For my Sunday Salon post today, I wanted to capture a special experience that I had on Saturday morning.

Elijah Parish Lovejoy by Jacques Reich (undoubtedly based on the work of another artist) – Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1900, v. 4, p. 34,

This morning I took a tour that was led by Kirkwood teachers and hosted by the Kirkwood School District Equity Task Force and One U City (a parent-led equity group working in the University City School District).

A main idea of the tour was about using our agency. I know that a lot of us are feeling powerless right now. The tour reminded me to use my agency to do what I can because I often have more power than I imagine.

A throughline of the tour was Elijah P. Lovejoy. Do you know about him? He was a white abolitionist martyr and a childhood hero for me.

I learned about him more than once when I was young because I grew up Presbyterian and in Missouri. I think my knowledge of him helped me move into the journey of anti-racism. I feel lucky to have had him as a model for most of my life.

Today was the first time that I walked in his footsteps. In the 1830s, Elijah Lovejoy was running the St. Louis Observer newspaper, which was known as the Protestant newspaper. That made it anti-Catholic in ways that make me wince. Over time, though, it became the anti-slavery newspaper in St. Louis.

While running that newspaper, Lovejoy also accepted the position as preacher at the Des Peres Presbyterian Church. That was our first stop on the tour.

I’m very familiar with this church, from the outside, but I had never been inside or on the property. The Old Des Peres Presbyterian Church is on the National Register of Historic Places, so the road narrows and curves around it, slowing what would otherwise be a thoroughfare to Highway 64 from Kirkwood.

I learned, today, that the church building was funded by slaveholders and that a corner of the cemetery was reserved for burial of enslaved people. A monument to them was put up fairly recently.

When Elijah P. Lovejoy preached here, he road horseback from his home and the newspaper office near the Mississippi River to this church which would have been in the countryside, at the time. As the crow flies, it’s about 13 miles.

Our second stop was at the site of the lynching of Francis McIntosh. I learned this story only recently. Lynching stories are all horrific. The particulars of how long it took for Mr. McIntosh to die make this one difficult to hear. The above link goes to the Wikipedia article if you want to read it.

A detail that I learned today wasn’t in the Wikipedia article. Police officers didn’t wear uniforms in the 1830s. Reading the story with that in mind makes a difference when you consider how this black man viewed what his civic duties might or might not be when ordered by white men to assist in arrests.

Our final stop was on the Arch Grounds. The Arch sits on the original streets of the city of St. Louis next to the Mississippi River.

Today is the first time that I learned the link between the lynching of Francis McIntosh and Elijah Lovejoy. According to our guide, Lovejoy published piece after piece in his newspaper shaming St. Louis about the lynching of this man and the judge that refused to hold anyone accountable. A few months later, a mob attacked the newspaper and the printing press was thrown into the river.

Elijah Lovejoy moved to the Illinois side, believing that he and his publication would be safer in a free state. That didn’t help. Among other reasons, Alton was and is easily reached from St. Louis. A year and a half after the lynching of Francis McIntosh, Elijah Lovejoy was murdered as he attempted to keep his new printing press safe from a pro-slavery mob.

While we stood on the Arch grounds near a sign that marked the location of Elijah Lovejoy’s newspaper office and in view of the Mississippi River, we heard an entirely different story that occurred about ten years after Lovejoy was killed.

Steamboat School by Deborah Hopkinson tells the true story of a school for black children run by Reverend John Berry Meachum. In 1847, Missouri passed a law that forbade black people, enslaved or free, to get an education. When the school in his church basement was shut down by authorities, Reverend Meachum built a school on a boat. The Mississippi River is the state line between Missouri and Illinois, so Missouri law couldn’t be enforced there and he was able to continue teaching.

Since this is a children’s book, it was told from the perspective of one of the students. Not only is it an excellent way to learn history, it also contains a message about appreciating our opportunities for education.

One of the students of the Floating Freedom School was J. Milton Turner. During Reconstruction, he served as Assistant Superintendent of Schools for the state of Missouri. He established 32 schools for black Missouri students and the first college for black students in Missouri, the Lincoln Institute, now Lincoln University.

We had breakfast and lunch (Steve’s Hot Dogs were great!) at the Turner School, named after J. Milton Turner. Turner School was originally a black school in the Kirkwood School District and is now the administration office.

I’m really curious about how much, if anything, that people inside and outside of Missouri know of these events. Was it all new to you or have you already been exposed to some of this information?