Description
Few people today know of the leading role St. Louis played in the battle for fair and equitable treatment of African Americans in the eighteen- and nineteen-hundreds—a role that has been generally under recognized. This in-depth presentation focuses on the events and successes of two periods in Missouri history that were pivotal to that progress. We will examine the years leading up to the Brown v. Board of Education decision (1821–1954) in which a Supreme Court ruling required the St. Louis Board of Education to devise a plan for desegregating public schools in the city. And the modern civil rights movement (1954–1968), in which St. Louis had been on the cutting edge of civil rights leadership through a quiet, but persistent attack on discrimination. Join us to bring to light this little-known piece of St. Louis history.