The Griot
Museum of Black History and Culture opened in 1997, and was first named the Black
World History Wax Museum. The name of the museum was changed in 2007, to emphasize
its mission as the caretaker of the stories, culture, and history of African Americans.
Griot is a name for a West African historian or storyteller that collects,
shares, and preserves stories and traditions. The Griot Museum of Black History
and Culture is the second largest Black wax museum in the country. &nbsp; 
 
The Griot
Museum interprets stories and features life-size wax resemblances of African
Americans whose lives influenced the state, region, and country. Visitors have
the opportunity to learn about several historical African Americans such as:
Carter G. Woodson, Josephine Baker, Dred and Harriet Scott, Elizabeth Keckley,
William Wells Brown, James Milton Turner, Clark Terry, Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr., the Rev. Earl. E. Nance Sr., Miles Davis, Madame C.J. Walker, York, Percy
Green, and many more. The Griot Museum also features a slave cabin that was
originally built on the Wright–Smith Plantation in Jonesburg, Missouri.
Visitors can also solve puzzles, view documentary videos, and explore a model of
ships that were used to transport African Americans to America during the
Transatlantic Slave Trade. 
 
This museum also celebrates the achievements of African-Americans. Visitors have
the opportunity to learn about John Berry Meacham, who avoided the law which forbade
the education of African Americans. He anchored a boat in the Mississippi River
and taught them how to read, write, etc. An entire section of the museum has
been dedicated to Madam C.J. Walker, and it exhibits the life she led. 
 
The museum hosts local and national traveling arts and humanities
exhibits. In order to increase their community outreach, they sponsor community
education projects, gallery discussions, and cultural celebrations. The museum
hosts traveling exhibits led by local and national artists as well. The museums’
goal is to create a community of lifelong learners who explore and embrace the African-American
heritage.

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The Griot Museum of Black History and Culture opened in 1997, and was first named the Black World History Wax Museum. The name of the museum was changed in 2007 to emphasize its mission as the caretaker of the stories, culture, and history of African Americans. In order to increase their community outreach, the museum sponsors community education projects, gallery discussions, and cultural celebrations. The museum hosts traveling exhibits led by local and national artists as well. The museums’ goal is to create a community of lifelong learners who explore and embrace the African-American heritage. 

Griot Museum of Black HIstory and Culture 

This trail includes historic homes, buildings, landmarks, monuments, and museums related to the African American experience in St. Louis. The tour begins with the home of Maya Angelou and includes the site of landmark decisions, American icons, and local black institutions such as Sumner High Schoool. 

Maya Angelou was born in April&nbsp;1928 in St. Louis, and her first years were spent in this quaint house in the heart of the city. Her parents had a very difficult marriage made more difficult by poverty and Maya and her brother were placed alone on a train to live with their paternal grandmother in Arkansas. After four years, she returned to St. Louis to live with her mother.&nbsp; As a very young girl, Angelou was sexually abused and raped by her mother's boyfriend. This man was eventually murdered after spending only one day in jail after being convicted for his actions against young May. In response to this trauma, and believing that she killed her abuser by speaking his name. Angelou did not speak for five years. Angelou enjoyed little stability as a young woman and moved back and forth between the homes of her paternal grandmother and her biological mother several times before graduating from a manual labor training school.&nbsp; During her early career, she was a dancer who studied a variety of styles including traditional African dances in New York. Given her talent an ambition, Angelou toured Europe as a dancer before returning to New York where she joined the Harlem Writing Guild. This group placed Angelou alongside some of the most notable Black writers of the era such as John Henrik Clarke and Rosa Guy. After hearing Martin Luther King Jr. speak, Angelou began to use her skills in the organization that supported King's efforts, including the Cabaret for Freedom. She would later help Malcolm X create the Organization of Afro-American Unity. After both Malcolm X and King were assassinated, Angelou went through a period of great pain and suffered from depression. Angelou channeled this pain in her first autobiography "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" which had a profound effect&nbsp;upon readers and helped white middle-class Americans understand the perspective of impoverished people and people of color.&nbsp; Angelou's diverse career included acting, directing, and writing several books of essays, children's books, and autobiographies. She worked on behalf of many campaigns for civil rights for many different groups through the 20th and 21st centuries. She also was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama. Angelou died in 2014 at the age of 86.&nbsp;

The modest house is now an official St. Louis landmark owing to its status as the first home of Maya Angelou. Angelou was born in 1928 and would become one of the most influential authors and poets of the 20th century. Among her most famous work is her memoir "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings." Angelou only lived in this home for the first three years of her life, but the city and local residents proudly claim their shared heritage as the birthplace of Maya Angelou owing to the poet's influence upon the modern Civil Rights Movement and her work with leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. Angelou's timeless words capture the historic Black experience and her achievements have cemented her legacy in both African American History and American history in general. Angelou was a Pulitzer Prize-nominated poet and author and a champion of civil rights for women and minorities. This house, located at 3130 Hickory St. in St. Louis, saw the very beginning of a life of influence. 

