To the editor:

Thank you for the account of the summer of 1970 unrest in Lawrence. As a 30-year native of northern California, a past resident of South Carolina and, most recently, a 13-year resident of Missouri, I have been at a loss to understand the use of the word “hate” or “don’t like” when Lawrence citizens learn that I have lived in Missouri. While raising four children we were subjected to negative statements from our Kansas relatives because we lived in Missouri.

Now that I live in Lawrence I have received from new neighbors, new acquaintances, Kansas relatives and administrators continued and unabashed insults from having lived in Missouri. After reading your account of the intolerance and racial injustices practiced by some Lawrence citizens, I am wondering if the Missouri bashing is in part to mask, with references to a century and a half year old injustices by some Missourians, the injustices that modern Lawrence practiced.