LAWRENCE (KSNT) – A powerful new documentary, “Reclaiming Home: Remembering the Topeka Bottoms,” is shining a light on a once-thriving Topeka community that was erased decades ago.
After four years in the making, project manager Maria Velasco has debuted a film centered on the Topeka Bottoms, a historic neighborhood destroyed in the 1960s to make way for Interstate 70.
The Topeka Bottoms were home to a predominantly Black and Latino community before the construction of I-70 cut directly through the neighborhood. Families were forced from homes they had built themselves, with little to no say in the decision.
Velasco says the impact of that displacement still lingers today.
“It was very traumatic for a lot of people that all of a sudden were forced to leave their homes and businesses,” Velasco said.
Beyond the immediate loss, she says the destruction erased something deeper, a physical connection to history.
“Not only was that lost, but also it was lost to the subsequent generations who now are looking back and saying… I cannot find anything, anywhere, physically, that ties me to my own history.”
Velasco, an immigrant herself, said she felt a personal connection to the story after reading about the Bottoms. That connection drove her to amplify the voices of those who were displaced, many of whom, she says, were never given the chance to share their experiences.
The documentary aims to preserve those stories while educating others about a chapter of Topeka history that is often overlooked.
The film made its first public debut in Lawrence on March 27, while an accompanying art exhibit was unveiled in Topeka about a year ago.
Velasco hopes the project will continue to travel across Kansas, reaching new audiences and sparking conversations about displacement, history, and community.
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