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Print this story Kansas Profile - Now That's Rural, Judy Billings - Freedom´s Frontier By Ron Wilson, director, Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University. It is the predawn hours of August 21, 1863. Into the streets of Lawrence, Kansas rides William Quantrill with some murderous raiders from Missouri. They proceed to ransack and burn the town. It´s part of what the national press called Bleeding Kansas, where the dispute over the future of slavery was played out in violent form. Now there´s an initiative to preserve and share the history of this turbulent era. Judy Billings is the director of the Convention and Visitors Bureau in Lawrence. She is giving leadership to what has become known as the Freedom´s Frontier National Heritage Area. "This all began with 15 people sitting around a table in 1999," Judy says. "We were discussing the upcoming sesquicentennial of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the opening up of Indian territory, which ultimately brought Kansas into the Union as a free state. We knew that we had a unique story in Kansas which led up to the Civil War." Judy and other tourism professionals recognized a need to preserve and promote the heritage of this period. It goes back to the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which allowed settlers in those states to determine if the states would allow slavery or not. Both pro- and anti-slavery forces resorted to violence. A pro-slavery raid on Lawrence on 1856 resulted in a tremendous loss of property. Two free-soil newspaper presses and a hotel serving the New England Emigrant Aid Company were destroyed. Three days later, John Brown's execution of five unarmed pro-slavery settlers escalated the violence from looting and destruction to outright murder. These events marked the onset of years of violent guerilla warfare along the Kansas-Missouri border. They generated national headlines about "Bleeding Kansas," focusing national attention on this heated border dispute, ultimately leading to the Civil War. Judy Billings says, "Bleeding Kansas and the border war is our unique story. The balance of power for our country was in question. We were at the epicenter of these struggles for freedom." The National Park Service agreed. In January 2000, a summit meeting was held with people interested in the history of Bleeding Kansas. The conclusion was that this region needed a designation as a national heritage area. That sounded good to Judy, until someone told her the process of getting such a congressional designation usually takes 10 years. She didn´t want to wait that long. But a committed group of volunteers went to work. After a great deal of research and work with the political process, Congress passed such a designation in 2006 -- in only six years. The region became designated the Freedom´s Frontier National Heritage Area. Judy says, "Our national heritage area includes 41 counties, 29 in eastern Kansas and 12 in western Missouri. At 23,000 square miles, it is the second largest national heritage area in the nation. We don´t have a common physical infrastructure, but we do have compelling stories." Ultimately, the story is the struggle for freedom. It includes sites such as Quantrill´s raid in Lawrence, up to more modern times such as the Brown v. Board of Education site in Topeka. It also includes rural places such as the Beecher Bible and Rifle Church in Wabaunsee, where the entire township has a population of 455 people. Now, that´s rural. Judy Billings says, "We have an estimated 200 visitor sites relating to this theme within our national heritage area. But our kids know the Border War only as a nickname for basketball or football games. We are one generation away from losing this history." She says, "We have 100 to 150 people coming to our meetings now, working on a management plan for our heritage area. These people are very committed to telling our unique story." For more information, go to www.freedomsfrontier.org. Fast forward to 2008. Instead of William Quantrill, modern day citizens are riding into Lawrence - not to ransack and burn, but to shop and learn. We commend Judy Billings and all those involved with the Freedom´s Frontier National Heritage Area for making a difference by preserving and promoting this history. This initiative will honor those who helped bring freedom to the frontier. ------------------------------------------------ The mission of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development is to enhance rural development by helping rural people help themselves. The Kansas Profile radio series and columns are produced with assistance from the K-State Research and Extension Department of Communications News Unit. Audio and text files of Kansas Profiles are available at http://www.kansasprofile.com. For more information about the Huck Boyd Institute, interested persons can visit http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/huckboyd/.
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