Maya Angelou's Childhood Home, St Louis

The creation of the St. Louis Stars came out of the St. Louis Giants franchise organized&nbsp;by Charlie Mills in 1909.1 After Mills sold&nbsp;the franchise to Dick Kemp and Dr. Sam Sheppard in 1920, the name was changed to the St. Louis Stars.2 This renamed team needed a new home field to replace the Giants Park of previous seasons. The land for the new field was immediately purchased and construction began on Stars Park in 1922 making it one of the few ballparks built solely for a Negro League team.3 &nbsp;The Park was finished mid-season in 1922 and quickly became famous for its home run advantage.4&nbsp;&nbsp; The St. Louis baseball&nbsp;franchise that led to the creation of the Stars has had many recreations since the 1920s; however, Stars Park was built for the original St. Louis Stars team of 1922 through 1931. According to&nbsp;The&nbsp;Biographical Encyclopedia of Negro Baseball Leagues, the Stars finished their first year at an even .500 for the season.5&nbsp;The team experienced its only losing season in 1923.6&nbsp;However, the Stars went on to win "three pennants in 1928, 1930, and 1931, winning playoffs the first two seasons against the Chicago American Giants and the Detroit Stars."7 &nbsp;Although the Stars had a rough start, the 1928 championship series gave the team the turn around it needed. The Stars "came from being down two games to none to win the series five games to four, with Willie Wells hitting six home runs in the last five series games played in St. Louis."8 This victory in part resulted from Stars Park's home run advantage. This hitter-friendly field turned a combined 32 runs and one home run in Chicago to 76 runs and 14 home runs in St. Louis. 9&nbsp; The original St. Louis Stars had three players who were later inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame: Cool Papa Bell (1974), Willie Wells (1997), and Mule Suttles (2006). James Thomas Bell, also known as Cool Papa Bell,&nbsp;was a center fielder for the Stars from 1922 until 1931.10 According to the Baseball Hall of Fame,&nbsp;"He was a member of three of the greatest Negro league teams in history, winning three championships each with the Stars, the Pittsburgh Crawfords, and the Homestead Grays."11 "Bell was a switch hitter and contact hitter, with great bat control, bunting ability, and speed."12&nbsp; Willie James Wells primarily played shortstop for the Stars from 1924 until 1931.13&nbsp; Wells established his baseball career in the United States, Canada, Cuba, and Mexico where he earned the nickname El Diablo.14 He was also selected to play in all-star games eight times and went on to mentor younger players including Jackie Robinson and Monte Irvin.15&nbsp; Mule Suttles played first baseman for the Stars from 1926 until 1930, but he is most recognized for his time with the Newark Eagles.16&nbsp;&nbsp;"The slugging first baseman and outfielder had a playing career that lasted the entire Golden Era of Negro leagues baseball, from 1921 to 1944."17&nbsp;

Stars Park, also known as Compton Park, was home to the Negro League baseball team the St. Louis Stars from May 20, 1923 until 1931. Located between Compton, Laclede, and Market Streets, the park had a capacity of 16,000 and cost an estimated $27,000 to complete. The park's best-known feature was its left field advantage. At the time, a trolley barn stood north of Market Street about 250 feet from home plate. Any ball that hit the top of the barn was considered a home run, making Stars Park one of the best hitter parks in the National Negro League. When the St. Louis Stars disbanded during the 1931 season, the park was sold for $100,000 and turned into a playground. Today, the lot of the once great home run park is a Harris-Stowe State University baseball field. 

Stars Park

In recent years, the museum's programs and exhibits have focused on Roswell Field, son of the children's author and an attorney who brought into federal court the freedom suit of Dred Scott. The trial took place in 1847 and brought national attention to the issue of slavery and the growing division between states that continued to practice slavery. While the Scott family had several attorneys during their battle for freedom, without Roswell Field’s creative legal strategy, the Supreme Court would have likely not been compelled to hear the case. While Scott and his attorneys emphasized that he had lived in states where slavery was illegal and should, therefore, be freed from bondage, the Court declared that no enslaved person could be a U.S. citizen or seek legal protection provided to citizens through the nation's courts. The decision anger abolitionists as well as those who defended the rights of Northern states to prevent slaveholders from bringing enslaved people into their state as property in violation of their laws. The decision also widened the political gap between those who hoped to extend slavery into the West and those who sought to contain it to the Southern states. Roswell Field's father, Eugene Field, was an American writer best known for his children's poetry and humorous essays. At the time this home became a museum, Eugene Field was the focus of exhibits and the museum collection centered on literature, toys, and other items related to childhood. Field's career spanned multiple genres, but he was best known as the author of many poems and short stories for children. His most famous poems are “Winken, Blinken, and Nod” and "The Duel", to name but a few. Field first started publishing poetry in 1879, when his poem "Christmas Treasures" appeared in A Little Book of Western Verse. He died in Chicago of a heart attack at the age of 45.The land on which Field House was built was once owned by Pierre Laclede, a man widely recognized as a leading founder of St. Louis. After he died, Laclede’s estate sold the property to Auguste Chouteau, Laclede’s associate. Following Chouteau’s death in 1820, the land was conveyed to the City of St. Louis with the provision that revenue from its use be spent for public schools. The Field House was one in a series of roadhouses within a fashionable residential neighborhood known as Walsh’s Row. Developed in the 1840s by Edward Walsh, it comprised twelve identical three-story row houses, including this last-surviving remnant of Walsh’s Row. In 1934, when Walsh's row was about to be torn down, Irving Dilliard wrote a spirited editorial in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch decrying the destruction of Eugene Field's birthplace. Insurance agents Jesse P. Henry and Carl formed a committee to save the house, and the Board of Education took possession, preserving that single unit of Walsh's Row. Under Henry’s leadership, the building was restored and opened as a museum in December of 1936. The Board of Education maintained the house until 1968 when it transferred that function to the Landmarks Association of St. Louis, Inc., who oversaw the house until 1981 when the Eugene Field House Foundation took over. In March of 2007 the Eugene Field House was designated as a National Historic Landmark by Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne.

