St. Louis General

A summary of some points about St. Louis history:

A brief overview of St. Louis history gives context to this site. This history is no means exhaustive and cannot replace important texts that explore more in-depth. St. Louis was home to many Indigenous groups, dating back to about 700 CE (Cahokia Mounds Museum Society, 2021). The Cahokia, an ancient Indigenous people who built giant mounds, flourished in the region until about the 1300s, but their descendants carried on living in the area (Cahokia Mounds Museum Society, 2021). Due to the richness of the soil, many Indigenous groups were around the area, including the Osage, Missouria, and Kickapoo.  To find out more about the Indigenous history of the area, the Cahokia Mounds Historic Site and the Missouri History Musuem both have more resources available. 

European settlers were attracted to the area due to the confluence of two major rivers, the Missouri and Mississippi. French fur traders and Spanish settlers began to colonize the area around the mid 1700s (Primm, 1981; Rice, 2012). They brought enslaved Africans to work for them in various jobs. The first settlements in this area clustered along the banks of the Mississippi River.

Interactions between Blacks and Whites in St. Louis have been complicated since St. Louis was colonized (St. Louis City, n.d.). On the one hand, pre-Civil War St. Louis boasted of a Black aristocracy and a population of free Blacks with a strong community and their own schools (Jack, 2008). They were able to form their own communities, influence state politics, start churches and begin their own schools before African Americans in other slave-holding states (Jack, 2008). The Clamorgans and other Black aristocracy had significant wealth, owned businesses, and had political say so due to their wealth (Jack, 2008).  On the other hand, Whites in St. Louis enslaved people, hosted major slave auctions, had strict rules on the movement of free Blacks, and denied them the right to vote (Jack, 2008; St. Louis, n.d.). 

After the Civil War, Black St. Louisans had to still contend with racism. St. Louis businessmen established the Veiled Prophet Parade (Jack, 2008), which took on racial overtones when the first Veiled Prophet looked eerily similar to the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, and was shown brandishing a weapon (Johnson, 2020). It sent a depressing message to Black St. Louisans about the mindset of wealthy St. Louis business owners but did not stop Black St. Louisans from forming their own communities, churches, and pushing for schools of their own (Jack, 2008). For instance, Black St. Louisans worked hard to push St. Louis City Schools to hire Black teachers, change the names of schools from “Colored No….” to a name, and build more schools for Blacks (Jack, 2008). The first high school west of the Mississippi River open to Blacks was Charles H. Sumner High School, built in 1876. It was also an elementary school at first and located next to gambling and prostitution houses. It had been a White school and abandoned because it was not in great condition.

Two major places open to Blacks became Mill Creek Valley and The Ville. Mill Creek Valley, located adjacent to downtown, became a place for poorer Blacks moving into housing stock left behind by Irish and German immigrants. The Ville became a place to escape the smog of factories and eventually became known as the center of the Black middle and upper class in St. Louis (Bailey, 1978).

The Ville also became a center for Black education. There were no African American schools near the Ville. Thus, in the early 1900s, African Americans pressured St. Louis city to move Sumner High School––located at that time next to saloons––to the Ville. St. Louis built a grandiose building on Cottage Street, and Sumner, as it now stands, opened in 1910 (Bailey, 1978). Eventually, St. Louis city opened three new schools in the Ville: an elementary school, middle school, and the Charles Turner Open Air School (Wright, 2002). The Charles Turner Open Air School for Handicapped Children was the only school for African American children with tuberculosis or those needing disability accommodations (e.g., no stairs) (Bailey, 1978). Stowe Teachers College, a place for training Black educators, opened in the Ville in 1929 (Wright, 2002). Stowe was one of the only accredited African American training schools for teachers in the country. Lincoln University Law School also was located in the Ville and was one of the law schools available to Black people (Trawick, 2011).

In addition to the educational institutions in the Ville, the premier African American Homer G. Phillips hospital opened in the 1930s (Fitzpatrick & Shackelford, 2020). By then, the Ville was attractive not only for its distance from pollution, but also for its important institutions and employment opportunities (Bailey, 1978). Before desegregation, many schools and the Homer G. Phillips Hospital were some of the only educational and healthcare options for African Americans living in the St. Louis area. The Homer G. Phillips Hospital and Sumner High School were known for being stellar institutions that attracted some of the best and brightest Black medical personnel and educators in the area (Fitzpatrick & Shackelford, 2020). That further helped the Ville attract and retain residents.

 Also crucial to the context of this history is the “Great Divorce” of 1876 (Jack, 2008; Johnson, 2020). St. Louis City did not want to be controlled by St. Louis County and became its own entity instead of annexing the inner ring of suburbs as other cities did (Primm, 1981). St. Louis City remains one of the smallest geographical areas within a large metropolitan area, with a complex relationship to the surrounding areas (Jack, 2008). In 1876, St. Louis City had the larger population while St. Louis County was largely farmland (Primm, 1981). While in the late 1800s the power and population was in the City, the County would, over time, gain more people and eventually become larger and more affluent (Jack, 2008). White flight had a lot to do with the exodus out of the city, as well as opportunities for cheaper and newer housing stock with larger tracts of land (Lipsitz, 2015b). 

After desegregation, some Blacks moved to St. Louis County, but were pushed to North County (Rios, 2020). The Ville fell victim to flight out of the city, disinvestment, and absentee landlords allowed by the city to sit on empty houses (Bailey, 1978). North City, where the Ville is located, has suffered from negative perceptions as a place full of crime and little value (Bailey, 1978).

Many Black spaces in St. Louis are nearly or completely erased, mostly for commercial development: Mill Creek Valley (now largely an industrialized wasteland), Kinloch (unused St. Louis airport runways), Hadley-Township (now home to a Menard’s), Evan’s Place (displaced for a Target and shopping center), Meacham Park (now a commercial strip in Kirkwood), and downtown Clayton (now the County Seat Business district).

Articles, Links, and videos for further research:

https://files.shsmo.org/manuscripts/saint-louis/S0201.pdf 

A finding aide and collection of the African American history files on file at the State Historical Society of Missouri.

From the St. Louis City Website on African American history:

Recommended Reading to deeper dive: