore Sit-In” by Dr. Prisca Barnes is will be held at 12:00p.m. – till 1:00p.m. Gumbo soup, drinks and desserts will be provided by Great Western Dining Services.
“The Dockum Drugstore Sit-In” is part of Humanities Kansas’s Speakers Bureau and “21st Century Civics,” a collection of resources that invite Kansans to participate in community discussions and learn more about the history of American democracy and the shared responsibilities of citizenship. “21st Century Civics” is made possible with support from “A More Perfect Union: America at 250,” an initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
More information on the events can be found at https://www.gordonparkscenter.org/events. For more information call the Gordon Parks Museum at 620-223-2700 ext. 5850.
Gordon Parks Museum celebrating the life of Martin Luther King Jr.
Fort Scott, Kan. – The Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration events will be held in Fort Scott. All of the events will
take place at Ellis Fine Arts Center and are open and free for the entire community to attend.
The events will start on Thursday, January 15, 2026, at the Danny and Willa Ellis Family Fine Arts Center with
a free (Lunch and Learn) event that will be held at 12:00p.m., featuring Fort Scott Community College Students
and Pittsburg State University Students for a Tribute Reading of the “Letter From the Birmingham Jail” a
written letter by Dr. King. Tomato soup, dessert, birthday cake and drinks will also be provided by Great
Western Dining Services.
The celebration will wrap up on Monday, January 19th, with a film showing of the PBS home video
documentary In Remembrance of Martin., (Lunch and Learn) event and Canned and Non-perishable Food
Drive. Food items will be collected at the museum from 9:00am – till 2:00p.m. The film In Remembrance of
Martin will be shown at 10:30a.m. The (Lunch and Learn) Speaker Presentation Event “The Dockum Drugstore
Sit-In” by Dr. Prisca Barnes is will be held at 12:00p.m. – till 1:00p.m. Gumbo soup, drinks and desserts will be
provided by Great Western Dining Services.
“The Dockum Drugstore Sit-In” is part of Humanities Kansas’s Speakers Bureau and “21st Century Civics,” a
collection of resources that invite Kansans to participate in community discussions and learn more about the
history of American democracy and the shared responsibilities of citizenship. “21st Century Civics” is made
possible with support from “A More Perfect Union: America at 250,” an initiative of the National Endowment for
the Humanities.
More information on the events can be found at https://www.gordonparkscenter.org/events. For more
information call the Gordon Parks Museum at 620-223-2700 ext. 5850.
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Happenings At The Gordon Park Museum
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Gordon Parks Birthday CelebrationIs December 3
Fort Scott, Kan. Nov. 20, 2025 – The Gordon Parks Museum at Fort Scott Community College will
celebrate the anniversary of Gordon Parks’ birthday on Wednesday, December 3rd for a speaking
presentation and performance by Lem Sheppard, internationally known musician and historian titled
“Gordon Parks: His Music and The Music Around Him”. The event is free of charge and the public is
invited to attend. Throughout the day, visitors will be able to receive a 25% birthday discount on all
apparel items.
Parks, born in Fort Scott on November 30, 1912, would have been 113 this year. He died in March 7,
2006 at the age of 93.
For more information contact the Gordon Parks Museum at 620- 223-2700, ext. 5850 or by email
at [email protected]
Celebrating Gordon Parks
113th Birthday
Lunch & Learn
FREE EVENT
Bring your lunch
Birthday Cake and Drinks, will be provided!!
Join us as Lem Sheppard, internationally known musician and historian
will be presenting a program of some of Gordon’s music along with Jazz,
blues, and Spirituals. Gordon Parks was born and grew up during the
period that was referred to as the Harlem Renaissance and he will perform
music that Gordon would have experienced as a child in Fort Scott,
as well as in; St. Paul, Chicago and New York City.
For more information contact the Gordon Parks Museum at
620 -223-2700 ext 5850 or email: gordonparkscenter@fortscott.
2025 Gordon Parks Celebration Poetry Contest Winners Named
Fort Scott, Kan. — Winners of the Gordon Parks Museum Poetry Contest sponsored by Helen Townsend and
Trabar Associates, have been selected.
The theme was “What Does Your Heart See?”
A record 41 entries were received. The winner of First Place was Angele Martinez, Nevada. MO, with the poem
titled, “Shot Photo of the Heart”. Second Place was Liam-Warren Acaeron, Chicago, IL with the poem, “The
Stern of You and Me”. And Third Place was Corine Gaston. Tulsa, OK with the poem, “For Evelyn”.
There were four Honorable Mentions named:
Marissa Byers, Indianapolis, IN, with the poem titled ” Searching Seeing” Tracey Seals, Fort Scott, KS, with the poem titled, “What My Heart Sees” Aaliyah Teague, Wichita, KS with the poem titled, “The Middle Child” Raegan Neufeld, Pittsburg, KS with the poem titled, “My Home On the Prairie”
First, Second, and Third place winners received cash prizes of $200, $150, and $100 respectively.
