Black St. Louis

Black St. Louis explores the rich and inspiring history of African Americans in St. Louis from the city’s founding as a French fur trading post during the Spanish colonial era to the new millennium. Authors Calvin Riley and NiNi Harris highlight great figures who showed leadership, incredible innovation, and courage despite the injustices they faced. Learn about people like feisty Charlton Tandy, a Union Army veteran who fought for civil rights, and John Berry Meachum, an ex-slave who led the Black community with kindness and founded the First African Baptist Church. In the early 20th century, businesswoman Annie Malone built an industry that served and enriched African Americans and left a lasting impact on the city. Meet Nathan B. Young, St. Louis’s first Black municipal court judge who chronicled the history of the city’s Black community in the pages of St. Louis American and Your St. Louis and Mine. And discover mezzo-soprano Grace Bumbry, 2009 recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors, who opened doors in the operatic world to future generations of Black artists. Black St. Louis covers more than 250 years of history to tell the stories of extraordinary people who helped pave the way for the St. Louis we know today.

Calvin Riley is an educator, and he and his wife Calra Riley are lifelong collectors of Black memorabilia dating back 250 years. Their 40-year collection was used to open the George B. Vashon Museum of African American History, telling the stories and events of their experience in the United States of how African Americans progressed. The world must not be allowed to forget the injustices done to the Black race. This is NiNi Harris's 18th book on St. Louis history and architecture. A life-long St. Louisan, she has researched and written books on St. Louis ethnic communities (including the Poles and the Bohemians), St. Louis's extraordinary architecture and brickwork, the parks system, St. Louis during the Civil War years, churches, institutions, and neighborhoods, including Downtown St. Louis.