This museum is located in the birthplace and early childhood residence of Eugene Field *1850-1895), a popular author of children’s literature in the 19th century. Field's poems for children led to his rise in the literary world, and when he passed away at age 45, he was known as "the Children's Poet." In 1902, Mark Twain unveiled a plaque honoring Field that recognized this rowhouse as Field's birthplace. The remaining rowhomes was so well-known that In recent years, there has been greater emphasis on the life of Eugene's son Roswell Field, the attorney who formulated the legal strategy for Dred Scott's lawsuit for freedom before the Supreme Court. The house is a museum with a vast collection of historic toys, and it also serves as a place where visitors can learn about the Dred Scot case. The museum includes artifacts and items related to the era in which Roswell, Frances, and Eugene Field lived within its walls. The house features special exhibits, workshops, and conferences on civil rights, law and social justice. The museum was also offers displays related to Eugene Field's career and historic toys. Eugene Field came to be known as the “Children’s Poet” for his stories and poems, which include “Little Boy Blue” and “Wynken, Blynken and Nod.” The house was saved from demolition in 1934 due to its significance as the early boyhood home of Eugene Field, the “Children’s Poet” and Roswell Field’s son.

Field House Museum

Ozzie Smith is a Hall of Fame inductee who led the St. Louis Cardinals to multiple World Series appearances. Born December 26, 1954, in Mobile, Alabama, Smith attended Cal Poly San Louis Obispo (San Louis Obispo, CA). Given his success on the Cal Poly team, Smith was drafted twice in his collegiate career- first by the Detroit Tigers in the 7th round of the 1976 Amateur Draft, and again the following year by the San Diego Padres in the 14th round. Smith made his way through the minor league system quickly and he made his debut in the majors on April 7, 1978. He was 23 years old and only weighed 150 lbs. Despite standing nearly six feet tall-a slender appearance in a sport known for brawny sluggers. Ozzie was an effective batter but is best-known for his exceptional&nbsp;defensive play that led to&nbsp;thirteen&nbsp;Golden Gloves in his nineteen seasons. He would start every game by sprinting out to his position and performing his famous cartwheel-to-backflip in front of the giant MLB crowds. The Wizard spent just four seasons in San Diego- the team that drafted him. He was then sent to play with the St. Louis Cardinals where he spent the rest of his playing days. Ozzie had a career batting average of .262-an average mark. However, he was selected&nbsp;to appear in 15 All-Star game appearances and made the All-Star roster in 12 consecutive years from 1981-1992, then three more years in a row from 1994-1996. He was voted to start in 11 of those 15 games. He has won more Golden Glove awards than any other shortstop. He also received the National League Silver Slugger Award one time in his career, which came in 1987. He also received the 1985 NLCS MVP Award. Ozzie Smith was not only a great baseball player, but he was also recognized for being a good person.&nbsp;Throughout&nbsp;his career, he was the recipient of the 1989 Lou Gehrig Memorial Award, the 1994 Branch Rickey Award, and the 1995 Roberto Clemente Award. The greatest accolade of his would come after his baseball career ended. In 2002, Osborne Earl Smith was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. He was a first ballot inductee and received a 91.7% voting percentage by the committee.

This bronze statue in front of Busch Stadium honors Ozzie Smith and stands alongside statues of other Cardinals players near the stadium's front entrance and team store. Ozzie Smith, also known as "The Wizard of Oz" or more simply "The Wizard", is widely-regarded by baseball historians and fans alike as one of the greatest shortstops in baseball history. He is best known for his skill as an infielder, blazing speed and athleticism, and performing a backflip from a standing position as he ran out to his position every game. Smith was a team captain and a World Series Champion with the 1982 St. Louis Cardinals. His memory in the city of St. Louis is such that his name can still be found on jerseys and his namesake bar and grill with his collection of Golden Gloves is a popular stop for tourists and locals alike. 

Ozzie Smith Bronze Statue

Dred Scott was born in Virginia around 1799 as property of
the Peter Blow family. He was illiterate and had spent his entire life as a
slave. Dred Scott moved to St. Louis with the Blows in 1830, but was soon sold
due to his master's financial problems. He was purchased by Dr. John Emerson
and accompanied him to Illinois and the Wisconsin Territory, which had
prohibited slavery by the Missouri Compromise of 1820. During this period, Dred
Scott married Harriet Robinson, also a slave, and had two children, Lizzie and Eliza.
John Emerson later married Irene Sanford. In 1842, the Scott's returned with the
Emerson’s to St. Louis where John Emerson died the following year. It is
believed that Mrs. Emerson hired out Dred Scott, Harriet, and their children to
work for other families.&nbsp;On April 6th, 1846, Dred Scott and his wife Harriet filed
suit against Irene Emerson for their freedom. Scott had previously lived in
free territories, yet made no attempt to end his servitude. There are several
theories as why Dred Scott waited to petition for his freedom - the theme
between each being that Scott felt it was not detrimental to seek a life
elsewhere. In fact, his original owners, the Blows family, by most accounts
treated Scott fairly well, albeit he remained a slave. This could account for
Scott waiting to petition for his freedom. The exact reason for Scott
petitioning for his freedom is not known, although historians have considered
three possibilities: He may have been dissatisfied with being hired out by Mrs.
Emerson; Mrs. Emerson might have been planning to sell him which would have
meant a great chance of a rough life working tirelessly under a brutally-strict
slave owner; or he may have offered to buy his own freedom and been refused by
Mrs. Emerson. It is known, however, that the suit was not brought for the
political reason of abolition of slavery. 

