National History Day in Missouri 2006
"Taking a Stand in History: People, Ideas, Events"
Possible Missouri Topics

In 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott organized a women's rights convention that was held in Seneca Falls, New York. They drafted a "Declaration of Sentiments" that encouraged equal rights for women in issues such as education, voting, and property rights. Women suffragists believed wholeheartedly that if they gained the right to vote, then other inequalities would be rectified as well. The suffragists became more active after the 15th Amendment -- which gave all male citizens the right to vote, regardless of color -- was ratified in 1870. The battle over voting rights continued until all women in the U.S. were granted the right to vote by the 19th Amendment in 1920.

Virginia Minor (1824-1894) St. Louisan and officer in the National Woman Suffrage Association, who decided to challenge U. S. voting restrictions that excluded women. When Minor was refused the privilege of voting in the 1872 presidential election, she and her husband brought a civil suit against the registrar, claiming that the 14th amendment gave her the right, as a citizen, to vote. She appealed it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, but was not successful. It would be almost 50 years before the 19th Amendment gave all U.S. women the right to vote.

Emily Newell Blair (1877-1951) was born in Joplin, Missouri. She attended Carthage High School, Woman's College of Baltimore and the University of Missouri. Through her writings, Blair became active in her local suffrage campaign, and then became the first editor of the Missouri's Equal Suffrage Association's publication: the Missouri Woman. She then entered the national scene during WWI, when her husband took a position oversees, she moved to D.C and worked in the publicity department of the Women's Committee of the Council of Defense. She was elected in 1921 as the Missouri's committeewoman on the Democratic National Committee and then served as vice chairman, responsible for organizing women voters.

• Blair; Emily Newell and Lass, Virginia Jean. Bridging Two Eras: The Autobiography of Emily Newell Blair, 1877-1951. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1999.
• Anderson, Kathryn. "Practicing Feminist Politics: Emily Newell Blair and U.S. Women's Political Choices in the Early Twentieth Century.” Journal of Women's History, 9, ( 3), Fall 1997: 50
• McMillen, Margot Ford; Heather Roberson. Into the Spotlight: Four Missouri Women. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2004.
• "Women: Ten Years After.” Time Magazine, 16, (9), September 1, 1930. Features an interview with Emily Newell Blair.

There were people, including women, who were opposed to the suffragist movement. These opponents believed that giving women the right to vote would upset the traditional balance that existed between men and women. Moreover, many people felt that women were just not smart enough to vote and make political decisions.

• McBeth, Kate, Speech, n.d., (WHMC-C0734)
  Speech protesting women's suffrage.
• Woman Suffrage Paper, [1880s], (WHMC-C1766)
  The unknown author offers several arguments against the woman's suffrage movement.
• Howard, Angela, Tarrant, Sasha and Ranaé Adams. Opposition to the Women's Movement in the United States, 1848-1929. New York: Garland Publishing, 1997.

Women had the vote, and could control their own property, but still didn't receive equal treatment under the law. In 1923, in Seneca Falls for the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the 1848 Woman's Rights Convention, the "Lucretia Mott Amendment," which read: "Men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction," was introduced The amendment was introduced in every session of Congress until it passed in 1972. The ERA received 22 of the necessary 38 state ratifications in the first year. But the pace slowed as opposition began to organize. Arguments by ERA opponents such as St. Louisan Phyllis Schlafly, played on the same fears that had generated female opposition to woman suffrage. Anti-ERA organizers claimed that the ERA would deny woman's right to be supported by her husband, privacy rights would be overturned, women would be sent into combat, and abortion rights and homosexual marriages would be upheld. Ultimately, time for ratification ran out in 1980, when only 35 states had ratified. Missouri was one of the 15 that did not.

Reproductive Health Services was the first abortion clinic to open in Missouri and was the site of the first-ever abortion clinic sit-in. It opened in March 1973 after the U.S. Supreme Court decision that granted women the right to medical abortions during the first six months of pregnancy -- Roe v. Wade in 1972.

In 1871, Couzins became the first woman to graduate from law school in Missouri. She was admitted to the Bar in Missouri, Arkansas, Utah, Kansas, and the Dakota Territory federal courts and became the 3rd women to practice law nationwide. In October 1869, Couzins served as a delegate to the American Equal Rights Association convention held in St. Louis. After her father died, she succeeded him as the first female U.S. Marshal. She was a suffragette and lobbyist, active in both the temperance movement and the anti-prohibition movement.

• Hadley, Herbert Spencer, Papers, 1830-1943, (WHMC-C0006)
  Papers of a Missouri Republican lawyer, politician, educator, and author. Among his correspondence are letters from Phoebe Couzins. (Available on microfilm and could be interlibrary loaned to another library.)
• J.E.D. Couzins Papers, Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, (A0035) The papers of Phoebe Couzins' father also include materials relating to her acceptance to Washington University's Law School, her diploma, law license, etc.
• Corbett, Katharine T. In Her Place: a Guide to St. Louis Women's History. St. Louis: Missouri Historical Society Press, 1999.
• Smith, Catherine and Cynthia Greig. Women in Pants: Manly Maidens, Cowgirls and Other Renegades. New York: H.N. Abrams, 2003.

O'Hare was an active socialist who was the first woman to run for the US Senate in 1916 and later led a prison reform movement. In 1917 she was arrested on the charge of intending to interfere with the national war effort, a crime under the Federal Espionage Act, and was sentenced to five years in a Missouri penitentiary. She used her fame and outside contacts to rally for prison reforms. After her sentence was commuted by Woodrow Wilson on May 20th 1920, she spent the rest of her life campaigning for prison reforms.

• O'Hare, Kate Richards, Letters, 1919-1920, (WHMC-C 3118)
  Letters to her family, 20 April 1919 - 8 April 1920, published in newspapers and then reproduced in book form, written from the Missouri state penitentiary, where she served a 14-month term for opposing the draft for World War I. [Please note: Uncertainty exists as to the holder of literary copyrights to this correspondence.]
• O'Hare, Kate Richards, Kate Richards O'Hare, selected writings and speeches. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1982
• Kennedy, Kathleen. Disloyal Mothers and Scurrilous Citizens: Women and Subversion During World War I. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999.
• Miller, Sally, M. From Prairie to Prison: The Life of Social Activist Kate Richards O'Hare (Missouri Biography Series). Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1993.

Nation took an ardent stand against alcohol consumption. She lived in Belton, Missouri, and then Holden, Missouri. Her antics with a hatchet – smashing up bars and kegs – eventually landed her behind bars. In 1908, she moved to Eureka Springs, Arkansas and one year later she moved to a larger house, which became known as "Hatchet Hall". The house became a rescue mission for battered women, a school, and a rest home for the elderly. She was buried in Belton, Missouri.

Born in Saint Louis, Missouri, she married Oscar Chopin in 1870 and moved to his native city of New Orleans. After his death, she moved back to Saint Louis and began writing about the Creoles and Cajuns she had observed in the South. In 1899, she published The Awakening, a novel described as "shocking, morbid, and vulgar.” The book quickly went out of print, until its rediscovery in the 1950s, as an important document in the Feminist Movement.

Born Martha Jane Cannary in Princeton, Missouri, she became famous for her drinking, riding and shooting, as well as wearing men's clothing and participating in more traditional men's activities. She is most well known for her participation in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. She died in 1903, and is buried in Deadwood, South Dakota.

• Calamity Jane. Calamity Jane's letters to her daughter. San Lorenzo, CA. : Shameless Hussy Press, 1976.
• Chrisman, L.R., Letter, 1960, (WHMC-C3240)
  Describes Martha Jane Canary Burke (Calamity Jane) in her last years at Deadwood and Belle Fourche, SD, during the late 1890s and early 1900s.
• Aikman, Duncan. Calamity Jane and the Lady Wildcats. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1987.
• Sollid, Roberta Beed. Calamity Jane: a Study in Historical Criticism. Helena: Montana Historical Society Press, 1995.

Moses Harman was born on October 12, 1830, in Pendelton County, Virginia. His family later moved to Crawford County, Missouri. Harman was not able to attend school, so he borrowed books from neighbors to educate himself. At age sixteen he taught school on a subscription basis. Afterward, he enrolled at the Arcadia Methodist Seminary in Arcadia, Missouri. Following graduation, Harman became a Methodist circuit rider and teacher. His wife Susan died in 1877 during childbirth. After her death, he became involved with eugenics (the study of the genetic quality of the human race) and social reform. He moved to Chicago and started publishing the controversial periodical, Lucifer, the Light-Bearer, which later became the American Journal of Eugenics.

