Archival Project to Improve Access to Congressional Papers including those of William L. Hungate who presided over 1983 St. Louis Desegregation Case

Former U.S. Senator Roy Blunt, who recently became president of the State Historical Society of Missouri board of trustees, will provide opening remarks at a public reception on May 9 highlighting a new congressional archival project to be funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. The public reception will be held at 4 p.m. at University of Missouri-St. Louis Millennium Student Center in Rm. 312-A. The address is 17 Arnold Grobman Dr., St. Louis. Parking is available next to Millennium Center.

At the reception, Sen. Blunt will announce plans for making congressional papers more readily available to the public, including the papers of former U.S. representative and federal judge William L. Hungate, who approved a consent decree for a voluntary school desegregation plan in 1983 that allowed Black students from St. Louis to attend suburban districts.

Archivists at the State Historical Society have begun the first phase of a grant to organize, describe and make available four collections of Missouri congressional papers, including those of U.S. Representatives Dewey Short and Bill Emerson and U.S. Senators John Danforth and Thomas Eagleton. Archivists will process over 918 cubic feet of papers, electronic records, photographs, and audio-visual materials through this grant.

The next phase of the federally funded project will include the papers of Hungate, chronicling his career representing Missouri’s Ninth Congressional District (1964-1977) and as a federal judge on the U. S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri (1979-1992). During his political career, Hungate garnered national attention as a member of the House Judiciary Committee investigation of President Richard Nixon’s involvement in the Watergate scandal and later as one of several judges who oversaw the desegregation of St. Louis Public Schools. Hungate, who grew up in Bowling Green, died in 2007 and his papers reside at the State Historical Society of Missouri St. Louis Research Center on the University of Missouri-St. Louis campus.

The State Historical Society of Missouri is the depository for the papers of U.S. senators and representatives after they leave office. Many of these records, some dating back to early statehood, contain letters, travel logs, speeches, and diaries of political figures elected to represent Missouri. Once these congressional papers are fully processed, scholars will be able to navigate the collections and better understand the interactions of the state and its people with national political trends and points of view.