It is thought that friends in St. Louis who opposed slavery encouraged
Scott to sue for his freedom on the grounds that he had once lived in a free
territory. In the past, Missouri courts supported the doctrine of "once
free, always free”, and for this reason many in the North, in addition to their
collective inclination to support abolition, felt that Dred Scott could win his
case. The case would encompass eleven years from its birth on April 6th, 1846
to a resolution on March 6, 1857. 

As he was illiterate, Dred Scott needed help with his suit.
John Anderson, the Scott's minister, may have been influential in their
decision to sue and the Blow family, Dred's original owners, backed him
financially. Support of those around them helped the Scott’s through this
trying time as the case would encompass eleven years from its birth on April
6th, 1846 to a resolution on March 6, 1857. A chilling reminder of such
unimaginable difficulties during this period can be noted within the body
language of Harriet and Dred Scott in their dedication statue. 

In 1850, the state court finally declared Scott free.
However, Scott's wages had been withheld pending the resolution of his case,
and during that time Mrs. Emerson remarried and left her brother, John Sanford,
to deal with her affairs. Mr. Sanford, unwilling to pay the back wages owed to
Scott, appealed the decision to the Missouri Supreme Court. The court
overturned the lower court's decision and ruled in favor of Sanford. Scott then
filed another lawsuit in a federal circuit court claiming damages against
Sanford's brother for Sanford's alleged physical abuse against
him. The Missouri court&nbsp;ruled that Scott could not sue in federal court because he had
already been deemed a slave under Missouri law. Scott appealed to the U.S.
Supreme Court, which reviewed the case in 1856.&nbsp;

It is difficult to understand today, but under the law in
1846 whether or not the Scotts were entitled to their freedom was not as
important as the consideration of property rights. Slaves were considered
property rather than people, however, sweeping verification of this by a
Supreme Court decision had not yet taken place before this case. Therefore, the
Supreme Court’s verdict in Dred Scott vs. Stanford on March 6, 1857, decided
several imperative facts that had overwhelming implications across an already
divided society.&nbsp; On the south lawn of the Old Courthouse in St. Louis, the Dred
and Harriet Scott Statue Dedication depicts the pair as close, holding their
heads high, hands strongly and passionately intertwined,&nbsp;their eyes directed not only Arch-ward and across the Mississippi
River, but toward a horizon of freedom in which they believed enough to one day
finally see.&nbsp;

On April 6, 1846, a slave named Dred Scott and his wife, Harriet, sued for their freedom from their slave owner Irene Emerson in the St. Louis’ Old Courthouse.  The case itself spanned nine years, and at its conclusion saw the decision favor of Ms. Emerson by way of retaining the services of Dred and Harriet Scott. The Supreme Court decided the case in 1857; Chief Justice Roger B. Taney announced the decision in the case of Dred Scott v. Sanford. He stated that Americans of African ancestry were not eligible to be citizens, based on the historical claim that they "had no rights which the white man was bound to respect." This meant that Americans of African descent, whether free or slave, were not American citizens and could not sue in federal court. Furthermore, The Court also made clear its intentions to uphold slavery in the United States by ruling that Congress lacked power to ban slavery. Finally, the Court declared that the rights of slave owners were constitutionally protected by the Fifth Amendment because slaves were categorized as property. As a result, the issue of slavery further divided the North from the South and thus expediting the start of the Civil War. It is therefore believe that this case is one of the most important ever to be tried in the United States. On the south lawn of the Old Courthouse in St. Louis, the Dred and Harriet Scott Statue depicts the pair as close, holding their heads high, hands held together for loving support. This was a trying time for the Scott's, a time which would test their character and resolve. 


Dred and Harriet Scott Statue 

The National Blues Museum aims to tell the story of how blues emerged from the slave plantations and evolved as former slaves traveled northwards, settling in St. Louis, Chicago, and other northern cities. The museum celebrates the music that would eventually be the basis for Jazz, Rock &amp; Roll, Funk, and R&amp;B, featuring interactive exhibits, photographs, guitars and some outfits worn by blues legends. It opened on April 2nd, 2016 and was designed by internationally-recognized museum design firm, Gallagher &amp; Associates. The museum also offers performances, lectures, film showings, and other events. William Christopher
(W. C.) Handy was said to be “The Father of the Blues”. Born on in 1873 in
Florence, Alabama, Handy grew up in a strict household where he was forbidden
to play any musical instruments, but secretly bought a guitar that he would practice
with. He could also play many others, including the piano and organ and was
particularly skilled with the trumpet. In 1892, he left Alabama to travel to
the Midwest where he would join various other music groups. Through 1900-02, he
worked as a teacher, and then the next year, Handy conducted his own orchestra
called The Knights of Pythia, in Mississippi up until 1921. During those years,
he would arrange harmonizing tunes, influenced by the music by the Mississippi
Delta and Memphis, Tennessee. He joined Harry Pace and they would form a music
company that would become the Handy and Pace Music Company. Handy’s music had a
melodic element to it, which can be heard in his “Memphis Blue’s”, a campaign
song that he wrote for elections in Tennessee that was the first example of
music to be written and published as sheet music. The origins
of blues can be traced back to the 19th Century in Northwestern
Mississippi where it was being sung by former slaves and would eventually
spread to the rest of the South and the rest of the U.S. The Blues music that
was performed would often accompany those who were traveling, such as doctors,
musicians, circuses, etc. that would go anywhere to be able to share their
music. There were also many different styles of blues music such as ballads,
folk music, gospel, and ragtime. The music had both melancholy and upbeat tunes,
for both the hard times and the pleasures of life. The crowds were often
segregated due to the Jim Crow Laws.&nbsp;

