The story of the African American experience in Missouri is told through the personal papers of individuals and families as well as the records of black organizations and churches. Civil War pensions shed light on the aftermath of the war, while photographs, letters, scrapbooks, writings, and newspapers provide insight into the daily life of African Americans living in the state. The State Historical Society of Missouri is pleased to make available these rich resources that document their lives as Missourians.
New resource!
Emancipation Day in the Ozarks Interactive Map
The resources on this page have been adapted from a chapter of the book Race and Meaning: The African American Experience in Missouri by Gary Kremer.
Since the first French settlers came to the region we know now as Missouri in the 1700s, African Americans have played a substantial role in the state's history. Initially brought here as slaves to work in the mines of southeast Missouri, they also served as farm laborers, servants, seamstresses, nursemaids, cooks, and common laborers. A small number of free blacks also lived in Missouri during the antebellum period, concentrated primarily in St. Louis. During the latter years of the Civil War, thousands of African Americans joined the Union war effort as a way of gaining their own personal freedom, but also as a way of ending slavery in the state and nation.
With freedom came new struggles. As a border state settled largely by emigrants from the South, Missouri remained very racially divided in the Post-Civil War era, well into the twentieth century. Civil rights leaders such as James Milton Turner fought for educational opportunity as well as full rights of citizenship for freedmen, while black residents of communities such as Pennytown, Morocco, and Eldridge sought to escape oppression and seek economic opportunity through the solidarity of numbers. African Americans created their own schools, churches and fraternal and sisterhood organizations as a way of taking control of their lives and their futures.
Missouri's two major cities, Kansas City and St. Louis, attracted large numbers of Great Migration migrants during the era of World War I through World War II. Black suburbs such as Kinloch in St. Louis and Leeds in Kansas City emerged as important transitional communities that helped rural African Americans adjust to urban life. Thanks to educational opportunities offered by all-black Lincoln Institute (later Lincoln University), African Americans began entering a variety of professions as scientists, businesspeople, educators, musicians, entertainers, writers, and athletes. They also founded their own newspapers such as the Kansas City Call, the St. Louis American, the Weekly Conservator (Sedalia), and the Professional World (Columbia). Lawsuits brought by students such as Lloyd Gaines and Lucile Bluford paved the way for African Americans to attend the University of Missouri, while the St. Louis-based Shelley v. Kraemer case (1948) challenged racial segregation in neighborhoods throughout the state and nation.
During the Civil Rights Era, African Americans intensified their fight for the same rights held by whites. Civil Rights organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Urban League, the Missouri Association for Social Welfare, and, later, the Congress on Racial Equality led the way as African Americans and their supporters sought to integrate schools, restaurants, hotels, restrooms, and other public spaces.
Articles from Missouri Historical Review and Missouri Times
- Adams, Lucinda J. "From the Stacks: The Twin Citians: A Black Women's Club and Its Battle for Civil Rights in Kansas City."
Missouri Historical Review 62, no. 110 (October 2015): 70-73. - Atherton, Lewis E. "Life, Labor, and Society in Boone County, Missouri, 1834-1852, As Revealed in the Correspondence of an Immigrant Slave Owning Family from North Carolina."
Part 1: Missouri Historical Review 38, no. 3 (April 1944): 277-304.
Part 2: Missouri Historical Review 38, no. 4 (July 1944): 408-429. - Baltimore, Lester B. "Benjamin F. Stringfellow: The Fight for Slavery on the Missouri Border."
Missouri Historical Review 62, no. 1(October 1967): 14-29. - Bellamy, Donnie D. "Free Blacks in Antebellum Missouri, 1820-1860."
Missouri Historical Review 67, no. 2 (January 1973): 198-226. - Bierbaum, Milton E. "Frederick Starr. A Missouri Border Abolitionist: The Making of a Martyr."
Missouri Historical Review 58, no. 3 (April 1964): 309-325. - Blassingame, John W. "The Recruitment of Negro Troops In Missouri During The Civil War."
Missouri Historical Review 58, no. 3 (April 1964): 326-337. - Bogle, Lori. "Desegregation in a Border State: The Example of Joplin, Missouri."
