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Clear Channel Radio has partnered with Missouri Historical Society to present Pride in Our Past. Pride in Our Past will air Wednesdays and will highlight significant moments and contributions of African Americans locally and nationally. These segments are intended to honor the efforts of our ancestors and to celebrate the Pride in Our Past.
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| Feature #41 James Milton Turner |
Born in slavery in St. Louis, Missouri, Turner’s father was able to purchase his family’s freedom in 1843. James became a butler for Madison Miller, going with him into the Union Army during the Civil War. After the war, Miller’s brother-in-law, Missouri Governor Thomas Fletcher, appointed Turner Assistant Superintendent of Schools in charge of establishing schools for freed Blacks throughout Missouri. Turner raised money to establish Lincoln Institute in Jefferson City, Missouri, which was the first high school and teacher training institute for Blacks in Missouri. He was one of the founders and leaders of the Missouri Equal Rights League, the first African American political organization in Missouri. In 1871, President Ulysses S. Grant appointed Turner Ambassador to Liberia (1871 - 1878), making Turner the first African American diplomat to represent the United States in a foreign country. After returning to St. Louis he worked on the Refugee Relief Board helping thousands of destitute southern Blacks who were migrating to Kansas. In 1881 Turner organized the Freedman’s Oklahoma Association and for the next 20 years he battled for the rights of Blacks in Indian Territory. Click the speaker |
| Feature #40 Helen L. Phillips | Feature #39 Dr. Howard Phillip Venable |
Helen L. Phillips was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of a Baptist minister, the Rev. James Phillips. She attended Sumner High School in St. Louis and Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri. At the age of 14 she was one of the soloists at the dedication of the Municipal Auditorium in St. Louis. She was the first black singer to perform with the Metropolitan Opera chorus (seven years before Marian Anderson's debut—later saying she just "slipped in". Her agent had been told to send his best soprano as an extra for five performances of Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana in 1947 — and though the stage manager was momentarily surprised by her race, did nothing to hamper her debut. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s she was primarily a concert singer, touring the United States, Europe, Africa, and South America. She made her Town Hall debut in 1953, and was in a City Center production of "Show Boat" in 1954. Retiring from the stage, she became a teacher and vocal coach.
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| Dr. Howard Phillip Venable was born in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, but spent most of his early life in Detroit, Michigan. He later came to St. Louis as a resident in Ophthalmology at Homer G. Phillips Hospital. He eventually became the first African American faculity member at Washington University. He and his wife worked hard to recruit African Americans to join his profession, thus, The Katie and Howard Phillip Venable Student Research Fund in Ophtalmology was created. This fund provided stipends for minority student wanting to become eye doctors. It was not uncommon for Dr. Venable and his wife to provide students with much needed equipment and even housing in order for them to complete their training. Dr. Venable spent his entire professional career in St. Louis and even served as the head of Homer G. Phillips Hospital before it closed in the 1970s. In 1994 he was awarded the Outstanding Humanitarian Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology. Click the speaker |
| Feature #38 Chuck Berry | Feature #37 Bessie Coleman |
Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry was born on October 18, 1926 in St. Louis, Missouri. He grew up in "The Ville" and attended Sumner High School. It was at Sumner where he began performing. In order to appeal to a vast audience, Berry merged the blues with country and western music. He is also known for his great live performances. Throughout his career he wrote such classics as "Johnny B. Goode", "Roll Over Beethoven", and "Sweet Little Sixteen". Berry has influenced bands like "The Beatles" and "The Rolling Stones" and is credited as being the father of rock n' roll. At the request of President Jimmy Carter, Berry performed at the White House in June of 1979. In 1986 Berry was one of the first to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Currently you can see Berry perform monthly at Blueberry Hill right here in St. Louis.