During the time, thousands of settlers would travel along the Mississippi
and Missouri rivers, that would become known as the “Gateway to the West”. By
1890, St. Louis was the 4th largest city in the U.S. as it became a
place where people could exchange new ideas and old traditions, especially in
regards to music. African Americans who were former slaves would be important
contributors to the development of blues, ragtime and jazz by combining their traditional music based with
the tunes they would hear in bands, parlors, and dance. Blues music
would continue to grow and evolve in St. Louis into the early 20th Century.
Jazz and swing would become popular in the 1930’s and 40’s. After World War II,
blues music became electric and would turn into what we now know as R&amp;B and
Rock and Roll, with musicians such as Chuck Berry and Tina Turner.&nbsp; 

&nbsp;

The National Blues Museum opened to the public in 2016 in what was once a downtown St. Louis department store for nearly a century. One of the goals of the museum is to educate those about music and its importance when speaking of America’s culture, race, and diversity. Blues is the foundation for nearly all music that became popular, such as jazz and rock and roll. The museum encourages even those who are not blues fans to visit in order to gain appreciation for the music. The Blues Museum holds various events, including live music, and visitors can sign up for a newsletter on the official website to find out more about them. 

National Blues Museum

From Swathmore College's Database of Non-Violent Action: "In 1947, The St. Louis chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), a national group that aimed to practice the tactics of nonviolence against the oppressive forces of segregation, was formed.In 1948, St. Louis CORE chose the Stix, Baer &amp; Fuller Department Store as a target for a comprehensive non-violent desegregation campaign. CORE chose Stix for a number of reasons. First of all, the store layout was conducive to maximizing the exposure of the campaign. The store had a large, first floor lunch counter that fit 97 patrons and was visible to pedestrians passing by. Furthermore, the store was a focal point of downtown commerce and was frequently called the “Grand Leader.” Secondly, the overtly hypocritical policies of Stix provided a target for the letters, leaflets, and signs that CORE distributed as part of the campaign; Stix allowed Blacks to shop in the store, but would not serve Blacks at the lunch counter. Finally, Stix was owned by local St. Louisians who were seen as community leaders and thus more subject to the pressures of the community.At the same time as the initiation of the Stix campaign, CORE members tried to work with officials at other downtown businesses, including Famous-Barr and Scruggs, Vandervoort, Woolworth’s, and other dime stores. However, Stix remained the focal point of the campaign and due to the wide variety of nonviolent tactics used there, in many ways it served as a case study for CORE in terms of what was effective and what was not.CORE members began the Stix campaign by sending letters to Stix officials encouraging them to institute non-discriminatory policies. When these letters went unanswered, CORE members began distributing leaflets outside the store. The leaflets explained that African Americans were being denied service and pressed people to complain to the management. Sayings on the leaflets included, “All we ask for is fair play” and “You be the judge: Is it fair to refuse restaurant service to Negroes while accepting money from them in other departments?” CORE members also tailored their tactics to events that happened at the store, such as pamphlets specifically designed for attendees of an ecumenical association meeting that was held in Stix in November of 1948, so as to relate to a variety of different audiences.On January 31, 1949, when white CORE members went to the lunch counter and ordered hamburgers and pie, they proceeded to share the food with four Black members who had joined them at the counter. Management put up closed signs on the counter. CORE proceeded to have a few more small sit-ins in the days that followed. CORE orchestrated parallel tactics of maintaining a sit-in presence at the lunch counter, as well as sending letters to the Stix officials. Soon CORE began to hold weekly sit-ins that averaged twenty to thirty people. By April of 1949, CORE had as many as 57 people sitting in the cafeteria for the whole day. Rather than sitting next to each other, the demonstrators sat in every other seat to occupy more room. They placed signs in front of them that read ‘We are being refused service’ with explanatory pamphlets.The campaign began to draw media attention and several newspapers, including the St. Louis American, covered the events. Stix employees tried to counter the demonstration with a sit-in of their own so that the CORE members could not occupy the seats. However, this only stopped business, helping the CORE cause. Needless to say this move was quickly abandoned.CORE continued diversifying their tactics. On May 12, 1949, two members attempted to receive service while holding their infant children. As a result, the local paper printed a picture of the two mothers and their infants being turned away. Two African American war veterans requested service; when they were turned away they filed formal complaints with the management and other customers bought food for them.In the summer of 1949 students from the Association of Southern Churches arrived to aid the St. Louis CORE campaign. Ten of the white students would order food at the counter and then pass it to Black members. Meanwhile, CORE urged the African American community to boycott Stix Department Store all together. Many community groups supported CORE’s efforts by letting them explain their campaign to their members. On August 29, 1949, the NAACP recognized CORE’s efforts and subsequently passed a resolution advocating a citywide boycott of Stix, Baer &amp; Fuller.On July 28, 1949, CORE sent a letter to the Stix management saying that they would suspend the demonstrations to allow Stix time to change their policy and save face. CORE members also emphasized that most white customers had shown willingness to share the counter with Blacks. CORE’s withdrawal allowed them to regroup and focus on other surrounding businesses. However, leaders of CORE continued to send letters to the Stix management. On November 31, 1951, St. Louis CORE leaders Walter Hayes and Charles Oldham met with Stix executives. They discussed their successes with other stores in the area, but the Stix executives refused to change their policies.In April 1952, Charles Oldham, who was the acting president of CORE, composed “A Plan for Establishing Equal Restaurant Service in St. Louis Department Stores” and sent it to influential community leaders. The plan received plenty of positive feedback and fed the publicity of the campaign. It reached numerous members of the community as well as the inner circles of local businesses. Stix held their ground through 1953, but in 1954 the department store finally opened its counter to white and Black customers alike."

