A retired Kansas City fire captain is on a yearslong mission to honor every firefighter in the department's 157-year history who has died in the line of duty. Plus: A Kansas cemetery holds the stories of Black "Exodusters" who moved north after the Civil War.

The Kansas City Fire Department has responded to all kinds of emergencies since 1868. Unfortunately, some of the people who died doing this dangerous work were forgotten. KCUR’s Julie Denesha reports on one man who is making sure those who died in the line are remembered.

Sometimes the little places you pass every day are much more significant than you realize. In Stafford County, Kansas, a small cemetery holds the history of some of Kansas’s Black pioneers. The so-called Exodusters left the South in the years after the Civil War and settled in the Midwest. KMUW's Beccy Tanner takes us to the cemetery and peels back some of its history.

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Kansas City Today is hosted by Nomin Ujiyediin. It is produced by Byron Love and KCUR Studios, and edited by Lisa Rodriguez and Madeline Fox.

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