Missouri artists and athletes have often taken a stand in order to be able to pursue their talents. Sometimes the reason was racial or gender discrimination, and other times it was the result of taking a bold new direction in their chosen field. [The following are only a sampling of the many artists and athletes who could be featured. We suggest that you might want to check out the Dictionary of Missouri Biography, edited by Lawrence O. Christensen, et al, University of Missouri Press, 1999.]

Josephine Baker was born and raised in the Saint Louis Metro area. In 1925 she went to Paris with the Revue Negre. Soon she starred in the Folies Bergere and became one of France's best-loved entertainers. During WWII, she was a hero of the resistance, earning the Legion of Honor. A French citizen, Baker was a civil rights activist in the U.S. and refused to perform in clubs which were segregated.

Benton was born in Neosho, Missouri, into a prominent political family, but chose the path of becoming an artist. After studying art in Chicago and Paris, he became one of the leading American Regionalist painters in the 1930s. Benton depicted the working conditions of Missourians in scenes such as farm life, steel mills, coal mines, and logging camps. The images were realistically depicted in bold bright colors, a departure from abstract or cubist art, which was more prevalent in the Parisian art schools. His career is filled with notable firsts and controversies, as he continued to put himself on the forefront of the American Art Movement.

• Benton, Thomas Hart. An Artist in America. 4th ed. Columbia, University of Missouri, 1983.
• Brookfield, Dutton (1917-1979), Papers, 1844-1979, (WHMC-C 2732)
  Business, political and personal papers and photographs of Kansas City, MO, community leader. Correspondence and photographs of Thomas Hart Benton are included.
• Adams Henry. Thomas Hart Benton: An American Original. New York, Knopf, 1989.
• James, Dennis. Renegade Regionalists:The Modern Independence of Grant Wood, Thomas Hart Benton, and John Steuart Curry. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1998.

"The Fulton Flash,” Helen Stephens grew up in Fulton, Missouri, and became known internationally when she set a track speed record at the 1936 Olympics and was invited to meet Adolf Hitler. Stephens was not only an athlete, she was also the first woman to own and manage a basketball team. Stephens is honored in the National Track and Field Hall of Fame, the US Track and Field Hall of Fame, and the Women's Sports Foundation Hall of Fame.

• Helen Stephens Papers (WUNP 5882).
  Papers of Fulton, Missouri native who won two gold medals in track during the 1936 Olympics. Contains diary, photographs, correspondence, broadsides, publicity clippings, and other materials documenting her athletic achievements as well as her work with the U.S. Defense Mapping Agency in St. Louis, Missouri.
• Hanson, Sharon Kinney. The Life of Helen Stephens: The Fulton Flash. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2004.
• Smith, Lissa. Nike is a Goddess: The History of Women in Sports. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2001.

Racial discrimination against African Americans made it difficult to compete in sporting events. Negro leagues were established in cities across the country so blacks could compete separately from whites. Over time, as integration became more accepted, these leagues disappeared, but their importance in history remained. In Missouri, a league was established in 1920 in Kansas City and created an opportunity for African Americans to participate in baseball.

• Bell, C. Jasper (1885-1978), Papers, 1934-1948, (C2306)
  Correspondence and other papers of a Missouri Democratic congressman. Includes a 1943 full length newspaper ad/petition to save Negro baseball.
• Kansas City Monarchs Oral History Collection (WHMC-KC 047).
  The collection consists of 25 interviews with 18 individuals who played or were associated with the Kansas City Monarchs.
• Heaphy, Leslie A. The Negro Leagues: 1869-1960. McFarland & Company, Publishers, Inc.: Jefferson, North Carolina, 2003.
• Reisler, Jim. Black writers/Black Baseball: An Anthology of Articles from Black Sportswriters Who Covered the Negro Leagues. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co., 1994.

Susan Blow was born in Carondelet (now part of St. Louis), Missouri. While traveling in Germany, she became interested in the revolutionary kindergarten methods developed by the German philosopher Friedrich Froebel. After a year studying Froebel's methods, Blow opened the first public kindergarten in America at the Des Peres School in St. Louis in September 1873. The next year she established a training school for kindergarten teachers, and within a few years, St. Louis had become the focal point of the U.S. kindergarten movement.

