Author

Jim Leiker

Jim Leiker

Jim Leiker is professor of history at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park. At JCCC, he has served as chair of the Department of History and Political Science, president of the Faculty Association, and in 2009, founded the Kansas Studies Institute. He is the author of numerous books and articles on Kansas and the West, among them Racial Borders: Black Soldiers along the Rio Grande and, with Ramon Powers, The Northern Cheyenne Exodus in History and Memory, which won the 2011 Great Plains Distinguished Book Award.

OPINION

In Kansas, constant school consolidation has exacted an ever-growing toll on our communities
By: - August 8, 2023

Anyone wishing to understand the challenges facing Kansas and its sister plains states should spend time in an abandoned schoolyard. Study the boarded-up structures; touch the rusty slipper-slide; nudge the squeaky merry-go-round. An instinctive feel will emerge for the dreams of communities past, and with it, a sense of how depopulation and school consolidation have […]

OPINION
This image features Kansas composed of mining industry icons.

In Kansas’ mining past, lessons for our present-day political extremism
By: - December 21, 2022

Kansas Reflector welcomes opinion pieces from writers who share our goal of widening the conversation about how public policies affect the day-to-day lives of people throughout our state. Jim Leiker is professor of history at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park. One would not guess after a tour of Big Brutus or an accidental […]

OPINION
Portrait of Kansas businessman Kansas businessman Junius George Groves

‘Potato King’ of Kansas emerged from slavery to thrive and prosper as groundbreaking businessman
By: - November 15, 2022

Kansas Reflector welcomes opinion pieces from writers who share our goal of widening the conversation about how public policies affect the day-to-day lives of people throughout our state. Jim Leiker is professor of history at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park. The success of “Tiger King” has me wondering if executives at Netflix would […]

OPINION
Police clash with supporters of President Donald Trump during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. (Alex Kent/Tennessee Lookout)

Ideology behind Jan. 6 insurrection had deep roots in Kansas, but extremism can be resisted
By: - August 25, 2022

Kansas Reflector welcomes opinion pieces from writers who share our goal of widening the conversation about how public policies affect the day-to-day lives of people throughout our state. Jim Leiker is professor of history at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park. When pro-Trump extremists converged in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021, they followed […]

OPINION
So many fail to see the far-reaching impact overturning Roe will have on even those who have never themselves been in a position where they have sought an abortion. (Astrid Riecken/Getty Images)

Two conversations with my mother about abortion, 40 years apart, suggest the challenges ahead
By: - June 16, 2022

Kansas Reflector welcomes opinion pieces from writers who share our goal of widening the conversation about how public policies affect the day-to-day lives of people throughout our state. Jim Leiker is professor of history at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park. In my basement is a dusty set of 1969 World Book encyclopedias. I’ve […]

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