The St. Louis Chapter of CORE led sit-ins throughout the city between 1949 and 1951. The sit-ins that attempted to integrate the lunch counter at Stix, Baer, and Fuller were the largest of these protests. Continued 

Sit-ins at the Stix, Baer, and Fuller Department Store, 1949-54

It is not known when the modest two-story brick row house was built, but it was probably constructed sometime during or shortly after the Civil War, as the structure was already listed in an 1874 reference source. The neighborhood developed from common agricultural fields belonging to the French settlement of St. Louis. German immigrants in the 1850s occupied the region known as the "Old North Area" of St. Louis, and it soon attracted other immigrant populations including Irish, Italian, Polish and Jewish groups. It began to become a predominantly Black neighborhood around the years in the very early 20th Century in which Joplin lived there. Scott Joplin was born in 1868 near Marshall, Texas. The young musician exhibited talent from an early age. As a student at George R. Smith College in Sedalia, Missouri, a Black college established by the AME Church, he studied classical music and the liberal arts. Mastering both the formal structure of classical music and the free-flowing, improvisational expression of area folk musicians, he was able to produce and record the music he and other Black musicians were creating throughout the South. His talent, ambition and education enabled him to become the foremost composer of the new musical genre that became known as "ragtime." His first published ragtime work, "Original Rags," was released in Kansas City in 1899 and in the same year, the Stark Music Company of Sedalia published Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag." This composition ultimately sold over half-a-million copies by 1909, so the man who moved into the modest house on Morgan Street was already famous. Although he was but one of many composers perfecting the new syncopated sound, his ability to compose such popular music led to his becoming known as "The King of Ragtime." (It should be noted that Joplin referred to himself only as "The King of Ragtime Writers," a title that acknowledged that he was only one of many talented musicians.) In addition to his many popular ragtime tunes published by his own sheet music company, Joplin composed an opera, a musical, a symphony, and a piano concerto. Because of the deterioration of the surrounding Old North neighborhood in the 1970s, Jeff-Vander-Lou, Inc., an African American neighborhood development nonprofit corporation led by local housing activist Macler Shepard, purchased the property. The corporation sought both private and public funding for the restoration work, with the goal of converting the house into a museum, as the cornerstone for an inner-city cultural center. It was clear, however, by the early 1980s that the corporation would not be able to raise enough money to complete the project, and in 1983, it donated the property to the State of Missouri. The Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) assumed responsibility for completing the restoration and establishing an interpretive center. To the dismay of the African-American community that had supported the restoration, exhibits were installed at the Scott Joplin House that celebrated the composer and his music, but communicated little about the urban milieu that nourished his talents, the origins of African-American music or his legacy on modern composers. Local residents were excluded from exhibit programming, so such programming appealed overwhelmingly to white, middle-class music lovers. Around the turn of the 21st Century, a community-based history project, the Scott Joplin Heritage Project, was initiated. The project sought to empower citizens to make decisions about all aspects of the project by linking historical research and interpretation to neighborhood revitalization goals. Among the issues that faced the Scott Joplin Heritage Project was how best to deal with aspects of Joplin's legacy that still make many people, including those within the Black community, uncomfortable, including violent racial relations, prostitution (Joplin frequently performed in the city's red-light district) and venereal disease (Joplin died of complications from syphilis). With the historical and archaeological evidence from this project, a more comprehensive interpretation of the neighborhood and of Joplin’s tragedy may be necessary to paint a clearer picture of the man whose compositions changed the face of American music. On the death of Macler Shepard in 2005, he was remembered and honored in print for his contribution towards the preservation of the Scott Joplin House. According to one commentator, "One of Missouri’s historical jewels would have been lost if not for Mr. Shepard and Jeff-Vander-Lou, Inc."

The Scott Joplin House is one of the few remaining structures related to the life and career of Scott Joplin (1868-1917), one of America's most significant composers. The writer of such popular and enduring songs as "The Maple Leaf Rag" and "The Entertainer" (the latter prominently featured in the popular 1973 film, The Sting), Joplin lived in the house on Delmar Boulevard, then known as Morgan Street, with his wife Belle between 1900 and 1903. Designated both a National Historic Landmark and part of the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, America's bicentennial year, the house was saved from demolition largely through the efforts of the late local housing advocate Macler Shepard, on behalf of the African-American community of St. Louis. 