Young was a leader in higher education. He was born into slavery during the Civil War in Newburn, Alabama. After graduation from Talladega College, Nathan became a secondary school principal. He then attended Oberlin College, in Ohio, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree (1888) and a Master of Arts degree (1891). Over the next few years, he became principle of a secondary school in Jackson, Mississippi, an instructor at the Tuskegee Institute, and director of Teacher Training at Georgia State Industrial College. In 1923, he became President of Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri. During his tenure, the university's standards were raised and its high school and teach training programs received accreditation.

In the 1930s, the University of Missouri accepted only white students, while Lincoln University was supposed to provide equal education for African-American students. However, there were certain fields of education provided at MU that were not at Lincoln. To test the discrimination laws, Lloyd Gaines sued for admission to the School of Law and Lucile Bluford to the Journalism School, after being denied entrance because of race. They were told that their tuition and fees would be paid to attend a college in a neighboring state that accepted African-American students. The Gaines case went to the US Supreme Court, which reversed the Missouri decision, saying that it was the responsibility of the state to provide whites and blacks with an equal education within the state, though it could still be in separate institutions.

In February 1844, Governor Meredith M. Marmaduke, was shocked by the suicide of his predecessor, Thomas Reynolds. This led to Marmaduke's campaign for the creation of a state hospital for the mental ill. The "State Lunatic Asylum,” now the Fulton State Hospital, is the first of its kind west of the Mississippi River. It has remained in continuous operation except for a short time during the Civil War.

Andrew Taylor Still (1828-1917) developed an alternative medical practice, osteopathy, in response to his own findings that the whole body needs to be treated, not just the diagnosed concern. This whole body approach was revolutionary for westernized medicine. Based on this philosophy he founded the American School of Osteopathy in Kirksville, Missouri, in 1892. Although the first of its kind, there are now nearly 25 schools across the United States, all governed by the American Osteopathic Association.

As a result of a compromise in the US Senate to create a balance between free and slave states Missouri was admitted into the Union as a slave state and Maine as a free state. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 was authored by Senator Henry Clay and decreed that the remainder of the Louisiana Purchase, north of 36°30'N, would be free territories.

• Clay, Henry (1777-1852), Letter, 1835, (WHMC-C 1513)
  To W[illia]m S. Woods from Ashland, [KY], Jul. 16, 1835. Discusses the Missouri Compromise and Clay's role, the slavery question, the power of the states, and the 1836 election.
• Missouri Compromise, 1820 Statutes at Large 16th Congress, 1st Session. Library of Congress.
• Fehrenbacher, Don Edward. The South and Three Sectional Crises. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1980
• Moore, Glover. The Missouri Controversy, 1819-1821. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1953.

In 1834, Dred Scott, was taken by his master, Dr. John Emerson, from Missouri, a slave state, to Illinois, a free state, and then to Wisconsin Territory, where slavery was prohibited by the Missouri Compromise. After Emerson's death in 1846, Scott sued Emerson's widow for freedom for himself and his family based on the fact that Scott had lived in a free state and a free territory thus ending his bondage.

In 1805, the children of Marie Jean Scypion, an Afro-Indian, filed suit for Marie's freedom based on the grounds that their maternal grandmother was an Indian and since Indian slavery was abolished in the Missouri Territory by the Spanish in 1769, and slavery was traced through the maternal line, her descendants should be free since. The decision in the case was the foundation of the passage of a U.S. law abolishing Indian slavery. 

Some famous outlaw families, namely the James Brothers and Younger Brothers, got their start during the Civil War, when they rode with the infamous Confederate guerilla fighter, William Quantrill. After the Civil War was over, they chose to live outside the law, becoming infamous for train and bank robberies.

• George, B. James (1896-1975), Collection, 1832-1965, (WHMC-C 3361).
  Correspondence and clippings regarding Jesse James and Cole Younger.
• Missouri, Cooper County. Circuit Court Records, 1876-1884, (WHMC-C 1564)
  Indictments and Endorsements against James and Younger Brothers

