Faded Scars
Racism's Legacy in Midtown St. Louis
Overview
This is a draft piece of long-term project on the long tentacles of racism in St. Louis. The ultimate goal of the project, which I am aiming to develop into a book, is to locate modern social patterns and life in St. Louis in their historical context. This project is rooted in the work of W.E.B. Du Bois, Cedric Robinson, Loic Wacquant, and Walter Johnson.
The goal of this piece of the project is to locate my own experience, as a professor in an anchor institution in Midtown St. Louis, Saint Louis University. The neighborhoods that surround our campus, and indeed the institution itself, have been dramatically shaped by racism. This interactive document will ultimately zoom from a high level - indigenous expulsion, the growth and demise of chattel slavery, and the development of segregated neighborhoods in St. Louis - to the micro level experience of Saint Louis University itself.
Right now, only a draft of the initial content on indigenous life in what would become Missouri is available.
The Confluence of Peoples
Indigenous Communities
What is now St. Louis lies on land occupied for centuries by a host of indigenous groups. Understanding the legacy of racism in St. Louis requires acknowledging that the contemporary city sits on lands long occupied by other people, and that the expulsion of indigenous groups was a key facet of the development of the American nation over several centuries.
Cahokia Mounds
This area was occupied by Mississippian mound building peoples from about 1050 AD through 1400 AD. At its peak, somewhere between 25,000 and 50,000 people inhabited the city . This would have rivaled London's population during the same period, and meant that Cahokia was likely the largest city in North America.
Today, the site sits several miles east of the Mississippi River and the City of St. Louis, and is a UNESCO World Heritage site .
Monks Mound, one of the remaining mounds at Cahokia ( Wikipedia )
Sugarloaf Mound
The Mississippian people who built Cahokia also built mounds on the west side of the Mississippi River in what is now St. Louis. The only remaining mound today is known as Sugarloaf Mound, which sits between I-55 and the Mississippi River. The site is owned by the Osage Nation.
Sugarloaf Mound ( Wikipedia )
Big Mound
Unlike Sugarloaf Mound, most other mounds were flattened by European settlers. Such was the fate of Big Mound, which stood near the contemporary intersection of North Broadway and Mound Street. The mound was destroyed in 1869 for use as fill .
Destruction of Big Mound, 1869 ( Missouri Historical Society )
Post-Mississippian Nations
The Mississippian peoples who built mounds in what is now St. Louis were not the last or only indigenous residents. Between the 14th and 19th centuries, at least thirteen major indigenous nations spent time in what is now Missouri. Six of them - the Quapaw, Sioux, Osage, Kaskaskia, Kickapoo, and Miami nations - all overlapped with modern St. Louis at one point or another, according to data from Native Land .
The large land areas covered by many of these nations were not occupied all at once. Rather, these reflect the migration of peoples over time. Some of this migration occurred before contact with Europeans, but it also reflects movement in response to pressure from European settlers and, later, American westward expansion.
Osage Nation
The large land areas inhabited at various points by the Osage Nation are emblematic of these pressures. Their historical ancestors, the Dhegiha tribes, inhabited what we now call the Mississippi River valley including areas around Cahokia and what is now St. Louis. However, the Dhegiha tribes had moved into this region from earlier homelands in what we now call the Ohio River valley .
Over time, and especially after the demise of Cahokia, the Osage continued to move south and west into present day Missouri and Arkansas. By the time of contact with French explorers in the 17th century, they had settled along what we now know as the Osage River in southwestern Missouri.
Cler-mónt, First Chief of the Osage Tribe (George Catlin, Smithsonian Institution )
Kickapoo Nation
Like the Osage, the Kickapoo came to what is now Missouri from ancestral homes elsewhere. Over two-hundred years, from the 17th to the 19th centuries, the Kickapoo Nation moved continually south and west from the Great Lakes region .
Ke-chím-qua, Member of the Kickapoo Tribe (George Catlin, Smithsonian Institution )
Kickapoo Nation
A 19th century map of land transfers from indigenous nations , created by the U.S. Government under the auspices of the Bureau of American Ethnology, documented the presence of a Kickapoo Village near the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers in 1805.
Note: approximate location shown
Detail from the Bureau of American Ethnology map ( Library of Congress )
Midtown Today
The following tour highlights some of the key sites, or former sites, of Midtown St. Louis's history with racism and segregation. These sites largely sit on the campuses of Saint Louis University and Harris Stowe State University.
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1
Former Site of DeSmet Hall
DeSmet Hall is a City of St. Louis landmark . Built in 1898 and demolished in 1977, the building made up the western edge of the original SLU quadrangle. The present Pius XII Library sits partially astride DeSmet's former footprint.
The building's name honored Fr. Pierre DeSmet, who first came west to St. Louis with Fr. Quickenborne and the slaves he owned. During his time in Florissant, DeSmet helped run the short-lived "Indian school." After returning home to Europe for a time, he resumed missionary work throughout the American West, seeking to convert the indigenous people he met in his travels.
2
Verhaegen Hall
This building, which currently houses SLU administrative offices, is named for Fr. Peter Verhaegen. Like DeSmet, Verhaegen traveled west St. Louis with Fr. Quickenborne in 1823. During his tenure as President of Saint Louis University, he inherited Quickenborne's slaves, and there are accounts of his violence and mistreatment toward the enslaved persons he owned. After stepping down as President of SLU, Verhaegen became the superior of the Jesuit's Missouri province and, in that role, oversaw Jesuit missionary work to indigenous nations.
3
St. Francis Xavier College Church
4
DuBourg Hall
5
Former Site of Wesleyan Cemetery
6
Ritter Hall
7
Former Site of the Nathanial Lyon Statue
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Ritter Hall
9
Interdisciplinary Science Building and the Former Site of Camp Jackson
10
Frost Campus Expansion
11
Grand Forest Apartments, Former Laclede Town
12
Athletic Complex, Former Site of Laclede Town
13
Chafitz Arena, Former Site of Waring Elementary School
14
I-64
15
Former Vashon Community Center
16
Harris Stowe State University, Former Laclede Town
17
Dr. Henry Givens Jr. Building, Former Vashon High School
18
Dinks Parrish Laundry
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