About the Kirksville situation

In recent years, many Congolese have settled in Kirksville, MO, on the Diversity Visa lottery. A town of about 17,000 and home to two universities, Kirksville is largely unaccustomed to immigrant communities besides a small number of Hispanic immigrants.

Throughout the semester, we will be exploring and compiling the voices of a few of these individuals, as well as those versed in the history of Kirksville, in order to present a picture of the historical framework these immigrants find themselves in and the challenges they face in the present day.

About COPLAC Courses

The Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges (COPLAC) is a coalition of public institutions of higher education throughout the country. COPLAC regularly offers a variety of online courses which aim to utilize the resources presented by having students from a variety of geographically diverse communities. The Voices course, of which this site is a part, was offered in the spring semester of 2018, and sought to create an image of stories of immigrants from across the country.