Editing Jackson County, Missouri (section)

===Twentieth century===
[[File:Harry S. Truman statue -Independence, Jackson County, Missouri, USA-18Jan2009.jpg|upright|right|thumb|[[Harry S. Truman]] statue in [[Independence, Missouri]]]]
The coming of the railroads and the building of stockyards led to the rapid expansion of Kansas City in the late 19th century. During the 1920s and '30s, the city became a noted center for [[Jazz]] and [[Blues]] music, as well as the headquarters of [[Hallmark Cards]] and the site of [[Walt Disney]]'s first animation studio. The county fared better than many during the [[Great Depression]], as local political boss [[Thomas Pendergast]] worked to implement a $50,000,000 public works project that provided thousands of jobs. One of Pendergast's political protegés was a young [[World War I]] veteran from Independence, [[Harry S. Truman]], who had been his nephew's commanding officer in the war. Truman was elected Presiding Judge (equivalent to a County Executive) of Jackson County with Pendergast support in 1926. He later was elected as a [[United States Senate|U.S. Senator]] from Missouri, [[Vice President of the United States|Vice President]] and, in 1945, following the death of [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], succeeded him to become the thirty-third [[President of the United States]]. Truman was also elected president in 1948 in his own right.

Following [[World War II]], developers followed new highways and created subdivisions for new housing, which increasingly encroached on rural portions of the county. They provided housing for the nation's returning veterans and their young families. Independence, [[Blue Springs, Missouri|Blue Springs]] and [[Lee's Summit, Missouri|Lee's Summit]] underwent growth during this period, which continues to the present. Kansas City, on the other hand, suffered problems of [[urban decay]] as jobs and families left the industrial city, problems common to many large American cities in the late 20th century.

Recent building projects have sought to reverse this trend, including work on the city's famous City Market, [[Westport, Kansas City|Westport]] district, [[18th and Vine Historic District]], and most recently, the [[Kansas City Power & Light District]].<ref>Information for this section was obtained largely from [http://jchs.org/175th%20Anniversary_files/175%20Year%20History%20in%20a%20Nutshell.htm 175 Years of Jackson County History] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090123193052/http://jchs.org/175th%20Anniversary_files/175%20Year%20History%20in%20a%20Nutshell.htm |date=January 23, 2009}}, Jackson County Historical Society.</ref>

In 2024, the statues of Andrew Jackson were voted about whether to remove as to not idolize a slave owner or not. The plaques added in 2021 to the statues to hopefully add context and support for keeping the statues,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-07-06 |title=Plaque added to statue in Kansas City to acknowledge Andrew Jackson owned slaves |url=https://fox4kc.com/news/plaques-added-to-andrew-jackson-statue-outside-courthouse-acknowledge-history-of-slave-ownership/ |access-date=2024-11-28 |website=FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV {{!}} News, Weather, Sports |language=en-US}}</ref> wording it so they ended up in support of removing native Americans from their land via the [[Indian Removal Act]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-07-10 |title=Jackson County wants to remove Andrew Jackson statues outside courthouses |url=https://fox4kc.com/news/jackson-county-to-remove-andrew-jackson-statues-outside-courthouses/ |access-date=2024-11-28 |website=FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV {{!}} News, Weather, Sports |language=en-US}}</ref>

Some of the county's local history is presented at the [[Pleasant Hill Historical Society Museum]], in [[Pleasant Hill, Missouri|Pleasant Hill]] on the southern edge of the county.