SelfTaught

Alvin Sykes, who dropped out of high school in eighth grade, finished his education reading textbooks in the public library and later used his extensive legal knowledge to track down long-dormant civil…

Alvin Lee Sykes was born on July 21, 1956 in Kansas City, Kan. He said his father, Vernon Evans, raped his mother, Patricia Sykes, who was 14 when she gave birth to him. Eight days later, an acquaintance of his mother's, Burnetta F. Page,…

Alvin Sykes, Kansas City civil rights leader, died Friday morning at the Merriam Gardens Health and Rehabilitation Facility in Shawnee, Kansas, according to a nurse at the facility. Sykes had suffered the acute effects of a fall at Union…