Missouri Historical Review 85, no. 4 (July 1991): 422-440. - Bowen, Elbert R. "Negro Minstrels in Early Rural Missouri."
Missouri Historical Review 47, no. 2 (January 1953): 103-109. - Boyd, Miller W., III. "'The Free People, Who Have Bought Themselves, Are Not Much Inclined to It, but the Others Are in Favor of It': Patters of Black Enlistment in Civil War Missouri, 1863-1865."
Missouri Historical Review 111, no. 1 (October 2016): 1-24. - Campney, Brent M.S. "'The Drift of Things in Southeast Missouri:' Demographic Transformation and Anti-Black Violence, 1900-1930."
Missouri Historical Review 113, no. 3 (April 2019): 185-205. - Christensen, Lawrence. "Black Education in Civil War St. Louis."
Missouri Historical Review, 95, no. 3 (April 2001): 302-316.
"J. Milton Turner: An Appraisal."
Missouri Historical Review 70, no. 1 (October 1975): 1-19.
"Race Relations in St. Louis 1865-1916."
Missouri Historical Review 78, no. 2 (January 1984): 123-136.
"Schools for Blacks: J. Milton Turner in Reconstruction Missouri."
Missouri Historical Review 76, no. 2 (January 1982): 121-135.
"The Popular Image of Blacks vs. the Birthrights."
Missouri Historical Review 81, no. 1 (October 1986): 37-52.
"William D. Swinney: Howard County Slaveholder and Entrepreneur."
Missouri Historical Review 108, no. 4 (July 2014): 236-252. - Cunningham, Roger D. "Kansas City's African American 'Immunes' in the Spanish-American War."
Missouri Historical Review 100, no. 3 (April 2006): 141-158. - Desloge, Taylor. “Creating the Lung Block: Racial Transition and the "New Public Health" in a St. Louis Neighborhood, 1907-1940.”
Missouri Historical Review 111 (January 2017): 124-150. - Dodson, Heidi. "'The River is Part of Our Life:' African Americans and Water Landscapes in the Missouri Bootheel."
Missouri Historical Review 114, no. 1 (October 2019): 16-39. - Dowdle, Zachary. "Preventing a 'School of Nullification:' Politics, Slavery, and the Presidency of the University of Missouri, 1839-1856."
Missouri Historical Review 114, no. 2 (January 2020): 79-104. - Dunson, A.A. "Notes on the Missouri Germans on Slavery."
Missouri Historical Review 59, no. 3 (April 1965): 355-366. - Dyer, Thomas G. "'A Most Unexampled Exhibition of Madness and Brutality': Judge Lynch in Saline County, Missouri, 1859."
Part 1: Missouri Historical Review 89, no. 3,(April 1995): 269-289.
Part 2. Missouri Historical Review 89, no. 4,(July 1995): 367-383. - Ehlmann, Steve. "David P. Dyer: Martial, Legislative, and Judicial Champion for Civil Rights."
Missouri Historical Review 113, no. 2 (January 2019): 105-127. - Efford, Alison Clark. "Race Should be as Unimportant as Ancestry: German Radicals and African American Citizenship in the Missouri Constitution of 1865."
Missouri Historical Review 104, no. 3 (April 2010): 138-158. - Erlich, Walter. "Was the Dred Scott Case Valid?"
Missouri Historical Review 63, no. 3 (April 1969): 317-328. - Fellman, Michael "Emancipation in Missouri."
Missouri Historical Review 83 (October 1988): 36-56. - Fly, David Kerrigan. "An Episcopal Priest's Reflections on the Kansas City Riot of 1968."
Missouri Historical Review 100, no. 2 (January 2006): 103-112. - Frizzell, Robert W. "Southern Identity in Nineteenth-Century Missouri: Little Dixie's Slave-Majority Areas and the Transition to Midwestern Farming."
Missouri Historical Review 99, no. 3 (April 2005): 238-260. - Gollar, C. Walker. "St. Louis University Slaves."
Missouri Historical Review 105, no. 3 (April 2011): 125-140. - Green, Barbara. "Slave Labor at The Maramec Iron Works, 1828-1850."