Scott Joplin House State Historic Site

The house that has been called, by more than one authority, "the birthplace of rock and roll" now stands vacant and somewhat dilapidated. But when Chuck Berry decided, in 1950, to move with his wife into the modest "three-room brick cottage with a bath and full basement" on Whittier Street in his native St. Louis, the move represented a big step up in status for him. Berry had been born and raised in "the Ville," a predominantly African-American section of the city, where many prominent middle-class Black professionals, like comedian Redd Foxx and singer Tina Turner, had also lived. But Berry's new house was in the "Greater Ville," a predominantly white and affluent section just north of&nbsp;the Ville. Berry and his wife were legally able to move there because the Supreme Court had, in 1948, pronounced racial housing covenants unconstitutional. If Berry wondered whether his white neighbors would accept him, he needn't have worried. In his memoirs, he fondly recalls a local family, the Dimottios, who, on the third day after the Berrys moved in, appeared at the backyard fence with a big pot of spaghetti to welcome the new arrivals.&nbsp; Small parapet houses such as Berry's were very popular in St. Louis neighborhoods between 1900 and 1920. (The house had been constructed by contractor William J. Moxey in 1910.) After purchasing the property for $4500 (with a $450 down payment),&nbsp;Berry installed a bedroom and half-bath in the basement so his family could live there, and rented out the first floor to others. In 1956, Berry added two rooms with concrete block walls at the rear of the structure. A concrete block porch with a metal railing spans most of the façade, and this is shaded by a metal awning (which includes&nbsp;a faded letter “B,” for Berry).&nbsp;As the NRHP nomination form points out, the house "retains integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association." Significantly, it was a year after he moved in, in 1951, that Berry purchased his first electric guitar, inspired not only by blues and country artists who had used the instrument, but by jazz musicians Charlie Christian and Carl Hogan, whom he idolized. He also purchased a second-hand reel-to-reel tape recorder on which to record the music and lyrics of the new songs that filled his mind. On New Year's Eve 1952, Berry joined a popular local group named Sir John's Trio at the Cosmopolitan Club in East St. Louis, Illinois, and was later asked to remain as their lead singer and guitarist. It was as part of this local band that Berry developed his legendary skills as a front man, eventually creating moves such as his famous "duck walk." It was also as part of this band that he began to appeal to a biracial audience. (His wife, a blues fan, was amused rather than impressed by the country-and-western elements in Berry's music that she heard during rehearsals at the house.) Finally, he adapted the humorous approach of Louis Jordan's "jump blues" to his own style, commenting wittily on aspects of everyday American life in his songs.&nbsp; The St. Louis Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority, which now owns the property, began in 2017 to solicit private bids not only to restore the house but to create a cultural center and revitalize the neighborhood as a whole. The Chuck Berry Cultural District would ideally include&nbsp;a museum attached or adjacent to the house, including exhibition space, a café, gift shop and parking facilities. The district would be coordinated with the planned extension of the Metro Link mass transit and the future Fair Station. Also, as a condition of the project, developers must improve two local streets, including planting trees, fixing curbs and installing new streetlights. An ambitious agenda, but perfectly fitting as a way to&nbsp;honor the man who had so radically transformed popular music.&nbsp;

Rock and roll pioneer Chuck Berry, born Charles Edward Anderson Berry purchased this modest house with his wife Themetta Suggs in 1950. The couple lived here for eight years, until 1958. During that time, Berry wrote and recorded many songs that have since become classics, including Maybelline, Roll Over Beethoven, You Can't Catch Me, Johnny B. Goode, School Day (Ring, Ring Goes the Bell), Rock & Roll Music, Carol, Run Rudolph Run, Sweet Little 16, Sweet Little Rock and Roller and Little Queenie. Among the artists whom he strongly influenced were The Beatles and the Rolling Stones, and innumerable bands have covered his songs. In 2008, the Chuck Berry House was accepted in the National Register of Historic Places.  

The Chuck Berry House, St Louis 

Between 1910
and 1920, the Black population of St. Louis increased by an estimated sixty percent. Unfortunately,&nbsp;there were few&nbsp;medical facilities open to African
Americans. In response, local attorney Homer
G. Phillips led the campaign to fund new construction of a hospital
dedicated to serving the Black community in 1923. The campaign took nearly a decade before the city agreed to issue the bonds, and Phillips did not live to see the completion of the building that would bear his name.&nbsp;&nbsp;Homer G.&nbsp;Phillips was
murdered in 1931, a year before&nbsp;construction began. Two men were arrested, but both were&nbsp;released due to
lack of evidence and the case remains unsolved.&nbsp;

From 1937 to the 1950s, Homer G Phillips Hospital was the only medical facility for the African American community of St Louis. Even after area hospitals ended their formal and informal policies of exclusion,&nbsp;the&nbsp;&nbsp;hospital boasted the largest number of Black doctors and nurses in
the world.Training and
educational programs associated with Homer G Phillips Hospital included a nursing
school, x-ray technician and laboratory technician training and medical
recordkeeping.&nbsp;

With the&nbsp;end of
segregation came the gradual end of all-Black institutions throughout the nation. In 1955, Homer G Phillips Hospital began
admitting patients of all races, as did other area hospitals. City hospitals experienced sharp declines and many closed throughout the 1970s and 1980s.&nbsp;In 1979, the city decided to close this facility despite community protest.&nbsp;

In 2002, Homer
G Phillips Hospital was the focus of documentary film, “A Jewel in History, the
Story of Homer G Phillips Hospital” by Mukulla Godwin, a nurse and a filmmaker (Solomon).&nbsp; D J Wilson reports in the Riverfront Times
article “Pathology Report”, that in the film, Dr. John Gladney tells his
personal memory of the medical care for Blacks before Homer G Phillips Hospital
opened.&nbsp; Gladney’s mother died in the
basement of a white hospital, where men, women and children were all
hospitalized together in a dimly lit, dank and smelly open ward. &nbsp;

In 2003,
after renovations, the facility reopened as Homer G Phillips Dignity
House/Senior Living Community.

Named for local attorney Homer G Phillips, this building served the Black community of St. Louis during the era of segregation. In response to a dire need, Phillips led the campaign that led to city-issued bonds that funded the construction of the hospital. Construction began in 1932, and the facility opened in 1937. The hospital was closed in 1979 and the building sat empty for two decades. Today, it houses the Homer G Phillips Dignity House / Senior Living Community.

