Kansas panel endorses Capitol location of mural for 1st Kansas Colored Infantry Regiment

TOPEKA — A subcommittee of the Kansas Legislature agreed Friday to recommend placement on the fourth floor of the Capitol a privately financed mural honoring the first Black regiment to see combat during the Civil War.

The mural would tell the story of the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry Regiment, which was originally formed as a state militia — not a federal unit — in August 1862. The 1^st Kansas Colored Infantry first saw combat at the Battle of Island Mound in Missouri on October 1862. In this fight, 225 Black troops drove off 500 Confederate guerillas.

The Kansas State Historical Society says Richard Hinton, the 1^st Kansas Colored Infantry adjutant, chronicled the Island Mound fighting: “The men fought like tigers, each and every one of them.”

The Emancipation Proclamation authorized enlistment of Black men as soldiers in the Union Army. In January 1863, the 1^st Kansas Colored was mustered into federal service at Fort Scott, Kansas. The regiment was involved in seven battles from 1862 to 1864.

Rep. Valdenia Winn, D-Kansas City, said the subcommittee considered mural-location options on the first and fourth floors of the Capitol. Eight murals have been installed in the statehouse rotunda, and additional murals populate the second and third floors of the building.

“There’s nothing on the fourth floor,” she said. “There’s everything on the first, second and third. Something to consider.”

The consensus of the subcommittee was to recommend the Legislature’s joint Capitol Preservation Committee approve a spot on the south side of the fourth floor of the Capitol.

Joe Brentano, former coordinator of the Capitol Visitor Center, said he leaned in favor of “a piece of good art on the fourth floor.”

His colleague on the subcommittee, Frank Burnam, said crowding on the first floor of the Capitol during scheduled educational and political functions and the presence of large group tours with school children suggested the fourth floor would be more appropriate.

“I think it’s important that it fits into the tour, that people see it and it’s easy to find,” said Burnam, deputy secretary of operations and director of facilities in the Kansas Department of Administration.

In March 2023, Gov. Laura Kelly signed legislation authorizing planning and fundraising for regimental mural.

The idea emerged 25 years ago with passage of a law directing the State Historical Society and the Department of Administration to collaborate on the mural. The project stalled due to financial issues, but was revitalized last year by unanimous vote of the Legislature.

Kelly said it was past time to pay tribute to contributions of Black soldiers in Kansas who “fought valiantly to defeat slavery.”