Missouri Historical Review 73, no. 2 (January 1979): 150-164. - Greene, Lorenzo J. "Lincoln University's Involvement with the Sharecropper Demonstration in Southeast Missouri, 1939-1940."
Missouri Historical Review 82, no. 1 (October 1987): 24-50. - Grenz, Suzanna M. "The Exodusters of 1879: St. Louis and Kansas City Responses."
Missouri Historical Review 73, no. 1 (October 1978): 54-70. - Grothaus, Larry. "Kansas City Blacks, Harry Truman and the Pendergast Machine."
Missouri Historical Review 69, no. 1 (October 1974): 65-82. - Harper, Kimberly. "Like a Tug of War": The Lynching of Thomas Gilyard."
Missouri Historical Review 105, no. 2 (January 2011): 76-93. - Holland, Antonio, Gary R. Kremer, ed. "Some Aspects of Black Education in Reconstruction Missouri: An Address by Richard B. Foster."
Missouri Historical Review 92, no. 4 (July 1998): 407-420. - Huber, Patrick J. and Gary R. Kremer. "Nathaniel C. Bruce, Black Education and the 'Tuskegee of the Midwest.'"
Missouri Historical Review 86, no. 1 (October 1991): 37-54. - Hughes, John Starrett. "Lafayette County and the Aftermath of Slavery, 1861-1870."
Missouri Historical Review 75, no. 1 (October 1980): 51-63. - Hurt, R. Douglas. "Planters and Slavery in Little Dixie."
Missouri Historical Review 88, no. 4 (July 1994): 397-415. - Kremer, Gary R. "Background to Apostasy: James Milton Turner and the Republican Party."
Missouri Historical Review 71, no. 1 (October 1976): 59-75.
"George Washington Carver: The Man and the Myth."
Missouri Historical Review 112, no. 2 (January 2018): 87-106.
"Just Like the Garden of Eden: African-American Community Life in Kansas City's Leeds."
Missouri Historical Review 98, no. 2 (January 2004): 121-144.
"The Abraham Lincoln Legacy in Missouri."
Missouri Historical Review 103, no. 2 (January 2009): 108-119
"The Black People Did the Work": African American Life in Arrow Rock, Missouri, 1850-1960."
Missouri Historical Review 106, no. 4 (July 2012): 223-240.
"The World of Make-Believe: James Milton Turner and Black Masonry."
Missouri Historical Review 74, no. 1 (October 1979): 50-71.
"William J. Thompkins: African American Physician, Politician, and Publisher."
Missouri Historical Review 101, no. 3 (April 2007): 168-182. - Kremer, Gary R. and Cindy M. Mackey. "'Yours for the Race: The Life and Work of Josephine Silone Yates."
Missouri Historical Review, 90, no. 2 (January 1996): 199-215. - Kremer, Gary R. and Evan P. Orr "Lake Placid: A Recreational Center for Colored People in the Missouri Ozarks.'"
Missouri Historical Review 95, no. 1 (October 2000): 68-85. - Laughlin, Bonnie E. "'Endangering the Peace of Society': Abolitionist Agitation and Mob Reaction in St. Louis and Alton, 1836-1838."
Missouri Historical Review 95, no. 1(October 2000): 1-22. - Lee, Bill R. "Missouri's Fight over Emancipation in 1863."
Missouri Historical Review 45, no. 3 (April 1951): 256-274. - Lee, George R. "Slavery and Emancipation in Lewis County, Missouri."
Missouri Historical Review 65, no. 3 (April 1971): 294-317. - Lowenfish, Lee. "A Consistent Player and a Consistent Christian': The Midwestern Roots of Branch Rickey's Idealism and Racial Progressivism, 1904-1942."
Missouri Historical Review 102, no. 2 (January 2008): 78-87. - McGettigan, James William, Jr. "Boone County Slaves: Sales, Estate Divisions and Families, 1820-1865."
Part 1: Missouri Historical Review 72, no. 2 (January 1978): 176-197.
Part 2: Missouri Historical Review 72, no. 3 (April 1978): 271-295. - Merkel, Benjamin C. "The Slavery Issue and the Political Decline of Thomas Hart Benton, 1846-1856."
