St. Louis Post-Dispatch
-
The Klan and the GOP
In 1925, Post-Dispatch reporter Paul Y. Anderson took note of the Ku Klux Klan’s apparent shift from the Democratic Party to the Republicans. The Klan, he wrote, was finding itself increasingly shunned by the South’s entrenched Democratic establishment because its terrorism was fueling the mass exodus of Black workers from the region, undermining white-controlled commerce. Continue reading
-
‘Violently in love with her profession’
Though Fanny Bagby was a trailblazer in her profession, her male peers, predictably, focused more on her appearance than on her achievements. The first female managing editor of a St. Louis daily newspaper* not only could turn a phrase, she turned heads. And that could prove dangerous. According to a news story by Eugene Field Continue reading
-
‘Bulldog tenacity’
St. Louis reporters used to fight to get the news — each other, that is. One of the most spectacular examples of fisticuffery came in 1883, when scribes for the city’s two English-language morning papers came to blows at the old Four Courts building. John Fay, 22, of the Missouri Republican and John C. Klein, Continue reading
-
A ‘skin game’
In 1900, after St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporters readily discovered “wholesale violations” of anti-gambling laws, including widespread use of illegal slot machines, the paper demanded answers from police. Harry B. Hawes, the 30-year-old president of the St. Louis Board of Police Commissioners, conceded the newspaper’s findings were correct, but claimed his hands were tied. While Hawes Continue reading
-
Once again ‘an organ of gold-buggery’
“Journalists who take themselves seriously, who regard the work of moulding public opinion as a high vocation, who believe in duty and are willing to accept responsibility, who would rather champion the rights of the many than defend the privileges of the few, are finding it more and more difficult either to enter or to Continue reading
-
White riot, 1920
The East St. Louis Massacre of 1917, a series of riots triggered by white labor’s reaction to the employment of Black workers as strikebreakers, left dozens, if not hundreds, of Black residents dead and thousands homeless. But workplace-related racist violence continued in the region for years, albeit on a smaller scale. On Friday, Aug. 13, Continue reading
-
‘He studied nothing, but knew something about everything.’
In January 1903, Rep. John T. Crisp of Independence proposed a “Jim Crow” law for Missouri, requiring Black and white passengers to ride in separate railway coaches. “Col. Crisp’s bill is taken seriously by his fellow members at Jefferson City. It is necessary to say this for the reason that Col. Crisp’s colleagues do not Continue reading
-
Watermelons and Prophets
Organizers of the Order of the Veiled Prophet in 1878, led by brothers Charles and Alonzo Slayback, sought to lift the city’s profile as a growing, affluent commercial hub. But, early on, the all-white, all-male Veiled Prophet promoted racist tropes, which were unapologetically echoed by all the leading newspapers of St. Louis. Continue reading
-
‘American money’
Adolf Hitler, the Austrian-born Bavarian fascist, made his first appearance in the pages of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch a century ago, about 10 years before he was appointed chancellor of Germany. It was a brief mention. The newspaper on Dec. 11, 1922, published only the first paragraph of a short Associated Press story, which reported Continue reading
Roland Klose 