Click the speaker | Bessie Coleman was born in Atlanta, Texas in 1892 and was the tenth child of thirteen. She received limited education in her early life and mostly taught herself. When she was twenty-three, she moved to Chicago, IL, where she lived with her brothers. While working as a manicurist in a barber shop, she heard tales of the world from pilots who were returning home from World War I. She dreamed of becoming a pilot, but could not gain admission to American flight schools. In 1920 Coleman moved to France in order to learn to fly. Two years later she started performing in airshows in the US as the first African American woman to earn an aviation pilot's license. She would eventually become known as "Queen Bess" and an inspiration to many. Unfortunately, Coleman would not live long enough to fulfill her greatest dream—establishing a school for young, black aviators. In 1926 Coleman was killed in a plane crash during a practice run. Click the speaker |
| Feature #36 Jo Jo White | Feature #35 Red Fox |
Joseph Henry "Jo Jo" White was born November 16, 1946 in St. Louis, Missouri. White played college basketball at the University of Kansas and after graduating, played on the 1968 USA Olympic basketball team. USA went undefeated and won the gold with a 9-0 record. After the Olympics, White was drafted in 1969 in the first round (9th pick overall) by the NBA's Boston Celtics, who at that time had just won their 11th championship in 13 years. White would eventually become the cornerstone of two Celtic championship teams in the 1970s (1973-74 and 1975-76). White went on to become one of professional basketball's first "iron men", playing in all 82 games for five consecutive seasons during the 1970s. White's skills included great defense, speed, an underrated jump shot, and team leadership. In 1979 he was traded by the Celtics to the Golden State Warriors, and retired in 1981, with the Kansas City Kings. On April 9, 1982 his number 10 was hung from the rafters at the Boston Garden. Click the speaker | Red Fox was born in St. Louis, Missouri and raised on Chicago's South Side. Moving to New York in the early 1940s, he was an associate of Malcolm Little later known as Malcolm X. In Malcolm's autobiography, Fox is referred to as "Chicago Red, the funniest dishwasher on this earth." Fox gained notoriety with his nightclub act (considered by the standards of the time to be raunchy). In 1972 Fox became the lead character in the show "Sanford and Son". After six successful seasons Fox left the show to star in a variety show which did not last. Fox appeared to be making a comeback with the 1991 series "The Royal Family", in which he co-starred with his long-time friend Della Reese. During a break from rehearsals on October 11, 1991, a fatal heart attack felled him on the set. Fox never regained consciousness. He was 68 years old. Click the speaker |
| Feature #34 Lou Brock | Feature #33-Frankie Muse Freeman |
Lou Brock was born in El Dorado, Arkansas and played college baseball at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He signed with the Cubs as an amateur free agent and broke into the Majors in 1961. In 1964 the Cubs gave up on Brock and made him part of a trade for Ernie Broglio with the St. Louis Cardinals. After Brock was traded to the Cardinals, his career turned around significantly. During his career, Brock helped the Cardinals to National League pennants in 1964, 1967, and 1968 and to World Series championships in 1964 and 1967. Brock held the record for career stolen bases (938) until it was broken by Rickey Henderson. Overall, Brock batted .293 in 19 seasons, amassing a total of 3023 hits. To this day, the trade of Brock for Broglio is considered by many Cubs fans to be the worst in franchise history. Click the speaker | Frankie Muse Freeman was born in Danville, Virginia in 1916 and later attended Howard University Law School. Shortly after becoming a lawyer, she became legal council to the NAACP legal team that filed suit against the St. Louis Board of Education in 1949. In 1954, Freeman was the lead attorney for the landmark NAACP case Davis et al v. the St. Louis Housing Authority, which ended legal racial discrimination in public housing with the city. In March of 1964, she was appointed by President Lyndon Johnson as a member of the United States Commission on Civil Rights. She has received several honorary doctorate degrees from institutions that include Hampton University, University of Missouri–St. Louis, Saint Louis University, Washington University in St. Louis and Howard University. At age 90, she's still practicing law with Montgomery Hollie & Associates, L.L.C. in St. Louis. Click the speaker |
| Feature #32- Willie Mae Ford Smith | Feature #31- Niagara Movement |
