Editing Lee's Summit, Missouri (section)

===20th century===
In the early 20th century, Lee's Summit persisted as a small and rural agricultural community. The city's population growth was stunted by its proximity to Kansas City and Independence. Still, the city boundaries were expanded in 1905, and some residential development occurred in the 1900s and 1910s. Property development slowed and then ceased in Lee's Summit during the 1920s and through the [[Great Depression]] and [[World War II]].<ref>Schwenk, pp. 16-17, 31-32</ref>

In 1912, lumber baron and Kansas City civic leader [[Robert A. Long]] began building his estate, [[Longview Farm]], on {{convert|1780|acre|km2}}, much of which was in southwestern Lee's Summit. It took eighteen months to complete with the work of over two thousand laborers. At the time of building, it was considered the largest construction project in the country. At the time of completion, the farm employed over two hundred people who lived on the property. Long's daughter, Loula Long Combs, made a lifelong career of raising champion [[Show horse|show horses]] on the farm.<ref name="hist1" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Marsh |first=Joanna |date=January 14, 2021 |title=KCQ: The History of Longview Farm |url=https://kclibrary.org/news/2021-01/kcq-history-longview-farm |access-date=May 5, 2025 |website=[[Kansas City Public Library]]}}</ref> In 2004, part of the farm was developed into the New Longview neighborhood.<ref name=":4">Shortridge, p. 196</ref>

In March 1922, at the Veterans Memorial Hall in downtown Lee's Summit (now the Third Street Social restaurant), [[Harry S. Truman]] announced he was running for election as County Court judge of the eastern district of Jackson County—the first political candidacy of his career.{{Efn|According to McCullough, the County Court judge was not a judicial position, but an administrative one involving county government spending and contracting. The eastern district included towns such as Independence, Grandview, and Lee's Summit. Mike Pendergast, brother of Kansas City political boss [[Tom Pendergast]], had "responsibility for" this position.}} Years later, in 1956, [[Harry S. Truman|Truman]] said of his first political speech that it "was a flop for me". "I was more scared then than I was at any time later, even when I was on the front in the first world war in France.”<ref>{{Cite web |last=Burnes |first=Brian |date=November 7, 2022 |title=Truman’s First Campaign |url=https://www.jchs.org/jchs-e-journal/2022/11/7/trumans-first-campaign |access-date=May 5, 2025 |website=Jackson County Historical Society}}</ref><ref>McCullough, pp. 153-154</ref> During the [[Primary election|primary]] campaign, [[Harry S. Truman|Truman]] briefly pursued [[Ku Klux Klan]] membership thinking it would help him secure more votes, in part because of prominent [[Cross burning|cross burnings]] in Lee's Summit.<ref>McCullough, pp. 156-157</ref> Two years later, during his reelection campaign, he faced public opposition from Jackson County [[treasurer]] and Lee's Summit mayor, Todd George, who may have been affiliated with the [[Ku Klux Klan|Klan]].{{Efn|McCullough refers to George as "the local head Klansman". George's family disputes this characterization, saying that they "had independent research conducted, and it found there is no evidence of any such affiliation" and that "in a 1959 memoir, George stated he wanted nothing to do with the KKK". The editorial board of The Kansas City Star points out, however, that "While reports that George was a local leader of the Ku Klux Klan were a matter of some debate, his belief in a racist ideology was indisputable." See Dicus, Todd C. (July 17, 2020). [https://www.kansascity.com/opinion/readers-opinion/guest-commentary/article244272432.html "Discussion about Todd George's name on Lee's Summit roads requires context"]. ''[[Kansas City Star]]''. Retrieved May 5, 2025. See also, [https://www.kansascity.com/opinion/editorials/article244264797.html "'A memorial to hatred': Lee's Summit should rename streets honoring racist former mayor"]. ''[[Kansas City Star]]''. July 16, 2020. Retrieved May 5, 2025.}} [[Harry S. Truman|Truman]] claimed that the [[Ku Klux Klan|Klan]] threatened to kill him, and in response he disrupted a [[Ku Klux Klan|Klan]] rally in Lee's Summit, shaming the roughly one thousand attendees for their [[Anti-Catholicism|anti-Catholic]] and [[Antisemitism|antisemitic]] views.<ref>McCullough, p. 162</ref> In 1928, [[Harry S. Truman|Truman]] as the presiding judge of the County Court undertook the construction of many roads, connecting Lee's Summit to the rest of the [[Kansas City metropolitan area|metro area]], and of a hospital just outside Lee's Summit (later named Truman Medical Center-East, now [[University Health Lakewood Medical Center]]).<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jackson |first=David W. |date=Spring 2004 |title=Jackson County's Poor Farm Transformed into a Rich Healthcare Center |url=https://static1.squarespace.com/static/51181e81e4b04512ec820440/t/5150f49ee4b00303002f5b18/1364259998819/Vol45-1.pdf |journal=Jackson County Historical Society Journal |volume=45 |issue=1 |pages=9-10}}</ref><ref>McCullough, pp. 167-168</ref>

