The following sketch is excerpted from Dictionary of Missouri Biography, published in 1999 by the University of Missouri Press.

November 8, 1960 . . . Theodore D. McNeal, First Black Missouri Senator, Elected

A politician, labor organizer, and civil rights advocate, Theodore D. McNeal had the distinction of being the first African American elected to the Missouri Senate. He also served as the first black member on the University of Missouri Board of Curators, and was the first black president of the St. Louis Board of Police Commissioners.

McNeal was born on November 5, 1905, in Helena, Arkansas. After graduating from high school in his hometown, he moved to St. Louis and obtained a job at a ceramics and brick plant. A few years later, while on vacation from his regular job, he took a temporary position working on a Pullman car. In 1930 McNeal was one of the first St. Louis-area Pullman-car workers to join the International Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Seven years later, McNeal and other union officials succeeded in signing a hard-earned contract between the Pullman Company and the brotherhood, a hallmark agreement between a large American company and a predominantly black union. McNeal joined the national staff of the union as a field representative and chief negotiator, and in 1950 he became national vice president of the union. Meanwhile, during World War II, McNeal became involved in promoting fair-employment practices for blacks in St. Louis.

McNeal had earned national recognition within his union and achieved some local recognition as a civil rights leader when he decided, at the age of fifty-four, to enter politics. In 1960 he challenged incumbent senator Edward J. “Jellyroll” Hogan for his Seventh District senate seat. McNeal defeated Hogan in the Democratic Primary by a six-to-one ratio and became the first African American elected to the Missouri Senate. For the next ten years McNeal served with distinction in the state senate. He led the passage of the Fair Employment Practices Act (1961); he strongly supported the creation of the University of Missouri-St. Louis (1964); and he helped in the passage of the state Civil Rights Code (1965).

In 1970 McNeal retired from politics and accepted an appointment from Missouri governor Warren Hearnes to the University of Missouri's governing board. McNeal resigned from the board in 1973 to become president of the St. Louis Board of Police Commissioners. McNeal's numerous awards and honors included honorary degrees from the University of Missouri, Lincoln University, and Lindenwood University. He died on October 25, 1982, following a lengthy illness.

For primary source material on T.D. McNeal see: