St. Louis Observer: April 29, 2022
Remembering Francis McIntosh; Missouri set to execute Carman Deck next week; City tent encampments receive eviction notices; the "Roadmap" to revitalizing North City
Editor’s Note
On April 28, 1836, Francis “Frank” McIntosh, a Black man from Pittsburgh, Pa., arrived in St. Louis by steamboat, stepping off the Mississippi River and onto the streets of Downtown. A few short blocks later, Frank saw two plainclothed men chasing two sailors down Market Street, and the two men shouted at Frank to help to stop them. Frank refused, only to find out that the two men were “police officers” (read: slave patrol) and the officers arrested Frank for “helping” the sailors evade police capture. As the officers walked McIntosh - an innocent bystander - to the City Jail at 6th Street and Chestnut, they told Frank that he would spend five years in prison for his “crime.” Frank, a free Black man who understood those consequences, stabbed the officers and fled down Market Street toward the potential safety of the River.
Frank was found by a mob of enraged white St. Louisans, who dragged him to a locust tree at the corner of 7th Street and Chestnut - in the shadow of what we now call “The Old Courthouse” - and wrapped chains around him and the tree. As the crowd gathered and began piling firewood around the tree, Frank began to sing hymns and begged the onlookers to shoot him. A City alderman even threatened to shoot any sympathetic bystander who might try to help Frank escape his horrific fate. St. Louis left the charred tree as a warning to all Black persons, free or enslaved, that they were not safe or welcome in the city.
Frank’s murder and the events surrounding it were documented in very few places - including the St. Louis Observer, an abolitionist newspaper founded by Elijah Lovejoy with wide national circulation. On May 5, 1836, the Observer’s headline announced that as a result of Frank’s murder and the lack of accountability for it, the rule of law and the Constitution had ceased to exist in St. Louis. He also began grassroots organizing efforts within the abolition movement and formed the Illinois Anti-Slavery Society in Alton.
In response to Elijah’s widespread publication of what happened to Frank, the vengeful mob of white St. Louisans forced Elijah to move upriver, to the town of Alton in the free state of Illinois. Elijah continued to uncompromisingly publish news on the abolition movement as the Alton Observer and organize for the Anti-Slavery Society, until the mob found his hidden printing press in November 1837, burned it down, and murdered Elijah. Only one legislator in both Missouri and Illinois condemned the lynching of Frank and the murder of Elijah - then-Illinois state representative Abraham Lincoln in his January 1838 Lyceum Address. No one was ever held accountable for the murders of Frank McIntosh or Elijah Lovejoy, but their deaths inspired the abolitionist John Brown’s plans to raid the Harper’s Ferry armory in 1859.
This weekend, the resurrected St. Louis Observer will stand alongside the Reparative Justice Coalition and Community Remembrance Project of the Equal Justice Initiative as we honor Frank’s life and legacy. Soil will be collected from the location of his horrific lynching and murder at the corner of 7th Street and Chestnut in Downtown St. Louis. We will meet at that intersection at 9:00 a.m. for soil collection and remarks.