Willie Mae Ford Smith was born in Rolling Fork, Mississippi. She was raised in the Baptist church and began singing with her sisters in a family group known as "The Ford Sisters" after the family moved to St. Louis. The group, and Willie Mae in particular, achieved wider fame after an appearance at the 1922 National Baptist Convention. After she was married in 1929, she began traveling in musical revivals. In 1931 she was asked by Thomas A. Dorsey to help him found the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses. The organization was devoted to spreading gospel music by training singers, choirs, and composers. Smith became the principal singing teacher for the NCGCC as head of its Soloists' Bureau in 1936. Smith appeared in the movie "Say Amen, Somebody!", and in 1990 she was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame. Click the speaker | In February 1905, W.E.B. Dubois, John Hope, Monroe Trotter, Frederick McGhee, C. E. Bentley and 27 others met secretly to adopt the resolutions which lead to the founding of the Niagara Movement. They invited 59 well know African American businessmen to a meeting that summer in western New York. On July 11-14, 1905 on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, twenty-nine men met and formed a group they called the Niagara Movement. The Niagara Movement was a call for opposition to racial segregation and lack of voting rights. They wanted full civil liberties, and an end to racial discrimination. This movement was a forerunner of the NAACP. Click the speaker |
| Feature #30 - Bob Gibson | Feature #29 - Donald McHenry |
Pack Robert "Bob" Gibson was born on November 9, 1935 in Omaha, Nebraska and is a former right-handed baseball pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals from 1959 to 1975. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981. Gibson was a fierce competitor who rarely smiled and was known to throw close fast inside pitches to let batters know who was in charge. Considered to be the best pitcher in Cardinals history, Gibson dominated with his fastball, sharp slider, and a slow, looping curveball. In the eight seasons from 1963 to 1970, he won 156 games and lost 81, for a .658 winning percentage. He won nine Gold Glove Awards, was awarded the World Series MVP Award in 1964 and 1967, and won Cy Young Awards in 1968 and 1970. His earned run average in 1968 was 1.12, which is a live-ball era record. He was also the second pitcher in MLB history (after Walter Johnson) to strike out over 3,000 batters, and the first to do so in the National League. Click the speaker
| Donald Franchot McHenry was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1936 and grew up across the river in East St. Louis, Illinois. McHenry was the United States Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations from September 1979 until January 20, 1981. McHenry spent much of his career working in foreign diplomacy. He began working with the United States Department of State in 1963, and spent eight years there. In 1976, McHenry served as a member of President Carter's transition staff at the State Department before joining the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. In March 1977, he was appointed as the U.S. Deputy Representative to the U.N. Security Council. He is currently Professor of Diplomacy and International Affairs at Georgetown University. He has also been a director of The Coca-Cola Company since 1981, and is a director of AT&T Corporation and International Paper Company. Click the speaker
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| Feature #28 - The Montford Point Marines | Feature #27 - P.B.S. Pinchback |
In 1940 while the United States prepared for war, millions of jobs in the defense industry were being created. Blacks seeking jobs in the growing defense industries, suffered violence and discrimination. On June 25th President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802. It established the Fair Employment Practice Commission, which prohibited racial discrimination by any government agency. With this order the United States Marine Corp was forced to begin recruiting and enlisting African Americans. The first black recruits received basic training at the segregated Camp Montford Point in North Carolina. Between 1942-1949 more than 20,000 men trained at Montford Point. The Marine Corps. was integrated in 1949. Click the speaker.
| Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback, born May 10, 1837, was the first African American to become Governor of a U.S. state. He served as the Governor of Louisiana for thirty-five days, from December 9, 1872, to January 13, 1873. Pinchback was born in May of 1837 in Macon, Georgia, to a slave and her former master who were by then living together as husband and wife. As a youngster, Pinchback lived in relatively affluent surroundings, and his parents even sent him north to Cincinnati to attend high school. He married in 1860 and served in the Civil War as part of the Louisiana National Guard. In 1885, nearing 50 years old, Pinchback took up the study of law at Straight University and was a member of its first graduating class. In the early 1890s Pinchback and his family moved to New York City, where he served as a U.S. marshal, but later they settled in Washington, D.C.
