♪ KU choral chant ♪
PAUL: As a historian, if I'm able
 to investigate this
without my bias or 
the minimum amount of bias,
and then turn around 
and reproduce a history,
that I can then share
 with others, 
they will have a better understanding
 of what happened. 
PAUL to CLARENCE: This was 
a very poverty-stricken
 neighborhood. 
So it was never all black 
but it was predominately black. 
CLARENCE: Paul is coming
 into the narrative
in a significant way
 in the respect that
he's interested in the period
of the late 19th century
to the beginning
 of the 20th century. 
PAUL: My research focus
 has been the African-American 
community of Kansas in general,
 but specifically
in Lawrence, Kansas. 
How they lived, why they came,
 and then why many of them 
chose to actually turn around
 and leave Lawrence
for greener pastures
 further north. 
CLARENCE: In terms of place,
 the region,
and the time period, 
he potentially
 has a very important project. 
PAUL: I do get to feeling a connection
 with the people
that I'm studying because you're reading
 so many narratives
and you're reading 
newspaper articles about their lives,
you're seeing pictures
 of their lives. 
If there's one family
 I'm closest with
it would be 
the Harvey family. 
DEBORAH to PAUL: 
The Harvey's are some of our earliest settlers. 
PAUL: They were ones who were working
 to help ameliorate
the condition of 
the African-American in Lawrence. 
PAUL TO DEBORAH: 
And he went and served in
the Philippine Wars. 
A captain for the Lawrence Guards
once they were incorporated
 into the 23rd Kansas. 
PAUL: The tax records help 
because they show that Lawrence 
was never at any point
 outrightly segregated. 
So you had African-Americans
living in fairly
 affluent neighborhoods 
but at the same time
 while African-Americans 
were able to live next door
 with whites, 
they were segregated
 in social institutions. 
If you were an African-American
 and lived next to a white man 
but you wanted to go 
see a show downtown,
you might go to 
the Bower Sock opera house. 
African-Americans 
had to stay up in a balcony
with a very colorful name
 while the white patrons
would sit down in 
the main seats with the best view. 
All of these businesses
 and churches reflect the mentality
of the African-Americans
 who came here. 
CLARENCE: I think that the goal
 of any public university 
should be to try and create individuals
 who have been exposed 
to a range of methods
 for getting at the truth. 
And I think a student like Paul
 has been well-trained 
certainly to pursue history,
 if that's what he chooses,
but any range of occupations. 
PAUL: Looking through 
all these pictures
you start to feel a connection
 with the people. 
They are no longer 
just black ink on a page. 
People like the Harveys,
 all they wanted was a voice. 
As a historian,
 I'm able to give them that voice
and I'm able to give a voice
 to the concerns
of white people and black people. 
That's what I love most about it. 
    
