06/05/2026
Long Live The Green Duck Tavern
Lloyd Daniel announced his candidacy for State Rep at the Green Duck Tavern: it was in the early nineties. Lloyd used to talk about one of its past proprietors, Leon Jordan. As a child Lloyd spent time in Liberia with his daddy, Cecil Daniel, and Leon Jordan. “Leon used to walk around with me on his shoulders.” Through him I first heard about the Green Duck Tavern. Seeing the fire there this week brought back memories.
I knew Lloyd Daniel from Penn Valley Community College. I remember being down in the union and people would say “There go Lloyd” Dr. Ed Beasley was there too and so was Dr. Jeremiah Cameron. I’ll never forget when Beasley came down in the union as a bunch of us were sitting at a table talking and playing cards. Two of his students had skipped his class to join us. He walked up and told them if they ever missed class again he would have them expelled. He not only taught History; he was the department head. I never got the opportunity to take any of Lloyd’s classes at Penn Valley but I would go by his tiny office space and learn. He had his own Hip Hop radio program on a community station. He is a poet, a historian, an activist and a great mentor of mine.
Throughout history Republican President Abraham Lincoln has been lauded as the one who set the captives free. Yet when the Civil War kicked off in Missouri General John Fremont declared Marshall Law, confiscating the property of the secessionist. When the captives were set loose, Lincoln rescinded the order for fear of angering the southern states. Nonetheless up until the early nineteen sixties a lot of African Americans in the middle of America still voted Republican. Bruce R. Watkins and Earl Thomas were the first African Americans to serve on the City Council of Kansas City, MO. Watkins did not join the Democratic Party until he joined forces with Leon Jordan to form Freedom, Inc. in 1964. Fifteen years later he would be the first African American to run for mayor in Kansas City, MO.
Before it was owned by Leon Jordan the Green Duck Tavern was owned by an Irish political boss named Tim Moran. Leon M. Jordan had been exposed to the Democratic party through his father Leon H. Jordan who was an early African American Democrat at the turn of the century. In the late nineteen twenties the mafia wanted to infiltrate the Democratic Party and bring the African American vote along for leverage. The Democratic boss here in Kansas City at the time, Tom Pendergast financed a newspaper called the American Newspaper to recruit African Americans into the Democratic Party. Published by Felix H. Payne and Dr. William J. Thompkins, the paper played an important enough role in the election of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In gratitude Roosevelt appointed Thompkins Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia which was the highest political appointment an African American could hold at that time. The position was once held by Frederick Douglass.
African Americans began to join the rank and file of the Democratic Party but their wards continued to be bossed by either the Italian or the Irish, Tim Moran being one of them. While serving in the Kansas City Department, Jordan had the opportunity to leave the United States to train the police department in Liberia. Cecil Daniel, working for the Kansas City Fire Department, trained the Liberian fire department. When the two of them returned to Kansas City, Jordan was still prohibited from arresting whites.
Realizing the need to control their own community , Leon Jordan along with Bruce Watkins, Rosemary Lowe, Harold Maupin, Charles Moore, Harold Holliday, Leonard Hughes, Fred Curls, Sterling Bryant and many others through the years established Freedom, Inc. People like Pat Moran did everything they could to stop the effort, and of course they had to separate the community and use people from within like Satchel Paige to oppose Jordan. Leaving the tavern while serving on the Missouri General Assembly in 1970 Jordan was gunned down, mafia hit. Despite all the attempts to undermine the organization throughout the years Freedom, Inc. still stands today to mobilize the vote. The original headquarters of Freedom, Inc. were the Green Duck Tavern 2600 Prospect. Kansas City, MO. R.I.P. Archie Welch past President of Freedom, Inc. Confirm your booking for our regularly scheduled historic tours at
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