When Jim Maloney, 84, moved to Wichita’s Fairmount neighborhood in 1968, he was one of the first Black residents to live in the residential area, located directly south of Wichita State University’s campus.

There was only one other Black family on the block when he moved to 15th Street and Fairmount Avenue, on the western edge of an area tha
t stretches from Hillside Street to Oliver Avenue between 13th and 17th streets in the city’s north-central core. They moved soon after.
“It was predominantly white,” he says.