Even before Kansas became a state on Jan. 29, 1861, journalists and editors were reporting stories about their communities’ development and challenges, such as the bloody, divisive fight over slavery.

Over the decades, the state has produced lots of great journalists, including many who worked in Kansas and some who left.

In honor of Kansas Day, here are snippets about three extraordinary journalists who hailed from Kansas.

Peggy Hull

The first woman accredited by the United States as a war correspondent was born Henrietta Eleanor Goodnough on a farm near Bennington, Kansas, in 1889.

Before she was 30 she had worked for newspapers in Kansas, Colorado, Minnesota, Hawaii and California.

She had also covered the U.S. Army’s pursuit of Pancho Villa along the Texas-Mexico border in 1916, although the military would not allow her to travel with Army troops. In 1917 she traveled to Paris to cover World War I, although the War Department refused her credentials because she was a woman.

She did, however, use connections she had forged while in Texas to gain access to training bases in Europe. Her reports were so popular that jealous male reporters in Paris complained until authorities withdrew her access to troops.

Hull didn’t give up. She traveled back to the United States, and she won accreditation in 1918. She went on to cover Japan’s attack on Shanghai, China, in 1932, and to serve as a World War II correspondent in the Pacific theater.

She died in 1967 in California.

William Allen White

Like many newspaper owners of his time, William Allen White was an active politician.

He used the Emporia Gazette, which he bought in 1895 for $3,000, to criticize Democrats, Populists, racists and regressive policies. He battled the Ku Klux Klan and promoted Republicans such as Teddy Roosevelt.

He actively worked to elect Republicans in Kansas and nationally from the 1890s to the end of his life. But he ran for governor as an independent in 1924 because the GOP nominee was too cozy with the Klan.

He won a Pulitzer prize for a 1923 editorial about free speech.

Although a staunch Republican, partisan loyalty did not blind him to the principles he valued in himself and his country.

In 1940, he helped found and served as a leader of the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies, a bipartisan organization that promoted support in the U.S. for nations battling Germany’s Nazi forces.

He died in 1944 at the age of 75.

Gordon Parks

Most people don’t think of Gordon Parks as a journalist, but as a photographer, a movie director, composer, writer or artist.

But it was as a photographer that he came to understand himself. And it was as a photo-journalist that he first helped others understand the world.

Whether he was shooting Black Panthers, children in poverty or celebrities, Parks produced remarkable work, not just technically, but with an empathetic eye that captured the dignity of people and the complexity of situations.

Gordon Parks was born in Fort Scott in 1912 and left home as a teenager.

He bought his first camera from a pawn shop, and he scraped by working jobs for department stores and newspapers.

By the time he became the first black photographer to work for Life in 1948, he already was a national talent. When he became the first black to direct a major motion picture 20 years later, he was not just breaking down barriers, but creating new genres for storytellers.

He died in 2006, leaving a legacy of pictures, books, paintings, poetry, movies and music.

From coast to coast, some of the more historic buildings and structures that helped define American cities in the 20^th century were razed in the name of progress.

Others were saved by residents who appreciated their role in shaping their communities.

In Kansas, facilities such as Century II in Wichita are at risk of being demolished.

It’s been interesting to watch the different approaches taken by leaders in Wichita and Garden City about what to do with aging icons that no longer serve the community as well they might.

In Wichita, the 50-year-old Century II has been deemed subpar as a convention and performing arts center. City leaders appear ready to tear it down. Many area residents – already stung by questionable arrangements and land deals that are part of a stadium project across the river – oppose tearing down the iconic facility.

The Riverfront Legacy plan is not a done deal, but several officials have pretty much declared Century II must go. Their goal was signaled early, as their public engagement effort was an ineptly disguised campaign to tear down Century II.

In Garden City, the big pool – nearly 100 years old and once advertised as the world’s largest, free, municipal, concrete swimming pool – is leaking like crazy and failing to draw crowds as it once did.

Garden City leaders asked the public in several ways to give their opinions. They offered surveys and meeting to gather input. They threw around different options – smaller neighborhood pools, splash parks, leaving the pool and fixing the leaks, creating a fancier pool with new features.