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| Feature #26 - Clark Terry | Feature #25 - Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable |
World-class jazz trumpeter Clark Terry was born December 14, 1920 in St. Louis and attended Vashon High School. He began his professional career in the early 1940s by playing in local clubs before joining a Navy band during World War II. Nicknamed Mumbles he played with greats like Charlie Barnet, Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Quincy Jones and also performed and recorded regularly both as a leader and sideman. In all, his career in jazz spans more than sixty years. Clark's international recognition soared when he accepted an offer from the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) to become its first African-American staff musician. His career as both leader and sideman with more than three hundred recordings demonstrates that he is one of the most prolific luminaries in jazz. Click the speaker
| Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable, the Founder of Chicago, was born in the mid 1700's in Haiti. He was the son of a French Sea Captain and a slave mother. He was educated in France and later worked on one of his father's ships as a seaman. He moved from New Orleans to Illinois where he married a Potawatomi Indian named Kittihawa. They had a son named Jean and a daughter named Susanne. In 1779 he departed Peoria and explored north to an area called Eschikagou, (Chicago) by the Indians. DuSable, recognizing it's future potential, decided to settle in the area and built the first permanent home on the banks of the Chicago River. In 1800 Du Sable sold his entire holdings and moved to Missouri. He died on August 29, 1818 in St. Charles. Click speaker |
| Feature #24 - Grace Bumbry | Feature #23 - Tom Turpin |
Grace Bumbry was born in St Louis, Missouri in 1937. She began to show her extraordinary voice first in the Union Memorial Church Choir, before taking her gift to Sumner High School where the legendary Ken Billups guided her with a father’s care. Long before American Idol, Ms. Bumbry was on TV winning “Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts” in 1954. By 1959 she had made her concert debut in London. Her beautiful mezzo-soprano voice carried her to the famed German Wagner Festival in 1961 where she became the first African American to perform there and she became and international sensation. Click the speaker | Tom Turpin, born November 18, 1871, opened a saloon in St. Louis, Missouri in his early 20's that became a meeting-place for local pianists and an incubation point for early folk ragtime, such as musician Joe Jordan. Turpin himself is credited with the first published rag by an African-American, his "Harlem Rag" of 1897. His other published rags include "Bowery Buck," "Ragtime Nightmare," "St. Louis Rag," and "The Buffalo Rag". He served as a deputy constable and was one of the first politically powerful African-Americans in St. Louis. His influence on local music earned him the title "Father of St. Louis Ragtime." Click the speaker |
| Feature #22 - Jackie Joyner Kersee | Feature #21 - Roy Wilkins |
Jackie Joyner Kersee was born in poverty in East St. Louis on March 3, 1962. By age twelve she already was showing the raw ability to be a great athlete. At Lincoln High School, she excelled at track, basketball and volleyball. She won silver medal in the heptathlon in the 1984 Olympics. 2 years later at the Goodwill Games, she became the first woman to break the 7,000-point barrier in the event. In 1996, she won a bronze medal in the long jump, ending her stellar career as one of the most decorated female athletes in U. S. Olympic track and field ever with a total of six medals. Click the speaker | Civil rights giant Roy Wilkins was born in St. Louis in 1901, eight years before the formation of the organization he was destined to lead. In 1931, after rising to managing editor of the Kansas City Call, Wilkins became the assistant executive secretary of the NAACP. Roy Wilkins was named executive secretary of the NAACP in 1955. Wilkins would lead it through some of its most historic battles: desegregating Little Rock schools, integration of public accommodations in the south, voting rights. Wilkins helped organized the historic 1963 civil rights march on Washington. He led the NAACP until 1977. Click the speaker |
| Feature #20 - Margaret Bush Wilson | Feature #19 - Elizabeth Keckly |
Margaret Bush Wilson was born to activist parents in 1919. Her mother, a teacher and her father, a real estate agent, were both financial and volunteer supporters of civil rights. She was the Second African American woman to graduate from the Lincoln University Law school and the second African American woman to pass the Missouri bar. Later she helped raise money for the Shelley V. Kraemer case that struck down covenants restricting blacks to certain neighborhoods. In 1955, Wilson became the first black woman to serve as an assistant attorney general in Missouri. Click the speaker | Elizabeth Hobbs Keckly was born a slave in 1818. Her mother Agnes was a house slave and could read and write. Elizabeth was smart and resilent at a very young age. That strength would help her later in life to secure and maintain a friendship with first Lady Mary Todd Lincoln as her “dressmaker and confidante”. In 1855, Whie living in St. Louis She was able to secure freedom for herself and her son using seamstress skills learned from her mother. In May of 1907, at the age of 89, Mrs. Keckly passed away as a resident of the National Home for Destitute Colored Women and Children in Washington, DC. Click the speaker |
| Feature #18 - Henry Armstrong | Feature #17 - Josephine Baker |
Henry Armstrong was born Henry Jackson Jr. On December 12, 1912, in Columbus, Mississippi to Henry and America Jackson. Henry was the eleventh child of fifteen. His father was a sharecropper. At an early age, Henry's family moved to St. Louis. Henry Sr.was in search for a better life for his family. Henry was a boxer who not only was a member of the exclusive group of fighters that have won boxing championships in three or more different divisions, but also has the distinction of being the only boxer to hold three world championships at the same time. He also defended the Welterweight championship more times than any other fighter. Click the speaker.