Missouri Historical Review 38, no. 4 (July 1944): 388-407. - Miller, Chandra. "Title Page to a Great Tragic Volume": The Impact of the Missouri Crisis on Slavery, Race, and Republicanism in the Thought of John C. Calhoun and John Quincy Adams."
Missouri Historical Review 94, no. 4 (July 2000) pp. 365-388. - Moore, W.K. "An Abortive Slave Uprising."
Missouri Historical Review 52, no. 2 (January 1958):123-126. - Naglich, Dennis. "The Slave System and the Civil War in Rural Prairieville."
Missouri Historical Review 87, no. 3 (April 1993): 253-273. - Navarro, Jason. "Under Penalty of Death: Pierce City's Night of Racial Terror."
Missouri Historical Review 100, no. 3 (April 2006): 87-102. - Nelson, Earl J. "Missouri Slavery, 1861-1865."
Missouri Historical Review 28, no. 4 (July 1934): 260-274. - Nokes, R. Gregory. "Slavery in Oregon: The Missouri Connection."
Missouri Historical Review 110 (January 2016): 120-131. - O'Connor, Candace. "Climbing the Ladder, Chasing the Dream: Homer G. Phillips Hospital in St. Louis."
Missouri Historical Review 116, no. 3 (April 2022): 212-237. - Olson, Greg. "Slave, Trader, Interpreter, and World Traveler: The Remarkable Story of Jeffrey Deroine."
Missouri Historical Review 107, no. 4 (July 2013): 222-230. - Phillips, Christopher. "Judge Napton's Private War: Slavery, Personal Tragedy, and the Politics of Identity in Civil War-Era Missouri."
Missouri Historical Review 99, no. 3 (April 2005): 212-237. - Piehl, Charles K. "The Race of Improvement: Springfield Society, 1865-1881."
Missouri Historical Review 67, no. 4 (July 1973): 484-521. - Rhodes, Joel. P. "It Finally Happened Here: The 1968 Riot in Kansas City, Missouri."
Missouri Historical Review 91, no. 3 (April 1997): 295-315. - Richardson, Joe M. "The American Missionary Association and Black Education in Civil War Missouri."
Missouri Historical Review 69, no. 4 (July 1975): 433-448. - Roberts, Katie. ""I Plant Myself….Down on My Unquestionable Rights": Elijah Lovejoy's Fatal Stand for Freedom."
Missouri Historical Review 101, no. 1 (October 2006): 48-55. - Roberts, Anna K. "Crossing Jordan: The Mississippi River in the Black Experience in Greater St. Louis, 1815-1860."
Missouri Historical Review 113, no. 1 (October 2018): 422-40. - Romeo, Sharon. "'The First Morning of Their Freedom': African American Women, Black Testimony, and Military Justice in Civil War Missouri."
Missouri Historical Review 110, no. 3 (April 2016): 196-216. - Ryle, Walter H. "Slavery and Party Realignment in Missouri in the State Election of 1856."
Missouri Historical Review 39, no. 3 (April 1945): 320-332. - Sarvis, Will. "Black Electoral Power in the Missouri Bootheel, 1920s-1960s."
Missouri Historical Review 95, no. 2 (January 2001): 182-202. - Scarpino, Philip V. "Slavery in Callaway County, Missouri: 1845-1855."
Part 1: Missouri Historical Review 71, no. 1 (October 1976): 22-43.
Part 2. Missouri Historical Review 71, no. 3 (April 1977): 266-283. - Schmidt, Kelly L. "Slavery and the Shaping of Catholic Missouri, 1810-1850."
Missouri Historical Review 116, no. 3 (April 2022): 173-211. - Schreck, Kimberly A. "The Patriarch, His "Wives," His "Slaves," and His "Children": Contested Wills in the Case of Keen v. Keen."
Missouri Historical Review 102, no. 1 (October 2007): 25-41. - Slavens, George. "The Missouri Negro Press, 1875-1920."
Missouri Historical Review 64, no. 4 (July 1970): 413-431. - Strickland, Arvarh E. "Aspects of Slavery in Missouri, 1821."
Missouri Historical Review 65, no. 4 (July 1971): 505-526.
"The Plight of the People in the Sharecroppers' Demonstration in Southeast Missouri."