City residents responded, and recently the city commission voted to rebuild the pool complex with significant changes. It no longer will be one giant pool, but it keeps in place the idea of a gathering place for all of the city’s kids and families.

Not everyone in the community agrees with the city’s decision.

That’s understandable. Any decision about spending money or getting rid of something that characterizes your community is going to create dissent.

That certainly was true in Seattle, Washington, in the 1960s. That’s when residents revolted after learning of developers’ plans to demolish Pike Place Market. Opponents forced a public vote in 1971, and residents approved a plan to turn the area into an historic district and maintain the market, which is now popular among Seattle residents and tourists.

On the other end of the country, the story of New York’s Grand Central Station is similar.

In the 1970s, developers planned to demolish the historic train station to make way for a bigger building. Opposition was substantial. Even Jackie Kennedy Onassis lobbied for Grand Central’s preservation.

Developers and opponents fought not only a public relations war, but also a legal one. The case went to the Supreme Court, which ruled cities could protect historic buildings. Today, about 750,000 train and subway riders use the station every day.

Lots of buildings and facilities in our cities help define who and what we are as a community.

That doesn’t mean every old building warrants protection, or that it’s always financially feasible to renovate. But structures that helped build the character of a community should be given special consideration. Recent building projects along Wichita’s riverfront leave big doubts that the city will gain more than it loses if it tears down Century II.

The second Monday in January. That’s the day Kansas legislators officially get to work, although a lot of preparations and behind-the-scenes lobbying take place before then.

As our state senators and representatives head to Topeka, Kansans should consider whether their elected officials are serving the interests of constituents or following partisan leaders to further their own political ambitions.

It’s through that lens that voters should judge how well legislators address some of the tougher issues facing the state.

The thing about government is that there’s never a shortage of problems – prisons, education funding, foster care, Medicaid expansion, rural communities, tax policies and so on.

To hear special interests and some politicians, you might think that just one bill or new law or funding decision can make a problem disappear. For example, advocates of Medicaid expansion imply expansion will save troubled hospitals and make health care affordable for everyone.

It won’t.

Health care is a huge issue for Kansans, and especially rural Kansans. Medicaid expansion would provide additional resources for low income families and financially troubled hospitals. But it will treat only some of the symptoms; it’s not a cure.

Of more concern is the very structure of the health care system, especially in rural areas. Affordability, a shortage of providers, and access to specialized care all loom large in communities outside major urban-suburban areas.

If the state’s rural communities are to remain viable, Kansas will need to be resourceful and innovative. It will need to take some risks.

That applies not only to health care, but other facets of rural life.

Those trying to re-create populations and institutions – churches, schools, etc. – that existed 100 years ago have it all wrong. The way things used to be is no more a factor in rural survival than hog oilers and threshing machines.

High-speed internet; accessible transportation options, affordable and decent housing, clean water sources, agriculture-based, value-added manufacturing – those are the kinds of assets that will attract people and resources to rural Kansas.

Legislators will need to think big. But it’s more likely that they will muck around in the usual sticky issues.

Abortion rights, for example. Republicans could tie support for any form of Medicaid expansion to a complete ban on abortions. Anti-abortion groups and legislators already have signaled that they want the state’s constitution amended to outlaw all abortions.

That likely means a stalemate on abortion and Medicaid expansion.

Tax reforms and tax relief also will be sticky, as Republicans and Democrats argue about whether the state can afford to reduce tax revenue, and who should benefit from reforms.

As we have seen on the state and federal levels, Republicans have abandoned all restraint on debts and deficits. And Democrats’ sense of fiscal responsibility is iffy. So it will be interesting to see how tax issues play out in Topeka.

Less pressing this session – but always a major issue – is funding for education, including universities.

About half of the state’s budget goes to support education for Kansas students. Some of the state’s richest special interests think that’s too much. Education, however, is the best investment Kansas can make in its people and itself.

But more isn’t always better. In education and elsewhere, smart investments require that Kansas ensures that taxpayers’ funds are used effectively to improve public programs and services across the state.