The thought of being on a coach tour with a score of people is about as appealing to me as eating tarantulas. Yet I allowed a colleague, Bijan Bayne, talk me into joining some journalists on a trek to Missouri sponsored by the National Black Tourism Network.
Bijan had taken the trip before. He wanted to go again and share it with others. So I signed up for the tour — and learned more about African-Americans in one week than I had in a lifetime. There are stories galore; many of them astonishing.
For starters, many years ago, Dr. Katherine Lederer, an English professor at Southwest Missouri State University (located in Springfield), discovered some disturbing information.
On Good Friday, April 13th, 1906, the sheriff’s wife falsely accused two black men of rape. The next day, over 6,000 people watched as Horace B. Duncan and Fred Coker were hanged and burned in the Public Square. The mob returned to the jail, grabbed another black man, set up a mock trial and repeated the atrocity.
By Easter Sunday, hundreds of blacks had abandoned their businesses, homes, properties, farmlands and livestock. Some were city councilmen, school board members, shopkeepers, musicians, farmers and bankers. People from all walks of life feared for their lives and fled the Ozarks that Easter weekend. (Most headed to St. Louis, Kansas City and Chicago.)
Three days later, an earthquake struck San Francisco. The Springfield atrocities and the quiet disappearance of the black community were soon forgotten.
Dr. Lederer wrote in Many Thousand Gone: Springfield’s Lost Black History, “Those in power write the histories. They preserve what they perceive as important. Springfield is a microcosm of the black American experience at large. The omission or distortion of black history began in white newspapers of the time, continued with local and county histories, and still continues in state and national histories.”
Thanks to Lederer’s research, this story and over 2,500 photos of the families who took flight (and their descendants) have come to light. The entire collection is housed at the University’s Duane G. Meyer Library and is open to the public. Leafing through cases of documents and photos gave me goose bumps. I only regret that our time there was so short.
Another eye-opener happened at the Greenwood Cemetery on the outskirts of St. Louis, a place Angie deSilva (our tour guide) discovered years ago while searching for her great grandmother’s grave. When Angie found the cemetery, she also discovered over 50,000 graves submerged in a sea of vines and wild shrubbery.
People in neighbouring homes didn’t even know a cemetery was there, yet this was the final resting place of slaves, Colored Troopers from the Civil War, WWI and WWII vets, and other African-Americans. It certainly raises the question of how (and why) 32 acres of cemetery could “disappear.” Now, a restoration program is in place led by volunteers, but they have a long way to go to uncover and restore all the graves.
These stories have been repeated throughout history, in many culture and countries, and they happen in our own back yards. I recently came upon a story of people here in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia that were buried in a back field and forgotten about. They were residents of the local “poor farm.” And we have many stories of native cemeteries that have been bulldozed to create airstrips, shopping malls and highways.
At what price is power and progress?
By the way, you’ll have to discover the rest of “Forgotten Missouri” on your own. This was but a mere sliver of the tour. And it’s not all disturbing; many of the site visits were upbeat and celebratory. Get in touch with Angie deSilva at the National Black Tourism Network in St. Louis.
Photo Credits
“Unidentified musicians from Springfield who ‘disappeared’ Easter weekend 1906” © Sandra Phinney, from photos in the Lederman Collection
“Horace B. Duncan, one of the men was hanged and burned” © Sandra Phinney, from photos in the Lederman collection
“Greenwood Cemetery: a part that has been recovered” © Sandra Phinney
“Greenwood Cemetery: a headstone partially hidden by weeds” © Sandra Phinney
Helen, I’m jumping in quite late and hope you find this. I’ve not been able to locate a place name called Forgotten in Missouri, but if you contact someone in the Tourism department, I’m sure they could help (or at least point you in the right direction.)
Good luck in your search!
Missouri Division of Tourism
P.O. Box 1055
Jefferson City MO 65102
phone: 573-751-4133
fax: 573-751-5160
email: tourism@ded.mo.gov
My grandfather, George Sherman Whitehair, was born in Forgotten, MO and I have been trying to find out where it is and to see if I might be able to trace some of my family connections. His dad’s name was James Elmore Whitehair. If anyone out there knows anything about the Whitehair family from Forgotten, MO please let me know……Thank You