Missouri Historical Review 81, no. 4 (July 1987): 403-416.
"Toward the Promised Land: The Exodus to Kansas and Afterward."
Missouri Historical Review 69, no. 4 (July 1975): 376-412. - Sweeney, Michael. "Fateful Bargain: Race, Money, and Politics in the Origins and Development of Kansas City's Paseo YMCA."
Missouri Historical Review 112, no. 3 (April 2018): 189-206. - Wamble, G. Hugh. "Negroes and Missouri Protestant Churches."
Missouri Historical Review 61, no. 3 (April 1967): 321-347. - Willoughby, Robert J. "'I'll Wade in Missouri Blood': Daggs v. Frazier: A Case of Missouri Runaway Slaves."
Missouri Historical Review 99, no. 2 (January 2005): 115-138. - Wilson, Thomas D. "Chester A. Franklin and Harry S. Truman: An African-American Conservative and the 'Conversion' of the Future President."
Missouri Historical Review 88, no. 1 (October 1993): 48-77. - Woolsey, Ronald C. "The Debate over Slavery on the Eve of the Charleston Convention."
Missouri Historical Review 82, no. 1 (October 1987): 1-23.
"The West Becomes a Problem: The Missouri Controversy and Slavery Expansion as the Southern Dilemma."
Missouri Historical Review 77, no. 4 (July 1983): 409-432.
Catalog
Many of the State Historical Society’s holdings are included in the shared library catalog of the four University of Missouri campuses. The best terms to search for sources about African American history are "African American," "Black," and "Black history."
Digital Collections
The African American Experience in Missouri digital collection includes digitized manuscripts by or about African Americans, including personal papers, records of black organizations and churches, collections with significant information on African Americans, civil rights, and daily life.
View the African American Experience Digital Collection
The Missouri Slavery Documents digital collection includes bills of sale, manumission papers, letters, ledgers, wills, and legal documents. Items like bills of sale usually include names, dates, locations, and ages of enslaved individuals, providing invaluable information for historians and genealogists alike.
Historic Missourian Biographies
The State Historical Society’s Historic Missourians website provides biographies of African Americans in Missouri. Each biography includes images, primary resources, and other references for further study.
Manuscripts
The State Historical Society of Missouri manuscript collections include material by or about African Americans, including personal papers, records of black organizations and churches, collections with significant information on African Americans, civil rights, slavery, and daily life.
Newspapers
SHSMO's newspaper collection contains about thirty African American publications. The St. Louis Advance perhaps established as early as 1881, is one of the earliest known black newspapers published in Missouri. Most of the state's African-American newspapers have been published in Kansas City and St. Louis, but Caruthersville, Charleston, Hannibal, Jefferson City, Joplin, Sedalia and Sikeston have also served as the home of African American newspapers.
In these newspapers, researchers can find national and local news of interest to the African American community and prominently featured ads for black businesses. The Kansas City Call, established in 1919, is one of several black newspapers currently being published. At a time when many local papers printed few items of interest to the black community or omitted such coverage altogether, The Call tried to fill the gap. News about small black Missouri communities often found a place in the pages of The Call. Today its coverage is more local, highlighting Kansas City and the surrounding area.
Religious African American newspapers among SHSMO's holdings include The Western Messenger, later known as the Baptist Record, first published in Jefferson City, then in St. Louis and finally in Kansas City. The Western Christian Recorder established in 1891 as the official organ of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, was published in Kansas City. Sedalia was the home of The Searchlight, published for the members of the United Brothers of Friendship and Sisters of Mysterious Ten Lodge.
