Donald Sewing’s efforts to integrate Johnson County neighborhoods
The Sewings move to Johnson County
Donald and Virginia Sewing with their children
Donald Sewing was a real estate agent who led the effort to integrate northeast Johnson County in the mid-1960s.
Sewing graduated from the University of Kansas City (now the University of Missouri-Kansas City) after studying business. After college, Sewing began the Don Sewing Reality Company in Kansas City, Kansas. He quickly became a leader in the real estate profession in the area.
His family was one of the first Black families to move into northeast Johnson County when they bought a home in Fairway in the 1960s. This was an area that the J.C. Nichols Company had developed several decades prior with racial deed restrictions – that is, legal restrictions that prohibited Black families from purchasing or occupying homes in the area.
No Black families lived in the area when the Sewings moved to Fairway. Sewing had to rely on his knowledge of real estate in order to purchase the home, doing so through a series of “straw buyers.”
The Sewings dealt with prejudice when they moved in. But over time, most of their neighbors grew to accept them.
Donald Sewing's commitment to integration
Donald Sewing with three staff members at his real estate office
Sewing spent his career integrating other suburban neighborhoods, helping Black families purchase homes in Merriam, Prairie Village and Leawood. He did so through “block busting,” a strategy of “scattering” Black families to prevent racial turnover of white families.
By 1969, approximately 30 Black families had purchased homes in the area. By 1971, the number jumped to nearly 60. Sewing received national attention when his efforts were featured in The Wall Street Journal in 1969.
In winning a seat on the Shawnee Mission School Advisory Council in 1971, his wife Virginia was the first Black woman to win an election in Johnson County. Donald Sewing lived in Johnson County until his death in 2007. Virginia lives in Overland Park today.
Reflecting on his choice to move his family to a previously all-white neighborhood, Sewing said, “I don’t think integration should be a matter of waiting until a neighborhood is ready. I think the best kind of education for a person who hasn’t had the experience of living in an integrated neighborhood is to integrate it.”
In March 2022, Virginia and her late husband were honored with the Civil Rights/Fair Housing Pioneer Award for their work in advancing housing equity, presented at the Prairie Village “I Have a Dream Celebration.”