| Josephine Baker, born Freda Josephine McDonald on June 3rd, 1906 in St. Louis, Missouri,was an American-born French expatriate entertainer and singer. She became a French citizen in 1937. She is noted for being the first woman of African descent to star in a major motion picture, to integrate an American concert hall, and to become a world famous entertainer. She is also noted for her contributions to the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.Though based in France, she supported the American Civil Rights Movement during the 1950s. She protested in her own way against racism, adopting twelve multi-ethnic orphans, whom she called her "Rainbow Tribe." She died in 1975. Click the speaker. |
| Feature #16 - Dick Gregory | Feature #15 - John Berry Meacham |
American comedian, social activist, writer and entrepreneur, Richard "Dick" Claxton Gregory was born October 12, 1932 in St. Louis. Dick Gregory is an influential African American comic who has used his performance skills to convey to both white and black audiences his political message on civil rights. Influenced to stand up for civil rights by his early surroundings of poverty and violence, Gregory became the first comedian to successfully perform for both black and white audiences. Dick Gregory has also become know as a nutrition guru, advocating a vegetarian diet. Click the speaker to listen to the vignette.
| John Berry Meacham was born a slave in Virginia, on May 3, 1789. He accompanied his master to Kentucky. There he convinced him to hire him out to work in one of Kentucky’s 200 saltpeter caves where he earned enough money to buy his own freedom. In 1815, John Meacham’s wife’s master took her and their children to St. Louis. Meacham followed and found work using his carpentry and barrel making skills. He soon managed to purchase his wife and children. Meacham bought and freed more than 20 slaves besides his family. In 1847, Meacham built a steamboat on the Mississippi river to educate children. Click the speaker. |
| Feature #14 - Elston Howard | Feature #13 - Katherine Dunham |
Elston Howard was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, and was a standout athlete at Vashon High School. In 1948, the 19-year-old turned down scholarship offers from Big Ten universities and instead entered the Negro Leagues, playing for the Kansas City Monarchs under manager Buck O'Neil for three years as an outfielder. He was signed by the Yankees on July 19, 1950, and was assigned to their farm team at Muskegon, Michigan. On April 14, 1955 Howard became the first African American to play for the Yankees.
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| Katherine Dunham was a dancer, choreographer, songwriter, author, educator and activist who was trained as an anthropologist. She has been called the Matriarch and Queen Mother of Black Dance,and had one of the most successful dance careers in American and European theater of the 20th century. During her heyday in the 1940s, 50s and 60s she was renowned throughout Europe and Latin America as La Grande Katherine, and the Washington Post called her "Dance's Katherine the Great."
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| Feature #12 -Theodore McMillian | Feature #11 -Theodore McNeil |
Federal Judge Theodore McMillian was born January 28, 1919 in St. Louis. McMillian excelled in school, earning degrees in mathematics and physics from Lincoln University, before attending St. Louis University law school. After graduating first in his class at SLU in 1949, McMillian became the first African-American assistant prosecutor in the city of St. Louis. Three years later he was appointed the first African-American judge for the city of St. Louis. And, in 1978, he became the first and only African-American to reach the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals."
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| Theodore McNeil came to St. Louis from Helena Arkansas after graduating from High School. He worked on a Pullman Train Car. In 1930 he was one of the first St. Louis area Pullman Car workers to become a member of the International Brotherhood of sleeping car porters. He was vice president of the Black Union. He was elected the first African American State Senator from Missouri in 1960 and, he was head of St. Louis Board of Police Commissioners.