African-American Newspapers in SHSMO Holdings
| County | City | Title | Also Available On | Date Range |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boone | Columbia | Blackout | Microfilm | Nov 20, 1969 |
| Boone | Columbia | Professional World | Microfilm | 1901-1903; 1909 (incomplete) |
| Cole | Jefferson City | The Lincoln Clarion | Microfilm | 1935-1975 |
| Cole | Jefferson City | Western Messenger | Microfilm | 1914-1916 |
| Greene | Springfield | The American Negro | Hard Copy Only | Oct 25, 1890 |
| Jackson | Kansas City | American | Microfilm | 1928-1933 |
| Jackson | Kansas City | Baptist Record | Microfilm | 1921 (incomplete) |
| Jackson | Kansas City | Call | Microfilm | 1922-Present |
| Jackson | Kansas City | Globe | Microfilm | 1994-Present (some earlier) |
| Jackson | Kansas City | Inter-State Herald | Microfilm | 1903-1904 (incomplete) |
| Jackson | Kansas City | Liberator | Microfilm | 1903 |
| Jackson | Kansas City | Missouri State Post | Microfilm | 1987-1988; 1990-1992 (incomplete) |
| Jackson | Kansas City | Rising Son | Microfilm | 1903-1907 |
| Jackson | Kansas City | Son | Microfilm | Dec 7, 1912 |
| Jackson | Kansas City | Sun | Microfilm | 1914-1924 |
| Jackson | Kansas City | Western Christian Recorder | Microfilm | 1911-1915 |
| Jackson | Kansas City | Western Messenger | Microfilm | 1918-1920 (incomplete) |
| Jasper | Jopin | Uplift | Hard Copy Only | May 24, 1928 |
| Jasper | Jopin | The Joplin-Springfield Uplift | Hard Copy Only | Apr 11, 1930 |
| Marion | Hannibal | Home Protective Record | Microfilm | 1914 (some single issues) |
| Mississippi | Charleston | Spokesman | Microfilm | Aug 1934 (incomplete) |
| Pemiscot | Caruthersville | The Anchor | Microfilm | Jul-Aug 1921 (incomplete) |
| Pettis | Sedalia | Weekly Conservator | Microfilm | 1905-1908 (incomplete) |
| Pettis | Sedalia | U.B.F. and S.M.T. Searchlight | Hard Copy Only | Oct 8, 1910 |
| Pettis | Sedalia | The Searchlight | Hard Copy Only | Feb 28, 1914 |
| Pettis | Sedalia | Times | Microfilm | 1901-1903; 1905 (incomplete) |
| Scott | Sikeston | Southeast Missouri World | Microfilm | Nov 25, 1939 |
| Scott | Sikeston | Southern Sun | Hard Copy Only | 1954 (some single issues) |
| St. Louis | American | Microfilm | 1949-Present | |
| St. Louis | The American Eagle | Hard Copy Only | Dec 17, 1905; Aug 11, 1906 | |
| St. Louis | Argus | Microfilm | 1915-1997 (incomplete) | |
| St. Louis | St. Louis Evening Whirl | Hard Copy Only | 2013-Present (some earlier) | |
| St. Louis | St. Louis Advance | Hard Copy Only | Jun 13, 1908 | |
| St. Louis | Sentinel | Microfilm | 1968-2002 | |
| St. Louis | Western Messenger | Microfilm | 1916-1917 (incomplete) |
On Demand Programs
African-American Experience in Missouri Lecture Series
Designed to offer the community opportunities to reach a new understanding of present-day Missouri, the African American Experience in Missouri Lecture Series is curated by Keona K. Ervin, history professor at the University of Missouri–Columbia, and SHSMO executive director Gary Kremer, both Center for Missouri Studies fellows known for research on African American history. Featuring top scholars, this series of nearly two dozen videos explores of the lives of African Americans in Missouri's past.
View All African American Experiences in Missouri Lectures
More On Demand Videos
Historic Images of Black Families: Representation, Identity, and Diversity - A Virtual Tour
Join SHSMO art curator Joan Stack, PhD, on a virtual tour of the Ellis Library 2021 exhibition, Historic Images of Black Families, exploring each piece’s significance and learning how to access resources for Black history research at the State Historical Society of Missouri.
Our Missouri Podcast Episodes
Our Missouri is a podcast about the people, places, culture, and history of the 114 counties and independent city of St. Louis that comprise the great state of Missouri. Engaging with subject matter experts in each episode, host Sean Rost explores topics related to the state's complex history and culture, from publications about Missouri’s history to current projects undertaken by organizations to preserve and promote local institutions.
Episode 12: Negro Leagues Baseball Museum – Raymond Doswell
Raymond Doswell discusses the long history of African American baseball as well as efforts to preserve its memory through the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.
