Black History

New Philadelphia, a small Pike County, Illinois, town rich in history, is making headlines nearly 200 years after it was founded. It made a name for itself in 1836 when it became the first town legally registered and platted by a formerly enslaved person. Recently, the town site became the nation’s 424th national park.

From May through November, bus tours will lead visitors through the rich Black history of Alton.

There are five little-known Black cities across the St. Louis region that were created before and after the end of the slavery — and only one still exists. The cities are included on an online map featuring Black townships across the nation that will be presented Thursday at the Missouri History Museum.

St. Louis County restored the only known remaining African American school in the county. During the 1900s, African Schoolhouse #4 held about 20 Black children each school year before it closed in 1950.

An East St. Louis radio station helped hook listeners in the St. Louis region on hip-hop back in 1979. That’s when New York record executives Joe and Sylvia Robinson sent the song “Rapper's Delight” to WESL. Former WESL owner Gentleman Jim Gates discusses the moment.

Community leaders in St. Louis are determined to keep fighting developer Paul McKee’s use of Homer G. Phillps’ name for a north St. Louis health center.

Where you learn Black history, and from whom, determines your understanding of it.

The Neck neighborhood was in the center of historic Independence and housed the biggest Black community in the city. When the Harry S. Truman Library was built to honor the president, urban renewal policies he put in place destroyed the neighborhood.

The Griot Museum of Black History is gearing up for a permanent exhibit that pays tribute to Black women who helped shape the St. Louis region. Its Black HerStory project will use monuments to honor doctors, historians, community leaders, judges and politicians.

Skate City is known to have the “smoothest concrete in the United States,” and is East St Louis’ lone skating rink.