This poetry contest is inspired by a quote from Gordon Parks, “I feel it is the heart, not the eye, that
should determine the content of the photograph. What the eye sees is its own. What the heart can
perceive is a very different matter.”
Poets were invited to capture the essence of the theme.
Judges for the photo contest were Annette Hope-Billings and Poet, Cash Hollistah.
The poetry exhibit will be
on display on the Gordon Parks Museum facebook page facebook.com/fsccgpmuseum/ and the museum’s
website gordonparkscenter.org.
Angele Martinez, Nevada. MO, with the poem
titled, “Shot Photo of the Heart”
SHOT PHOTO OF THE HEART
Click.
Not to own.
To listen.
Listen to what beats.
Silence…
then a burst !
The heart opening :
It’s the camera lens.
To look ?
No. To feel.
Before shape,
Before contour,
Before the world even knows
It exists !
The eye may take
But it is the heart that receives !
Receives what we feel,
Echoing everywhere.
Where ?
Everywhere !
In streets,
In shadows,
In faces.
To catch the ephemeral
Which is only ephemeral in the moment
Because the message itself is powerful !
To capture the world
until it passes through us !
The world,
Not seen
But touched,
Then leaving…
More complex,
More real,
Carrying the moment away.
Liam-Warren Acaeron, Chicago, IL with the poem, “The
Stern of You and Me”
THE STERN OF U & ME
From the bleak of my now, I make a U-
turn, to see what my life of art must have navigated—
like 1996, when I used to palm a K1000,
strapped around my neck, lens dangling over my chest—
my art must have eyed all the better wearer of jeans,
must have zoomed into my guitar case a few feet away
a slice of the strap that held my dad’s yashica,
my art must still see the old crevices where
plaque was once pastries and pepsi, see
the chest that bounded when I heard Dad
is dead.
my art must still see this chest that caved in and out,
late at night, when I walked to the edge of the lake waters,
I can’t swim, I walked on, my body underwater, neck above surface,
until
my feet touched sand no more. Must still see this chest
that was pushed by a mysterious wave, back to the shore, and
I lived
to change my mind about unliving.
Must still see a microcosmically bent chest from a punch
at my homeless shelter, because
I have a lot of torn power, bold or be a bell, just
compressed when I wheezed in winter from a mild pneumonia,
my life of art eyes a stable ribcage from carrying fifty-pound
groceries from pantry to Mom, unmindful
of my spine, tapped of so much burden,
crimson blood to burgundy when it was 92 degrees
of walking miles from my Skokie Village to Howard train station.
Just now, I heart that there were once chiefs who met eagles
just to raid the future for a bow.
Just now, a goose and a car honk before the oncoming traffic
of snowstorm, to oversee this memo
that I am still a hull, for better shots,
between my stern and your meadow.
Corine Gaston,Tulsa, OK with the poem, “For Evelyn”.
For Evelyn
We used to walk and say hello to the trees,
the creeping phlox, the rockpools
She taught me how to hold my thumb
as a perch for the monarchs
Migrating through the pine barrens
and on and on over the tea-colored lake
I see a picture of the park with the chain-link fence
She points: I chased off boys
Throwing their shoes over the powerlines
And the forest is falling through me again.
Then one summer, she lay in hospice
and called out to god, her thin body all pain.
She held my hand tight in her grip
and when she was ready to go, she let go.
The morning light shined on
like it was any other day.
There was moss on the magnolia.
Clouded moonlight lifting its cloth from the tide
It brought me to my knees–my grandmother’s body
without my grandmother.
We buried her in a box and
slid the coffin into a granite wall.
She loved butterflies and dogwoods,
Dipping one hand in the rockpool
Watching the seaplanes through a lens–
Watching a single star bleeding white against blue
As if she said I’ve had enough of this earth.
Let me be reborn with one foot on the sky.
Dance Party Tonight at the Gordon Parks Museum
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Sending on behalf of Chamber member The Gordon Parks Museum |
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| The Gordon Parks Museum
invites you to take part in the 22nd Annual Celebration This weekend ~ October 2nd-4th! |
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Friday highlight this year The Celebration Dance Party featuring “The Full Flava Kings” The Full Flava Kings, from Tulsa, Oklahoma, are one of the best party bands in the region. Celebrate and dance the night away at The River Room, 3 W. Oak St. Doors open at 7:00 pm Band starts at 8:00 pm Tickets: $25/each or $30/each at the door Click HERE to order tickets! See the flyer below for additional details! |
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Click HERE for a full schedule of The Gordon Parks Celebration events! |
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Chamber Coffee Hosted by Gordon Parks Museum on Oct. 2
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Wayman Chapel AME Church Commemorative Park Grand Opening and Dedication Ceremony
The Gordon Parks Museum will host a grand opening event and dedication
ceremony for the Wayman Chapel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church Commemorative Park on
Thursday, October 2, at 4:30 p.m. as part of the Gordon Parks Celebration events.
