A first-of-its-kind institution is coming to Kansas City, honoring the contributions of Black artists, directors and producers. And they\u2019re starting out by highlighting some of the film industry\u2019s all-time greats.<\/p>\n
The Black Movie Hall of Fame<\/a> is coming to the restored Boone Theater<\/a> in the 18th and Vine District, and on Feb. 28, 2026, they\u2019re set to induct its inaugural members. The Hall of Fame was founded by award-winning film critic and African American Film Critics Association co-founder Shawn Edwards, along with cultural strategist Tucker Lott.<\/p>\n The first class features 10 inductees, all with ties to the region.<\/p>\n Boone Theater at 1701 E. 18th St., seen on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Kansas City.<\/p>\n \u201cThe inaugural inductees were all selected because they are connected to the Kansas City area,\u201d Edwards said in a statement. \u201cWe felt that since the Hall of Fame will be located in Kansas City, we should honor our hometown cinematic trailblazers first.\u201d<\/p>\n Visitors can purchase tickets to the induction gala Feb. 28 online<\/a>, complete with a red carpet and VIP cocktail reception, dinner, tributes honoring the inaugural inductees and a live concert celebration. Prices range from $250 to $5,000.<\/p>\n Construction on Boone Theater began in October 2024 and is scheduled to take 12-18 months to finish, according to previous Star reporting.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s who\u2019s getting inducted into the Black Movie Hall of Fame.<\/a><\/p>\n Ten iconic names in Black cinema will be inducted into the Hall\u2019s permanent legacy archive inside Boone Theater<\/a>, from Oscar-winning actors to the first Black person to direct and produce a film:<\/p>\n Harry Belafonte<\/b>: An actor and three-time Grammy award-winning singer, he played real-life Kansas City gangster Seldom Seen in Robert Altman\u2019s film, \u201cKansas City.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n Chadwick Boseman<\/b>: The actor portrayed the groundbreaking baseball player Jackie Robinson in the 2013 film \u201c43,\u201d who started his professional baseball career with the Kansas City Monarchs. He reached superstardom with his portrayal of Marvel\u2019s Black Panther in several of the franchise\u2019s blockbuster films.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n Don Cheadle<\/b>: an actor and director born in Kansas City, he\u2019s won two Golden Globes, two Grammys and a Tony award. He\u2019s one of few Black individuals to earn nominations for all four major American entertainment awards.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n Hattie McDaniel<\/b>: Born in Wichita, she was the first Black person to win an Oscar, winning best supporting actress for her performance as Mammy in the movie \u201cGone With The Wind\u201d in 1940.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n Oscar Micheaux<\/b>: Known as the \u201cGrandfather of Black Cinema,\u201d he was the first Black person to direct and produce a feature film with \u201cThe Homesteader\u201d in 1909 and is credited with directing and producing over 40 films throughout his career. He\u2019s buried in Great Bend, Kansas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n Janelle Mon\u00e1e<\/b>: From Wyandotte County, the Kansas City, Kansas, native is a singer, songwriter and actress who has received 10 Grammy nominations, including \u201cAlbum of the Year\u201d in 2024 for \u201cThe Age of Pleasure.\u201d She\u2019s also earned a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Critics\u2019 Choice Movie Award and three African-American Film Critics Association Awards.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n Gordon Parks<\/b>: Born in Fort Scott, Kansas, he helped create the \u201cblaxploitation<\/a>\u201dgenre in film, directed movies like \u201cThe Learning Tree\u201d and \u201cShaft.\u201d He was also a prominent photojournalist<\/a> from the 1940s to 1970s, capturing the intersections of art, race, class and politics across the United States through the lens.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n Tressie Souders<\/b>: She was the first known Black woman to direct a feature film in the United States with 1922\u2019s \u201cA Woman\u2019s Error.\u201d The International Black Women\u2019s Film Festival named an award after her in 2008, although it now goes by the Black Laurel awards. She was born in Frankfort, Kansas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n Forest Whitaker<\/b>: The Oscar and Golden Globe-winning actor played legendary jazz musician Charlie Parker in the 1988 biopic \u201cBird.\u201d Parker was born in Kansas City, Kansas, and is considered the founder of bebop, an uptempo style of jazz. He\u2019s still active in Hollywood, recently returning to the \u201cStar Wars\u201d franchise.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n Kevin Willmott<\/b>: He won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for the film \u201cBlacKkKlansman,\u201d alongside Spike Lee in 2019, and is a professor at the University of Kansas. The film director and screenwriter was also born in Junction City, Kansas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n \u201cBlack storytellers have been shaping global culture through cinema for over a century,\u201d Hall of Fame co-founder Edwards said. \u201cThis gala is our chance to honor their brilliance\u2014not quietly, but boldly.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis isn\u2019t just a celebration,\u201d Lott said in a statement. \u201cIt\u2019s the beginning of something historic for Kansas City and for generations of film lovers everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A first-of-its-kind institution is coming to Kansas City, honoring the contributions of Black artists, directors and producers. And they\u2019re starting out by highlighting some of the film industry\u2019s all-time greats. The Black Movie Hall of Fame is coming to the restored Boone Theater in the 18th and Vine District, and on Feb. 28, 2026, they\u2019re […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1965539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[347637,347639,347640,343121,347642,346274,310650,347641,347638],"class_list":["post-1965538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-african-american-film-critics-association","tag-black-artists","tag-black-cinema","tag-black-panther","tag-boone-theater","tag-hall-of-fame","tag-kansas-city","tag-oscar-micheaux","tag-shawn-edwards"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/These-10-celebrities-with-KC-ties-named-to-the-new.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1965538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1965538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1965538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1965539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1965538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1965538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1965538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/span><\/div>\n
Inaugural inductees to the Black Movie Hall of Fame<\/h3>\n
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