An early twentieth-century postcard of Stewart Bridge, where a mob killed James T. Scott in the early hours of April 29, 1923. [State Historical Society of Missouri, John W. Coffman Collection of University of Missouri Postcards (P305), 010783-1]

James T. Scott (1885?–1923) was the victim of one of the most…

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An unheralded Afro-Indian enslaved woman’s dreams of freedom propelled one of the most…

Charlton H. Tandy. [State Historical Society of Missouri, St. Louis Research Center, Black History Photograph Collection (S0336)]

Charlton H. Tandy, an outspoken leader of the nineteenth-century Black civil rights…

James Milton Turner, circa 1870. [Lincoln University]

Although numerous secondary accounts of James Milton Turner’s life list his birth date as…

Marianne Billeron Vallé’s signature on a baptismal record in 1768. She signed as the godmother to Marie-Louise, the daughter of an enslaved Native American woman. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Ste. Genevieve Parish Records, C3040]

Marianne Billeron Vallé was born in Kaskaskia around 1729, the daughter of…

Roy Wilkins in 1963. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ppmsc-01273]

Roy O. Wilkins was born on August 30, 1901, in St. Louis. Five years earlier, the US…

Arsania Williams. [State Historical Society of Missouri St. Louis Research Center, University of Missouri Saint Louis Black History Project Photograph Collection (S0201)]

Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, around 1875—sources differ on the year of her birth—Arsania…

Prison photographs of Cleo Wright. [Courtesy of Missouri State Archives]

Born in Jefferson County, Arkansas, on June 16, 1916, Ricelor Cleodas Watson was the son of…

Josephine Silone Yates. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ppmsca-50313]

Josephine Silone was born in Mattituck, New York, in 1859, the youngest daughter of…