The commemorative park is located at 301 S. Lowman Street in Fort Scott, on the historic site that was once
home to the oldest Black church in Fort Scott. The land, formerly the property of Wayman Chapel AME
Church, was generously donated to the Gordon Parks Museum by Fort Scott resident Josh Jones, through the
Fort Scott Community College Foundation.
Photo Courtesy of and Copyright by The Gordon Parks Foundation
(left to right) Josh Jones, Kirk Sharp, Gordon Parks Museum, and Sarah Smith, Fort Scott Community College Foundation. Submitted photo.
The church was regularly attended by Gordon Parks and his family, and was even featured in a scene from
Parks’ acclaimed film, The Learning Tree.
Originally established in 1866, the church moved to its final location at Third and Lowman in 1885, where it
stood for more than 115 years as a spiritual and cultural cornerstone of Fort Scott’s Black community.
Declining membership and unsafe building conditions eventually led to its condemnation and demolition in the
early 2000s.
While the building is gone, its legacy endures: two original stained-glass windows, two pews, and
other archival objects from the church are now preserved in the Gordon Parks Museum’s permanent collection.
The property has since been transformed into a commemorative, low-maintenance park honoring the legacy of
the church.
AME Church
Gordon Parks, 1950.
Photo Courtesy of and Copyright by The Gordon Parks Foundation. Submitted photo.
The new display signage includes four large storyboard panels (76” x 27”) featuring photos,
graphics, and text that highlight the church’s rich history and its vital role in the local Black community. These
panels are installed on a concrete slab beneath a pergola structure (12’ x 20’). In addition, a large 4’ x 3’
welcome sign will greet visitors at the park entrance.
The commemorative park is funded in part by Kansas Tourism and made possible with generous support from:
Armstrong Pressure Washing, LLC, Bourbon County Historical Association, City of Fort Scott, Fort Scott Area
Community Foundation, Fort Scott Community College Foundation, The Healthy Bourbon County Action
Team’s Local Health Equity Action Team (LHEAT), Josh Jones, Rick Mayhew, My One Stop, Marbery
Concrete, Inc. and McKenney Masonry, LLC.
The Gordon Parks Museum to Host Mural Dedication
Fort Scott, Kan. Sept. 22, 2025 – The Gordon Parks Museum will host a dedication ceremony for a new mural
honoring Gordon Parks on Friday, October 3, at 4:15 p.m. as part of the Gordon Parks Celebration events.
The mural will be located on the north side of the Wilder House Building at 18 East Wall Street (home of the
Sunshine Boutique) in downtown Fort Scott.
Renowned St. Louis–based visual artist and illustrator Cbabi Bayoc designed and painted the mural. Bayoc is
internationally known for his vibrant and thought-provoking works and is also the artist behind the First Kansas
Colored Infantry Mural, completed in 2023 on the north downtown building at 9 South Main Street near Skubitz
Plaza, facing the Fort Scott National Historic Site.
The Gordon Parks Museum received a $6,874 grant from the Kansas Arts Commission Public Art and Murals
Grant Program to support the project. Funding for Kansas Arts Commission grants is provided by the Kansas
Legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Additional support for the project is provided by the Fort Scott Area Chamber of Commerce and Fort Scott
Forward.
For more information, please contact The Gordon Parks Museum at (620) 223-2700, ext. 5850 or
[email protected]
New Gordon Parks Book Is Released
Gordon Parks Museum Releases a Two-Volume Book- Fort Scott Stories and I Needed Paris
Fort Scott, Kan. Sept. 11, 2025 – The Gordon Parks Museum, in partnership with photojournalist and
documentary filmmaker D. Michael Cheers, 2025 Choice of Weapons Award recipient, proudly presents a
special two-volume book – Fort Scott Stories and I Needed Paris, celebrating the 75th anniversary of Gordon
Parks’ “Back to Fort Scott.”
This 244-page photo essay book contains wonderful story telling images by various photographers, along with
some of Gordon Parks iconic photos he took in 1950.
Fort Scott Stories, is the first volume, that is inspired by Parks’ 1950-Fort Scott photo essay assignment for Life
Magazine. This book offers a powerful glimpse into the heartbeat of Fort Scott, through vivid portraits and
authentic storytelling. It captures the voices of residents across generations, business owners, church members,
and everyday citizens reflecting the city’s spirit, diversity, and resilience.
I Needed Paris, is the second volume of the book that follows a group of student-photographers through Paris,
retracing Gordon Parks’ path while he worked for LIFE magazine (1950–52). The book reimagines his fashion,
portrait, and documentary work, featuring African American expats, emerging Black designers, and intimate
portraits of migrant and refugee communities.
The two-volume coffee-table set, Fort Scott Stories, will be available for $65 per book (plus tax) and is planned
for release during the 22nd Annual Gordon Parks Celebration, October 2–4, 2025. With a limited number of
copies being printed, pre-orders are highly recommended.
To place your order or for more information, contact the Gordon Parks Museum at 620-223-2700 ext. 5850 or
email [email protected].
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