Bruce R. Watkins was fiercely opposed to the construction of Highway 71.
This highway, Watkins said, had the potential to be “Kansas City’s Berlin Wall.” And in many ways, his prediction came true — even after a large stretch of Highway 71 was renamed “Bruce R. Watkins Drive” in his honor.
Watkins was a Kansas City activist who had served as a Tuskegee Airman during World War II. He founded the group Freedom, Inc., and became one of the first Black members of the Kansas City Council in 1963…