In the years before the Civil War, Leavenworth was a hotbed of anti-slavery and pro-slavery agitation, often leading to open physical confrontations on the street and in public meetings.

[12] Charles Henry Langston was an African-American leader from Boston who worked and lived in Leavenworth and northeastern Kansas in the Reconstruction era and afterward.

In Kansas, Langston worked for black suffrage and the right of African Americans to sit on juries, testify in court, and have their children educated in common schools.

[13] African Americans gained suffrage in 1870 after passage of the federal 15th constitutional amendment, and the legislature voted for their right to sit on juries in 1874.

[11] Fred Alexander, a 22-year-old black veteran of the Spanish–American War, was arrested on circumstantial evidence following months of assaults on young white women in late 1900.

On January 15, 1901, Alexander was taken from jail by a mob of 5,000 people and to the site of the murder of Pearl Forbes, where he was brutally lynched: burned alive.

African Americans in the region were horrified at Alexander's murder by the mob and created the first state chapter of the Afro-American Council, then the only national organization working for civil rights.

[14] (The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded a few years later, and absorbed most members of the AAC.)

[19][20] The city lies on the west bank of the Missouri River in the Dissected Till Plains region of North America's Central Lowlands.

[41] Leavenworth contains a number of religious traditions stemming from its history and international military population.

In the mid to late 19th century, Leavenworth had one of the largest Jewish communities in Kansas, made up of immigrants from Europe.

The three industries employing the largest percentages of the working civilian labor force were: educational services, health care, and social assistance (22.7%); public administration (15.6%); and retail trade (13.0%).

Displays include famous citizens, businesses, Indian tribes, the prison industry, the military, large collection of horse drawn vehicles and a 17th century dugout canoe.

The Leavenworth County Historical Society maintains a museum at the Edward Carroll House, a Victorian-era mansion that is open to the public for touring.

The Annual Saint Patrick's Day Parade is held each year since 1984 on March 17 at 12 noon in downtown Leavenworth.

The day begins with a 9:00 a.m. Roman Catholic Mass at the Church of the Immaculate Conception, "The Old Cathedral": ancestral home of the Irish of Leavenworth.

Various fraternal and civic clubs and restaurants host events; monies raised above Parade costs are donated to local charities.

Leavenworth High School boasts the very first Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps in the country.

Haymarket Square is a covered lot where a local farmer's market takes place from May to October.

An off-leash dog park near the Dwight D. Eisenhower Veterans Affairs Medical Center was built with public donations in 2010.

[54] The Medical Center includes a Consolidated Mail Outpatient Pharmacy (CMOP), part of an initiative to provide mail-order prescriptions to veterans using automated systems at strategic locations throughout the United States, as well as the Central Plains Consolidated Patient Account Center (CPAC), a billing and collection agency.

Leavenworth is the location of several federal and state detention centers and prisons: Two public school districts serve the city.

[59] 5th and 6th graders attend Richard Warren Middle School, which recently completed construction of a technology extension to the original building.

[67] CherryRoad Media also publishes The Fort Leavenworth Lamp, a weekly newspaper covering local military news, on contract with the U.S.

In April 2023, RideLV began to provide on-demand transit service within the city using a mobile software app.

The service is operated by The Guidance Center in partnership with the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority.

[71] However, Leavenworth remains the largest city in Kansas without fixed-route public transit service.

[72] Political activist Charles Henry Langston lived and worked here (1863-1870), assisting African-American refugees from slave states and, after the Civil War, working for black suffrage and equal rights of blacks in the West; he moved to Lawrence for the remainder of his life.

General of the Army and 34th President of the United States Dwight D. Eisenhower once served at Fort Leavenworth.

[74][75] Other notable individuals who were born in and/or have lived in Leavenworth include rock musician Melissa Etheridge,[76] restaurant entrepreneur Fred Harvey,[77] Broadway producer and Tony Awards founder Brock Pemberton, U.S. Supreme Court justice David Josiah Brewer,[78] author Sanora Babb, and former NBA player, Wayne Anthony Simien.