[2] His father helped found Freedom, Inc., the oldest African American political club in the country.
[citation needed] He graduated from DeLaSalle High School and Rockhurst College in Kansas City.
[3] He was a founding member of the Missouri Legislative Black Caucus Foundation.
[citation needed] He died in 2007, the same week that his wife, Melba Curls, was inaugurated as an at-large councilwoman for Kansas City.
[4] In 2017, a senior living development in Kansas City was named Curls Manor after him.