For twenty years, these images have carried stories of strength, resilience, leadership, and legacy.
Images of 2026: African-American Men of Topeka, Kansas — Leaders & Role Models is more than a photography collection. It is a visual testimony of the men who continue to shape families, neighborhoods, churches, businesses, classrooms, and communities throughout Topeka. Through the lens of photographer Yolanda Taylor, this anniversary edition revisits a vision first captured in 2006 — honoring both the familiar faces who helped establish the project’s foundation and the new generation of men now carrying that legacy forward.
Each portrait represents more than a moment in time. Together, they form an informal ethnography of culture, identity, brotherhood, leadership, and everyday excellence within the community. These pages preserve history while making room for new stories, new voices, and new examples of influence for future generations to witness and remember.
Twenty years later, the mission remains the same: to see, to honor, and to remember.
 
HARDCOVER