Civil rights leaders demand Kansas City Manager Brian Platt resign over ‘culture of racism’

Leaders point to the surveillance of Andrea Dorch, the former head of the civil rights department, and her subsequent resignation as evidence of a City Hall administration that "oppresses Black people."
A coalition of civil rights leaders and organizations in Kansas City are calling for City Manager Brian Platt to resign, and calling out Mayor Quinton Lucas for being complicit in creating what they say is a culture of racism inside City Hall.

“This hostility towards African Americans at City Hall is emblematic of the hostility and hatred that results in the broader culture,” said Rev. Vernon Howard, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Kansas City. “Our civil rights organizations have had enough of duplicitous rhetoric, posturing, pontificating about Black issues while presiding over an administration that oppresses Black people and leaves Black businesses out in the cold.”