Homer G Phillips Hospital, 1937-1997

&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;Sumner High School in St. Louis, Missouri, who’s namesake
was Charles Sumner, the famous abolitionist senator who became famous for an
antislavery speech that lead to his being beaten on the senate floor by a pro
slavery senator, was opened at the beginning of the Reconstruction Era of
American history that began with the end of the Civil War.1 The high school was
the very first high school west of the Mississippi River established for African
American students, and it opened its doors in 1875 following the adoption of
the Constitution of 1865 in Missouri. The new Constitution, which ratified the
13th Amendment of the US Constitution in the state and was in effect
until 1875 when it was amended once again, mandated that all regional school
boards in Missouri support the education of Black students.2

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Sumner
High School was originally located at 11th and Spruce Streets in St.
Louis, but it was moved to 15th and Walnuts streets in the 1880s
after parents of the students attending the school successfully lobbied to have
it relocated in order to avoid making their children walk past gallows and the
city morgue on their journey to and from school.3&nbsp;The school was moved once
again in the 1890s due to successful lobbying by the parents of children at the
school, except this time they wanted the location to be moved to avoid having
their children go to school in a neighborhood full of saloons and pool houses.3 Sumner
High School was finally moved to its current location in the building designed
by William B. Ittner on Cottage Street in 1908.4

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; As the
public school systems began to desegregate in Missouri during the mid -950s,
many students opted to leave the school in order to attend the nearby
Soldan-Blewett High School, which was actually much closer for many students
who had previously been forced to travel further for school solely because of
their race.5 Today, Sumner High School is still functioning as a (fully
desegregated) St. Louis high school for over five hundred students in the
surrounding area, making it one of the oldest schools in the area that is still
operating in the form of an educational institution.

                  When Sumner High School opened in 1875 in St. Louis, Missouri, it was the first high school for African Americans anywhere west of the Mississippi River. Since then, the school has been moved twice, with the location it is housed in now being the location it was moved to in 1908. The school was established following the adoption of the Constitution of 1865 in Missouri, which required that regional school boards support the education of Black children in their districts. Even though the African American population grew steadily from the early 1860s to the 1920s, Sumner High School was the only high school for African Americans until 1927 when Vashon High School opened its doors. Today, Sumner High School is still functioning as a predominantly African American high school. 

Sumner High School

Scovel Richardson, a very accomplished attorney and later a US Court of International Trade Judge, was just 30 years old when he&nbsp;won a 1942 court case to keep him from being forced from his home in a white neighborhood by white groups that included Market Avenue Protective Association and St. Louis Real Estate Exchange. &nbsp; Richardson career included presidency of the Urban League of St. Louis in 1944 and&nbsp;serving as Dean of the Lincoln University Law School from 1944-1953. &nbsp;Richardson was then appointed as the first Black member of the US Board of Parole by President Eisenhower. &nbsp;Richard served on the Board of Parole from 1953 - 1957, functioning as chairman from 1954 - 1957. &nbsp;In 1957, Eisenhower appointed Richardson to the US Court of International Trade. &nbsp;Richardson remained on the bench until his death in 1982.

In 1942, Scovel Richardson, attorney and president of Urban League of St Louis, won a case that kept him from being forced out of his home in a white neighborhood.

Site of former Lincoln University Law School

The following excerpt from the National Park Service website provides background to the case. The full text is available by clicking the link below.&nbsp;"In 1930, J. D. Shelley, his wife, and their six children migrated to St. Louis from Mississippi to escape the pervasive racial oppression of the South. For a number of years they lived with relatives and then in rental properties. In looking to buy a home, they found that many buildings in St. Louis were covered by racially restrictive covenants by which the building owners agreed not to sell to anyone other than a Caucasian. The Shelleys directly challenged this discriminatory practice by purchasing such a building at 4600 Labadie Avenue from an owner who agreed not to enforce the racial covenant. Louis D. Kraemer, owner of another property on Labadie covered by restrictive covenants, sued in the St. Louis Circuit (State) Court to enforce the restrictive covenant and prevent the Shelleys from acquiring title to the building. The trial court ruled in the Shelleys' favor in November of 1945, but when Kraemer appealed, the Missouri Supreme Court, on December 9, 1946, reversed the trial court's decision and ordered that the racial covenant be enforced. The Shelleys then appealed to the United States Supreme Court. On May 3, 1948, the United States Supreme Court rendered its landmark decision in&nbsp;Shelley v. Kraemer, holding, by a vote of 6 to 0 (with three judges not sitting), that racially restrictive covenants cannot be enforced by courts since this would constitute state action denying due process of law in violation of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. Although the case did not outlaw covenants (only a state's enforcement of the practice), inShelley v. Kraemer&nbsp;the Supreme Court reinforced strongly the 14th Amendment's guarantee of equal protection of the laws, which includes rights to acquire, enjoy, own, and dispose of property.&nbsp;"

This home was once in a predominantly white neighborhood and part of the deed specified that it could only be occupied by white residents. J. D. Shelley purchased this home from an owner who agreed not to enforce this part of the deed, but area whites protested and attempted to force the Shelley family out of the neighborhood. Despite death threats, the family chose to remain and fight in the courts. The practice of attempting to legally prevent minorities from owning real property, known as a restrictive covenant, was common both before and after the landmark decision in Shelley v. Kraemer. 

The home is a private residence but is also a National Historic Landmark because it was connected to the landmark ruling declaring that racially restrictive covenants could not be enforced by American courts because they violated the 14th Amendment's guarantee of equal protection of law. 

African American History of St Louis Heritage Trail

Griot Museum of Black HIstory and Culture

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information