Editing Leavenworth, Kansas (section)

===20th century to present===
Fred Alexander, a 22-year-old black veteran of the Spanish–American War, was arrested on circumstantial evidence following months of assaults on young white women in late 1900. Witnesses had identified a "large white man" and a "slight black man" as having been seen in the vicinity of the attacks, Police moved him to the penitentiary during questioning, but a lynch mob was forming in Leavenworth.<ref name="alexander"/> The sheriff needed to bring him to Leavenworth for arraignment at the county court. He refused the governor's offer of state militia, and was unable to protect the prisoner. On January 15, 1901, Alexander was taken from jail by a mob of 5,000 people and to the site of the murder of Pearl Forbes, where he was brutally [[Lynching in the United States|lynched]]: burned alive.<ref name="lovett">[https://www.kshs.org/publicat/history/2010summer_lovett.pdf Christopher Lovett, "A Public Burning: Race, Sex, and the Lynching of Fred Alexander"], Kansas State Historical Society, Summer 2010; accessed 02 June 2018</ref> He protested his innocence to the end. An inquest concluded he had been killed by "persons unknown".

His family refused to claim his body for burial. His father Alfred Alexander, an [[exoduster]], said "The people have mutilated him, now let them bury him."<ref name="alexander"/> The city arranged burial. African Americans in the region were horrified at Alexander's murder by the mob and created the first state chapter of the Afro-American Council, then the only national organization working for civil rights.<ref name="alexander">[https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=2456&context=greatplainsquarterly Shawn Leigh Alexander, "Vengeance Without Justice, Injustice Without Retribution/ The Afro-American Council’s Struggle Against Racial Violence"], ''Great Plains Quarterly'', Center for Great Plains Studies, Spring 2007; accessed 02 June 2018</ref> (The [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People]] (NAACP) was founded a few years later, and absorbed most members of the AAC.)

In 1972 Benjamin Day became the city's first African-American mayor.<ref>{{cite web|title=Benjamin Day Papers|url=http://etext.ku.edu/view?docId=ksrlead/ksrl.kc.daybenjamin.xml;route=ksrlead;brand=ksrlead;query=| website=Benjamin Day Papers| publisher=University of Kansas Libraries | access-date=21 August 2017 }}</ref> Day had been elected to the City Commission one year earlier. Leavenworth appoints its mayor from among the members of the Commission, and Day was named mayor in 1971. Day was a former educator and principal in Leavenworth.

[[Fort Leavenworth]] was located outside the city limits until its territory was annexed by the city on April 12, 1977.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.leagle.com/decision/1977717443FSupp274_1665.xml/UNITED%20STATES%20v.%20CITY%20OF%20LEAVENWORTH,%20KAN. | title=United States v. City of Leavenworth, Kansas | work=Leagle | access-date=12 June 2014}}</ref>

In 2008, an underground series of "vaults" was found in the city, apparently built during the late 19th century.<ref>{{cite news | title = Mystery Surrounds Leavenworth's Underground City | publisher = [[KCTV5]] | date = 2008-08-07 | url = http://www.kctv5.com/news/17126244/detail.html | access-date = 2008-08-24 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110519161102/http://www.kctv5.com/news/17126244/detail.html | archive-date = 2011-05-19 }}</ref>