Episode 15: The African American Press in Missouri – Debra Foster Greene
Debra Foster Greene discusses notable state newspapers, prominent publishers, the evolution of journalism, and how she came to research Missouri's African American Press.
Summer Series 2019, Part 1: Calculations
This episode focuses on an astronomer—Edwin Hubble—and a mathematician—Dorothy Vaughan—who grew up in Missouri but later achieved international acclaim in their respective fields.
Episode 31: "Groping Toward Democracy" – Priscilla Dowden-White
Priscilla Dowden-White discusses her book, Groping toward Democracy: African American Social Welfare Reform in St. Louis, 1910-1949, as well as her current research project on St. Louisan Margaret Bush Wilson.
Summer Series 2020, Part 4: Voda Curtis: Suffrage & Civil Rights – Keely Doll
Focusing on the life of Voda "Bea" Hardy Curtis, documenting the path of her family from slavery to suffrage, and featuring audio clips from Voda Curtis' 1977 oral history (S0829) housed at the State Historical Society of Missouri's St. Louis Research Center, as well as final thoughts from past oral history interns–Cydney Smith, Cassie Draudt, and Keely Doll–who conducted research on Voda Curtis' life.
Episode 39: "Slavery on the Periphery" – Kristen Epps
A conversation with Kristen Epps about her book, Slavery on the Periphery: The Kansas-Missouri Border in the Antebellum and Civil War Eras, published by University of Georgia Press.
Episode 43: "Gateway to Equality" – Keona Ervin
Keona Ervin discusses her award-winning book, Gateway to Equality: Black Women and the Struggle for Economic Justice in St. Louis, which was published by the University Press of Kentucky in 2017.
Episode 48: "Celia, A Slave" – Melton McLaurin
A conversation with Melton McLaurin about the 30th anniversary of his book, Celia, A Slave.
Episode 53: "On Slavery's Border" – Diane Mutti Burke
Diane Mutti Burke discusses her award-winning book, On Slavery’s Border: Missouri’s Small-Slaveholding Households, 1815-1865, as well as historiographical interpretations of slavery in Missouri.
Episode 54: "Missouri's Black Heritage" – Antonio F. Holland & Gary R. Kremer
Antonio F. Holland and Gary R. Kremer discuss Lorenzo Greene, Lincoln University, African American History, and the origins of their book, Missouri's Black Heritage.
Episode 57: "Lorenzo Greene and Lincoln University" – Antonio F. Holland & Gary R. Kremer
Antonio F. Holland and Gary R. Kremer return to discuss their memories of Lorenzo Greene and their years at Lincoln University.
Episode 59: "Gender & the Jubilee" – Sharon Romeo
Sharon Romeo discusses how freedwomen and enslaved women fought for their freedom and rights in Missouri during the Civil War.
Oral Histories
Politics in Missouri Oral History Project, Records, 1996-, (C3929)
Contains scores of interviews that date to the mid-1990s. In many instances, these interviews deal with topics of racial history, including struggles over civil rights legislation. Many of these interviews have been transcribed and can be accessed online.
Among the interviews in this collection is one with State Representative Elbert Walton Jr. from St. Louis. The collection also includes interviews with brothers Roy Cooper Jr. and Alex Cooper, two members of one of the most prominent and well-known African American families of the southeastern Missouri delta.
Kansas City Monarchs Oral History Collection, 1978-1981, (K0047)
This collection contains oral history interviews and related correspondence with eighteen individuals who played with or were associated with the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro National League.
Kansas City Jazz Oral History Collection, 1977-1980, (K0012)
Contains audio recordings and transcriptions of interviews with jazz musicians who played in Kansas City during the "Golden Age of Jazz," roughly the mid-1920s to the mid-1940s.
Missouri Desegregation and Civil Rights Oral History Project, Records, 2013, (C4116)
The collection consists of interviews with people who attended Douglass and/or Hickman High School in Columbia, Missouri. The collection consists of digitally recorded interviews, audio logs, and photographs. The collection is ongoing and open to interviews concerning any school and/or civil rights topic in Missouri.
Photographs
The State Historical Society of Missouri digital collections include many photographs documenting African American history.