News & Announcements
Submissions Accepted for Prairie Heritage Book Award 2026-2027
Posted Thursday January 8, 2026
Books are eligible if they illuminate the natural or cultural history of the areas that now comprise the prairie states. They may be in any genre and published in any year. Books may be nominated by anyone--readers, authors, publishers, relatives :-). There is no application fee. ...
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Prairie Heritage Book Award: 2025
Posted Thursday January 8, 2026
Author Victor Luckerson was presented with the 2025 Prairie Heritage Book Award at a community book talk in Junction City, Kansas, on March 27, 2025. Prairie Heritage president Jim Sands presented the author with the $1000 award. The Awards Committee chose Luckerson for his book, Built from the Fire, the Epic Story of Tulsa's Greenwood District: One Hundred Years in the Neighborhood That Refused to Be Erased, as it describes ...
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Victor Luckerson to Receive 2025 Prairie Heritage Book Award!
Posted Saturday February 22, 2025
The Prairie Heritage board has voted to award the 2025 Jan Garton Prairie Heritage Book Award to Victor Luckerson, for his magisterial work, Built from the Fire: The Epic Story of Tulsa's Greenwood District, America's Black Wall Street. One Hundred Yeaars in the Neighborhood that Refused to be Erased (NY: Random House, 2023). Prairie Heritage President Jim Sands will present the $1000 award on March 27, 2025, at a major event ...
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Prairie Heritage Book Award Nominations Accepted for 2025
Posted Monday December 16, 2024
The Prairie Heritage Book Award Committee went into a three-year hiatus as the members immersed themselves in developing the Black History Trail of Geary County, KS. For 2025 they have decided to resume functioning for a limited time. Authors (or other nominators) of books illuminating the social and/or ecological history of prairie areas are invited to apply for the $1000.00 award by submitting 2 copies of the book to Prairie Heritage Book Award, Bird Runner ...
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Freedom's Frontier Grant Will Support Local Black History!
Posted Friday October 25, 2024
Soon our Black History Trail of Geary County will be able to work in concert with a curated exhibit at the Geary County Historical Society Museum. The GCHSM has received a grant from "Freedom's Frontier" to develop this display. "Freedom's Frontier" is a National Heritage Area, established by Congress in 2006, that includes 42 counties in Missouri and Kansas, all uniting to tell the nationally significant stories embedded in this area.
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Our Local Black History Trail Wins National Award!
Posted Thursday October 24, 2024
Here is the press release announcing our national award!
NASHVILLE, TN—June 2024—The American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) proudly announces that the Black History Trail of Geary County is the recipient of an Award of Excellence for Phase 1, The Establishment of Six Sites in Junction City, Kansas.
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Black History Trail Dedicates Three More Sites
Posted Sunday April 28, 2024
April 26 and April 27, 2024 were busy days for Prairie Heritage and our partner organization, the Black History Trail of Geary County.
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"A Discovery that Touched Me Deeply: Hogg Town, An All-Black Kansas Settlement"
Posted Friday November 17, 2023
Ustaine Talley's Research: A Welcome Addition to Kansas Black History
Posted Saturday August 12, 2023
Book Award Process in Hiatus while Work Continues on Black History Trail
Posted Friday July 14, 2023
We are pausing our annual book awards while we work on establishing a Black History Trail in Geary County, Kansas. The board of Prairie Heritage and the Book Awards Committee are volunteering full time with the Black History Trail of Geary County, Inc.--an exciting project that involves building a multi-ethnic coalition of organizations and individuals in support of telling the previously untold stories of African Americans in the Flint Hills of Kansas. ...
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Black History Trail of Geary County Launches First Site
Posted Friday May 5, 2023
Black History Trail starts with VFW Post No. 8773 as first site
By Ryan D. Wilson, Union Publisher May 3, 2023
In unveiling the first site for the Black History Trail, retired Sergeant Major and buffalo soldier Jim Sands teared up as this was culmination of a lifelong dream for his friend who....Read More: https://www.junctioncityunion.com/lifestyles/movies/black-history-trail-starts-with-vfw-post-no-8773-as-first-site/article_ac257e2c-e9c8-11ed-97d5-bfc5760b3710.html
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