The elderly elite of Kansas City share their life journeys, what motivated them along the way, the lucky breaks and tough times, and advice for staying active and relevant in their later years
Written by David Hodes
Interviewed by David M. Block, David Hodes and Pete Mundo
Alvin Brooks
Birth date: May 3, 1932, Age: 92
“Knowing who you are is important. Don’t let other people define you just because of the color of your skin. And always respect yourself.”
There is probably no one in this city in any level of city government who doesn’t know about Alvin Brooks. He was the first Black police officer of Kansas City in 1954. He was an assistant city manager in 1972, during which time he formed the Ad Hoc Group Against Crime. He was mayor pro tem from 1999 to 2007, while Kay Barnes was mayor. In 2010, he was appointed to the Kansas City Police Department Board of Police Commissioners.
And in 2024, at 92 years old, he was elected to the Hickman Mills School District Board of Directors. He’s been honored by U.S. presidents, U.S. senators and civil rights activists. He is nonstop. His daughter says that he still has multiple phones all over the house to keep in touch with everyone who reaches out, whoever that may be.
Prince of Kansas City
Brooks has been called the “Prince of Kansas City” for his courageous civil rights work. Stories about his decisive leadership and steadiness in the face of personal danger are legendary.
The arc of Brooks’ life story reads like one of those movies ripped out of today’s headlines of a man facing down the evils of the neighborhoods. In fact, there is a biopic about his life: The Heroic True-Life Adventures of Alvin Brooks. Academy award winner and University of Kansas professor Kevin Willmott wrote and directed the movie, based on Brooks’ 2021 book Binding Us Together.
When talking to Brooks, knowing all the injustice he has faced down and the overt racism he has had to endure over the years, one feels the sense of internal calm that he shares with anyone in his space. Maybe it’s one of those traits that all heroes have: a coolness that’s not aloof but oddly poignant.
There’s More
But there’s more to the man, especially as he continues his turn as one of the city’s elder gentlemen.
“I’m a person of faith,” Brooks says. “I believe that there is a higher power in the universe. We’re here to protect all of that. I believe, therefore, we are all connected. We are all equal, and my faith guides me that way.”
The highlight of Brooks’ life was marrying his late wife of 63 years (married in August 1950) when he was 18. “We were both teenagers,” he says. “Marriage was important. Fatherhood was important. I have six kids, 17 grandkids, 41 great-grandkids. I dedicated myself to my kids.”
As he grew older, he says, he began to think less about the civic kinds of things he was doing and more about the responsibilities related to the African American community as descendants of enslaved people. “Those kind of combined together,” he says.
To the young men in the family, he says, he always shares with them that it’s not easy in America being a little Black boy. “I want them to be men with stature and honesty and integrity. Let that manhood be shown.”
Complicated Relationship
Brooks describes himself as a “converted Catholic”—though he admits that he has a complicated relationship with the church. Over the course of his life, Brooks discovered troubling facts about the Catholic Church, an organized religion that he says “probably wouldn’t exist in history without slavery,” as they colonized areas of the globe back in the 1500s and 1600s. “The Catholic Church has never apologized for slavery,” he says. “They never apologized for the role they played or didn’t play. That troubles me.”
Brooks was also turned down by Rockhurst University because they didn’t accept the semester credits he had already earned at a local junior college, further deepening his distrust of Catholics. “So I said, ‘The hell with you.’” He instead went to the University of Missouri-Kansas City, eventually graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1959 and Master of Arts in 1973 from the College of Arts and Sciences. He was awarded an honorary doctorate degree in 2012. UMKC also offers the Alvin Brooks scholarship to students majoring in criminal justice.
But then, like a lot of what happened to him in his life, events transpired to right the wrong Rockhurst committed.
Brooks developed a friendly relationship with then-president of Rockhurst University, Fr. Tom Curran, who started at Rockhurst in 2006. “He’s my brother, my friend,” Brooks told the Kansas City Star in an article about the two. Fr. Curran prioritized diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and established a number of social justice initiatives. When the university trustees asked what he wanted to leave as his legacy, Curran told them that he wanted to build a justice center named after Alvin Brooks. And that’s what happened.
The university broke ground on the 10,000-square-foot, $6 million Alvin Brooks Center for Faith-Justice in December 2022. “So what goes around comes around,” Brooks says.
Next
Now, Brooks is writing his second book, this one for middle-schoolers. He dreams about making his first book, now a 46-minute biopic, into a feature film.
What advice does he have for the kids of today? “I want to hear from them,” he says. “I think we, as adults, do too much advising. But I would tell them to always be kind, be generous. Never feel that you are better than anybody else. But always remember that you’re as good as anybody else.” Brooks continues to live the part of the protector who gives back to the city. He knows who he is and where he fits in today’s society.
“Sometimes we do better protecting the universe than we do protecting each other,” he says. “And so I see my role as being able to do the best I can while I can. I still think that I have a role to play. That’s my life. I kind of live a life of knowing who I am and how I relate in the universe of other people.”
“I believe, therefore, we are all connected. We are all equal, and my faith guides me that way.”
