the State Historical Society of Missouri
![Virginia Minor. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-95372]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2021-03/1-Minor-v-Happersett.jpg?h=f72d155d&itok=2Ui1rElZ "Virginia Minor. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-95372]")
Decided in 1873 by the Supreme Court of Missouri and in 1874 by the US Supreme Court, …
![Homer G. Phillips. Painting by Vernon Smith. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Objects Collection, 2016-058-0001]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2020-07/Homer-G.-Phillips.jpg?h=f2a75ae1&itok=Bgxael7W "Homer G. Phillips. Painting by Vernon Smith. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Objects Collection, 2016-058-0001]")
Homer G. Phillips was born in Sedalia, Missouri, on April 1, 1880. He was raised by an aunt…
![Wayne Powers with his family in France. [© Francois Gragnon / Paris Match / Scoop, used by permission]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2025-01/1.-wayne-powers.jpg?h=c0aa477a&itok=Ow5R4uvT "Wayne Powers with his family in France. [© Francois Gragnon / Paris Match / Scoop, used by permission]")
When Wayne E. Powers, a US Army private from Missouri, was arrested for desertion on March 22, 1958, it…
![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]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-12/1.%20James%20Scott%20Lynching.jpg?h=40f6148b&itok=WEKUFYY0 "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…
![1. George Vaughn. [State Historical Society of Missouri, University of Missouri, Saint Louis Black History Project Collection (S0201)]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-09/1.%20George%20L.%20Vaughn.jpg?h=395d379b&itok=xQ9EjRqA "1. George Vaughn. [State Historical Society of Missouri, University of Missouri, Saint Louis Black History Project Collection (S0201)]")
George L. Vaughn, a prominent Black St. Louis attorney and political activist, was born in…
![Roy Wilkins in 1963. [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ppmsc-01273]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2022-11/1.%20Roy%20Wilkins.jpg?h=0bae65ef&itok=7q4A-9Ux "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…
![John Gabriel Woerner. [William F. Woerner, J. Gabriel Woerner: A Biographical Sketch (1912)]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-01/1.%20John%20Gabriel%20Woerner.jpg?h=d4c90db7&itok=tEHMYccH "John Gabriel Woerner. [William F. Woerner, J. Gabriel Woerner: A Biographical Sketch (1912)]")
John Gabriel Woerner, a celebrated St. Louis lawyer, legal scholar, journalist, and…
![Prison photographs of Cleo Wright. [Courtesy of Missouri State Archives]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2023-01/1.%20Cleo%20Wright.jpg?h=280643a4&itok=7G0GP4Sk "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…
![Cole Younger, circa 1866. [State Historical Society of Missouri, B. James George Sr. Photograph Collection, P0010-024263]](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header_image/public/2024-08/1.-cole-younger.jpg?h=154323ae&itok=WaT_D9Vi "Cole Younger, circa 1866. [State Historical Society of Missouri, B. James George Sr. Photograph Collection, P0010-024263]")
Thomas Coleman “Cole” Younger left his family’s Missouri farm in 1862, at age seventeen, to join William…