In the News
Police, prosecutorial, and judicial accountability
Video footage obtained through an open public records request has shown the involvement of a former City Justice Center corrections officer, who ordered and encouraged the brutal beating of a detainee by others held in the jail. The motive is believed to be retaliation for the victim allegedly “cussing back and forth” with former officer Demeria Thomas. [Riverfront Times/Ryan Krull]
The State of Missouri is scheduled to execute Carman Deck, whose first two death sentences were overturned due to procedural errors and shackling Deck in front of a jury. In 2017, federal judge Catherine Perry vacated his death sentence, calling it “fundamentally unfair” and citing issues with witnesses who testified in Deck’s case. That decision was overturned by the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in October 2020. [Missouri Independent/Elyse Max]
The Biden Administration has issued its first round of presidential pardons, granting clemency to 75 persons serving federal sentences for nonviolent drug offenses. Five Missourians were included in the pardons, with each person’s sentence greatly reduced.[Missouri Independent/Adriana Figueroa; St. Louis Public Radio/Carlos Moreno of KCUR]
Economic development & housing
St. Louis City Mayor Tishaura O. Jones has released a 12-page “Roadmap to Economic Justice,” a proposal with St. Louis Development Corporation that outlines how the $150 million federal COVID relief funds should be spent. The Roadmap focuses on three “pillars” - neighborhood transformation (which includes vacancy abatement and improved afforable housing accessibility), empowerment, and equitable & inclusive development. [St. Louis American/Karen Robinson-Jacobs; St. Louis Public Radio/Emily Woodbury]
Residents of predominantly Black Cahokia Heights, Ill., are seeking help through the federal courts to tackle the systemic neglect of their municipal water and sewage systems. Complaints include undrinkable tap water, structural and foundational damage from flooding, and regular contamination by raw sewage. Existing Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) orders direct the city to repair sewage overflows and drinking water deficiencies, but has failed to act on them. [St. Louis Public Radio/Emily Woodbury]
Further reading
Residents of four St. Louis tent emcampments have been served with notices of eviction starting this coming Monday, giving only 10 days to find shelter in a City already beleaguered with an affordable housing crisis. The encampments are primary in the vicinity and view of Lumiere Casino, which rebrands next month as “Horseshoe Casino.” Seemingly, the eviction notices to the unhoused and the timing of the rebranding are connected. [St. Louis Public Radio/Kayla Drake]
The national 2022 State of the Air report has unsurprisingly revealed that the communities most impacted by air pollution are Black neighborhoods, persons living in poverty, and those with medical conditions. More than 137 million people in the U.S. live in locations with unsafe air qualities. [St. Louis American/Alexa Spencer of Word in Black]
The Washington Park Cemetery - once the region’s largest Black cemetery - has found renewed management and maintenance interest to preserve and respect the burial ground’s deep history in St. Louis. More than 42,000 people are interred at Washington Park, including George L. Vaughn, the attorney on the landmark civil rights case Shelley v. Kraemer, the first principals of Sumner and Vashon high schools, Harris-Stowe professors, and other community leaders. [St. Louis Public Radio/Emily Woodbury]
The Missouri History Museum is confronting the display of the nine-foot tall Thomas Jefferson statute, which was first erected in 1913 to celebrate the Louisiana Purchase and the 1904 World’s Fair. The Museum will install three interpretive panels that explain Jefferson’s complex legacy as a Founding Father and lifetime slaveholder. [St. Louis Public Radio/Alex Heuer]
Beyond the Paywall
To read these below articles in full, please visit SLPL.org and access these articles through the Digital Content tab. St. Louis City & County residents can read these publications for free using their library cards.
“Ex-police officer sues St. Louis County, alleges racial discrimination,” by Dana Rieck, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“St. Louis police captain accused of working side job while on duty,” by Taylor Tiamoyo Harris, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“Inmate deaths will be reviewed by auditors, St. Louis County jail director assures advisory board,” by Nassim Benchaabane, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“Four women accuse ex-Missouri guard of using prison as his sexual ‘hunting ground,’” by Luke Nozicka, Kansas City Star
“Missouri Supreme Court turns back Schmitt’s bid to reinstate strict traffic caps in St. Louis County,” by Jack Suntrup, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“Messenger: Will Missouri Legislature finally agree that ‘innocence is enough?’” by Tony Messenger, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“Page wants $10 million for ‘transformational’ boost to Wellston job training center,” by Nassim Benchaabane, St. Louis-Post-Dispatch
Legislative & Legal Update
St. Louis City Board of Aldermen
The St. Louis City Board of Aldermen began its 2022 - 2023 session on April 19, 2022. Check here for legislative updates as bills are introduced!
Learn more about how a bill becomes a City ordinance.
Quote of the Week
McIntosh was denied the presumption of innocence and other elements of due process and equal protection under law, and the mob went unpunished. Several participants in the McIntosh lynching were subject to a grand jury hearing over whether they should be indicted. The presiding judge named Luke Lawless, true to name, urged grand jurors to vindicate the mob.
The Reparative Justice Coalition of St. Louis, April 28, 2022, speaking on the life & death of Francis McIntosh.