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| Feature #10 -Robert Guillaume | Feature #9 - Mary Meachum |
Actor, Robert Guillaume, probably best know for his role as Benson, was born November 30, 1927. Guillaume was born as Robert Peter Williams (Guillaume is the French form of William) here in St. Louis, Missouri. He studied at St. Louis University and Washington University and served in the Army before heading to Broadway. Guillaume won Emmy Awards for Benson. He replaced Michael Crawford as The Phantom in the National tour of Phantom of the Opera and to date only, African American to assume the role of the Phantom.
Click the speaker to listen to the vignette. | In the early morning hours of May 21, 1855 a small group of runaway slaves and their guides crossed the Mississippi River at St. Louis, attempting to reach a route to freedom through Illinois. Accompanying them was Mary Meachum, a free woman of color and the widow of a prominent African American clergyman. Even today, the activities of the Underground Railroad remain largely shrouded in mystery. This event is remarkably different because the group was apprehended and, since the slaves belonged to Henry Shaw.
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| Feature #8 - William Lacy Clay Sr | . Feature #7 - Jimmy Winkfield |
Former Congressman William Lacy Clay, Sr. was born on April 30, 1931, in St. Louis to Luella Hyatt and Irving Clay. Growing up with six siblings in St. Louis, Clay excelled in school. He graduated from St. Louis University in 1953 with a B.S. in political science. He served in the U.S. Army until 1955. In 1968, Clay was elected to Congress, becoming the first African American elected from Missouri and one of only two African American representatives elected from states west of the Mississippi River. Clay served sixteen terms in Congress.
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| James "Jimmy" Winkfield was born April 12, 1882 in Chilesburg Kentucky. In 1900 he rode a horse named Thrive in the Kentucky Derby, finishing third. He rode the race again in 1901 and 1902, winning on His Eminence and Alan-a-Dale respectively - in 1901 alone, he won 220 races. He competed in his final Derby in 1903, finishing second on Early. He 1903 he emigrated to Russia to race and later to France where he lived until his death in 1974.
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| Feature #6 - Freeman Bosley Jr. | Feature #5 - Miles Davis |
Freeman R. Bosley Jr., born July 20, 1954, was St. Louis' first African-American mayor (1993-1997). Bosley graduated from Central High School in 1972 and went on to attend Saint Louis University and Saint Louis University School of Law. Bosley comes from a politically active family. His grandfather, Preston Bosley, was the son of a slave who moved to St. Louis from Little Rock, Arkansas.
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| Miles Davis was one of the greatest visionaries and most important figures in jazz history. He was born in a well-to-do family in East St. Louis. He became a local phenom and toured locally with Billy Eckstine's band while he was in high school. He moved to New York under the guise of attending the Julliard School of Music.In the early 1970s, Miles kept experimenting with the electric instruments and fusing more funk into his music.He won a series of Grammy Awards in the 80's. Miles Davis died in 1991. -milesdavis.com
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| Feature #4 - Hiram Young | Feature #3 - Dred Scott |
Hiram Young was born a slave in Tennessee in the early 1800s. After purchasing his freedom as a young man, Young established a wagon building shop with a staff of 20. He was supplying more than 600 wagons and 1000 yokes a year to the settlers heading west from the head of the Santa Fe Trail which was Independence. Most of the settlers, who headed west, did so using Young wagons or yokes. After the Civil War Young built a school in Independence to educate African American children.
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| Dred Scott was a slave who sued unsuccessfully for his freedom in the famous Dred Scott v. Sandford case of 1856. His case was based on the fact that he and his wife Harriet were slaves, but had lived in states and territories where slavery was illegal. The court ruled seven to two against Scott, finding that neither he, nor any person of African ancestry, could claim citizenship in the United States, and that Scott could not therefore bring suit in federal court under diversity of citizenship rules.
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| Feature # 2 - Curtis Charles Flood | Feature # 1 - Homer G. Phillips |
Curtis Charles Flood was a Major League Baseball player who spent most of his career as a center fielder for the St. Louis Cardinals. He led the National League in putouts four times and in fielding percentage twice, winning Gold Glove Awards in his last seven full seasons from 1963-1969. He believed that Major League Baseball's decades-old reserve clause was unfair in that it kept players beholden for life to the team with whom they originally signed.
Click the speaker to listen to the vignette on Curt Flood. | In the 1920's African American attorney, Homer G. Phillips, led an effort for a million dollar bond to build a hospital to serve the Black population in St. Louis.
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