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    Kinloch: Missouri's First Black City
    Kinloch: Missouri's First Black City
    Kinloch: Missouri's First Black City
    Ebook183 pages37 minutes

    Kinloch: Missouri's First Black City

    By John A. Wright Sr.

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    About this ebook

    Located just outside of St. Louis, Kinloch was once a community locked off from the rest of the area by natural and man-made barriers. In spite of a lack of financial resources, it once provided its residents with a school district, city hall, post office, business district, and recreational facilities. Residents will recognize Dunbar Elementary, the oldest school for blacks in St. Louis County, Holy Angels, the oldest continuing black parish in the St. Louis Archdiocese, as well as former residents Congresswoman Maxine Waters and political activist Dick Gregory. Eventually, due to insufficient revenue, this once thriving community fell into decline, and is now struggling to keep its small town values and ideals alive.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateNov 27, 2000
    ISBN9781439611029
    Kinloch: Missouri's First Black City
    Author

    John A. Wright Sr.

    John A. Wright Sr., Fulbright Scholar, educator, and historian, has compiled a visual and narrative record of African Americans in Downtown St. Louis that, for the first time in a single book, documents the pivotal role this area and its residents played in shaping the nation from the time of the Civil War to the era of Civil Rights.

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      Book preview

      Kinloch - John A. Wright Sr.

      too.

      INTRODUCTION

      Kinloch, Missouri’s first all-black city, which is located approximately five miles northwest of the city of St. Louis, was settled over one hundred years ago. The word Kinloch is a Scottish place-name derived from kind a ‘loch meaning at the head of the lake. One source indicates that the naming of the community was influenced by Major Henry Smith Turner who, prior to the Civil War, lived a short distance southeast of the area in Normandy. Turner was a descendant of a family named Kinloch that resided in his home state of Virginia.

      Kinloch has a rich history and is credited for many firsts, such as: the first International Air Meet in America was held here, the first airmail letter was sent from here, and for the first time, a president of the United States (Theodore Roosevelt) flew in an airplane.

      It was also at Kinloch Field where the first parachute jump was performed, a control tower was erected, an aerial photo was taken from a plane, meals served on a plane, and an animal (a cow) was airlifted. It was Kinloch that produced Missouri’s first six black superintendents of schools and first black boards of education and Missouri’s first black school board member. Kinloch is also credited with naming the first known school in America for President John F. Kennedy and being the site of the first black Catholic laymen’s retreat center in the world. The community was also the home of the longest operating school for black students in St. Louis County, Dunbar Elementary School (1914–1975), the oldest continuing black parish in the St. Louis Archdiocese, Holy Angels (1924–present), and involvement in the first desegregation in America of three school districts through a court order.

      In 1939 after several attempts, white residents were not allowed to establish a separate school district, so they established the separate community of Berkeley. The first order of business after incorporation of the new town was the establishment of a new school district. The newly-established community surrounded the black residents on three sides. On one side was a creek, another was a major thoroughfare, and the other a man-made barrier. The fourth side was bordered by Ferguson, Missouri. The black residents at that point were restricted from growth and confined to approximately 1 square mile, without a tax base. It eventually became one of the poorest communities in America. In 1965, the United States Congress added the Kinloch Amendment to a Senate Housing Act to enable the city to qualify for a sewer system.

      This book documents Kinloch’s history through pictures. It is the story of Kinloch’s struggle and its fight for survival and attempts to provide a decent environment for its citizens, in spite of what some might call insurmountable odds. This is the story of a community where neighbors once all knew each other and looked after each other, where children grew up knowing they could be a business owner or an elected official, because they saw those role models every day. It is a place where doors once could be left open and crime was nearly non-existent.

      The story of Kinloch is the story of a place in time that may never be repeated or found. The courts have made it possible for all citizens to purchase homes in almost any community their money will allow them. Schools are no longer segregated. This is not to say race and skin color is still not a factor in many aspects of life and business in St. Louis or America. These factors will play a role in the treatment of people of color for a long time to come.

      The City of St. Louis is buying land and homes in the Kinloch community to make way for the expansion of nearby Lambert International Airport. Today, most of Kinloch looks as it must have looked one hundred years ago with fields of green grass and trees. This book will, hopefully, capture some of the community’s rich history before it is gone forever.

      One

      THE BEGINNING

      Kinloch Park was developed in the 1890s as a commuter suburb for whites, though a small portion of land was reserved for blacks who came to work as servants. This early community boasted of having a golf and country club, an air field, and a horse racing track to serve its residents and visitors. Its developers also touted the fact that the area was served by both the Narrow Gauge Streetcar and the Wabash Railroad. Just how the black migration started is not clear, but it is reported that a Mrs. B and her husband purchased a piece of property through their friendship with the white owner. When neighbors discovered that the new owners were black, they immediately sold their lots and moved. Other white families would not move in. The lots were then opened to blacks. Within a few years, 30 or more black families came to occupy five or six blocks in the extreme southeast portion of the area, later to be called South Kinloch Park.

      This railroad pass was "Good for one round trip to Kinloch on the Wabash R.R. Kinloch Special, Sunday, May 24, 2:00 p.m., 1896,

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