Upon the conclusion of [[World War II]] in 1945, there was enormous demand for [[single-family housing]] across the United States. This demand, combined with the recently built roads, [[Federal Housing Administration]] policy, and the [[G.I. Bill]] initiated the rapid [[suburbanization]] of Lee's Summit. Developers began building entire neighborhoods in the city, but were interrupted from 1950 to 1953 because of the [[Korean War]]. After the war, however, the number of people living in and around Lee's Summit grew significantly. According to the [[1950 United States census|1950 census]], about 2,500 people lived in Lee's Summit, but by 1960 over 8,000 people did. This population growth was a consequence of white Kansas City residents relocating to the suburbs as well as large [[Annexation|annexations]] by the city. By the late 1950s, Lee's Summit was no longer an agricultural community, but instead a [[commuter suburb]]—nearly sixty percent of residents worked outside the city, and almost no farming took place.<ref>Schwenk, pp. 140-146</ref>

In 1961, [[Western Electric]] opened a factory in Lee's Summit and within a year employed about three thousand people. The [[Western Electric]] plant, which was in operation until 2002, encouraged the further growth of the city by providing a tax base for additional [[Annexation|annexations]] and a well-funded [[public school district]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=History |url=https://www.westernelectric.com:80/history.html#expand |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160819100135/http://www.westernelectric.com:80/history.html#expand |archive-date=August 19, 2016 |access-date=May 7, 2025 |website=[[Western Electric]]}}</ref><ref>Schwenk, pp. 46-48</ref><ref name=":5">Shortridge, p. 154</ref> The city's rapid growth continued through the 1970s and 1980s, reaching over 46,000 residents by 1990. John Knox Village, a long-term care facility, was completed in 1970 and has remained a top employer for the city since. In 1985, the [[Little Blue River (Missouri)|Little Blue River]] was dammed, creating [[Longview Lake]], the site of other amenities such as the Fred Arbanas Golf Course and the [[Longview Community College|MCC-Longview]] community college.<ref name=":5" /> In 2001, the [[Summit Woods Crossing]] retail center was developed in Lee's Summit, and in 2007 the [[Summit Fair]] retail center was built nearby.<ref name=":4" /> Construction of the Downtown Market Plaza, which will include a farmer's market and event space, began in 2023.<ref>{{Cite web |title=2023 Annual Report |url=https://cityofls.net/annual-reports/2023-annual-report |access-date=May 8, 2025 |website=City of Lee's Summit}}</ref>

According to criteria set forth by [[Sociology|sociologists]] [[Douglas Massey]] and [[Nancy Denton]], the Kansas City metro area was "hypersegregated" between white and Black residents as recently as the 1980s.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Massey |first=Douglas S. |title=[[American Apartheid]] |last2=Denton |first2=Nancy A. |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |year=1993 |isbn=9780674018211 |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |pages=75-77}}</ref> Lee's Summit, as a [[Inner suburb|second-ring]] [[white flight]] suburb,<ref name=":4" /> contributed to a dynamic of [[Racial segregation in the United States|racial segregation]] between Kansas City and its outlying region. The government policies which helped [[Suburbanization|suburbanize]] the city in the [[Post WWII|post-war period]] excluded Black people from participating in them, effectively making Lee's Summit available exclusively to white people. The [[Federal Housing Administration]] even encouraged suburban developers to include legally unenforceable [[Shelley v. Kraemer|racially restrictive deed covenants]] with the sale of their homes.<ref>Schwenk, p. 41</ref> According to [[sociologist]] Kevin Fox Gotham, residents of Lee's Summit successfully resisted efforts to locate federally [[Subsidized housing in the United States|subsidized housing]] in the suburb, meant to integrate the metro area, in the 1970s and up through the 1990s.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gotham |first=Kevin Fox |date=October 1998 |title=Suburbia Under Siege: Low-Income Housing and Racial Conflict in Metropolitan Kansas City, 1970-1990 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02732173.1998.9982207 |journal=[[Sociological Spectrum]] |volume=18 |issue=4 |pages=459 |via=Taylor & Francis}}</ref> In 1988, 134 Black students in the [[Kansas City Public Schools|Kansas City public school district]] sued the Lee's Summit school district for racial discrimination. In 1990 this case was made part of [[Missouri v. Jenkins|''Missouri v. Jenkins'']], which resulted in the creation of the Kansas City [[magnet school]] system and an unprecedented court order doubling the local tax rate, only to be overturned by the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] in 1995.<ref>{{Cite court|litigants=Lee's Summit Reorganized School District v. Naylor|opinion=89-1957|court=8th Cir.|date=May 23, 1990|url=https://archive.org/details/micro_IA40385020_2763/micro_IA40385020_2763%201.%20Petition%20for%20Writ%20of%20Certiorari/page/n40/mode/1up}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=O'Connor |first=Tim |date=October 30, 1990 |title=Court opens way for blacks |url=https://kansascity.newspapers.com/image/681517838/ |access-date=May 7, 2025 |work=[[The Kansas City Star]] |pages=1, 7}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=August 8, 2016 |title=Kansas City's Magnet Schools Were A Dream Realized, Then Gone In A Generation |url=https://www.kcur.org/community/2016-08-08/kansas-citys-magnet-schools-were-a-dream-realized-then-gone-in-a-generation |access-date=May 7, 2025 |work=[[KCUR-FM | Kansas City Public Radio]]}}</ref>