• Hoffman, Harry C., Collection, n.d. (WHMC-C 3507)
  Episodes in the lives of Frank James, the Younger brothers and others, as told by Hoffman, who knew them and defended some of their actions.
• Younger, Cole (1844-1916) Papers, 1915 (WHMC-C 1670)
  Application for Confederate veteran's pension, data on his Civil War service, correspondence between Missouri and U.S. adjutants-general about Younger, and news clipping about John McCorkle's book, Three Years with Quantrill.
• Younger, Cole. The Story of Cole Younger by Himself: "Being an autobiography of the Missouri guerilla captain and outlaw, his capture and prison life, and the only authentic account of the Northfield Raid ever published.” St. Paul, Minn.: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2000.
• Buel, James W. The Border Outlaws. St. Louis: Historical Publishing Company, 1881. Buel was the only author with whom the Youngers agreed to talk, because he was a fellow Missourian. Buel was permitted by Warden Reed to conduct an interview with the Youngers at Stillwater, the only full-length interview known from their prison years.
• Brant, Marley. The Outlaw Youngers: a Confederate Brotherhood. Lanham: Madison Books: Distributed by National Book Network, 1992.

• Bronaugh-Bushnell Papers, 1852-1930. (WHMC-C 0079).
  The Bronaugh and Bushnell families were southern sympathizers during the Civil War. W.C. The collection contains letters between W.C. Bronaugh and Frank James.
• Edwards, John Newman (1839-1889), Letters, 1882-1883, (WHMC-C 1531)
  Letters from an old friend containing info and advice to Frank James, who was in hiding, concerning public opinion, the reward out for his capture, and negotiations concerning his surrender to Crittenden and reaction to the news of Jesse's death.
• McClurg, Joseph Washington (1818-1900), Telegram, 1869, (WHMC-C 1746)
  A telegram from capital to sheriff with instructions regarding formation of a militia to catch the James brothers. The telegram mentions reward available for the capture of the James brothers.
• Stiles, T. J. Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War. New York : A.A. Knopf, 2002.

When President Abraham Lincoln asked the states that had not seceded to provide troops, Missouri's Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson, a staunch secessionist, declared that Missouri would not participate in the Federal war effort. Jackson held a legislative session to rule on secession, which resulted in the passing of an "Ordnance of Secession.” Although it was not valid, since a majority of legislators were not present at the time of the vote, it was recognized by the Confederate government. Jackson served as the governor of the Missouri's "government in exile” until his death on December 6, 1862. On July, 1861, the pro-Union Missouri State Convention declared the governor's office vacated and appointed Hamilton Gamble as provisional governor in Jackson's place.

• Atchison, David Rice (1807-1886), Papers, 1837-1953, (WHMC-C 0071)
  Correspondence and diaries of U.S. Senator David Rice Atchison. Correspondents include, C.F. Jackson, James H. Birch, Jefferson Davis, and Stephen W. Kearney, discussing politics and the slavery issue.
• Boyd, Semphronius Hamilton (1828-1894), Letter, 1865, (WHMC-C 1481)
  Boyd, emancipationist representative from Missouri, condemned secession as "a spiritual malady" and opposed recognition or admission into the Union of the seceded states.
• Jackson, Claiborne Fox (1806-1862), Letter, 1861, (WHMC-C 1786)
  From Fox to David Walker, from Jefferson City, MO, Apr. 9, 1861. Discusses his position on slavery and secession.
• Phillips, Christopher. Missouri's Confederate: Claiborne Fox Jackson and the Creation of Southern Identity in the Border West. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2000.
• Ryle, Walter Harrington. Missouri: Union or Secession. Nashsville, Tenn.: George Peabody College for Teachers, 1931.

Confederate Bushwhackers and Unionist Jayhawkers engaged in guerilla warfare all along the Missouri-Kansas border during the War. With little regard to human life, opponents of either cause were torched and killed, and towns were robbed and burned. One of the worst atrocities of the war occurred when Confederate William Quantrill and his band of 450 guerillas raided the town of Lawrence, Kansas, on 21 August 1863.

In June of 1863, Union General Thomas Ewing was appointed to oversee the border counties in the Kansas City, Missouri area. On August 25, 1863, in response to Quantrill's August raid on Lawrence, Kansas, General Ewing issued Order No. 11 to restore order to the outlining area. This Order required the immediate evacuation of all residents of Jackson, Cass, Bates, and Vernon counties who could not prove their loyalty to the Union cause (except those residing within a mile of a military post). Twenty thousand residents were forced to evacuate. George Caleb Bingham, Union officer and later prominent artist and politician, was outraged, and in 1868 immortalized the incident in two paintings entitled, "Martial Law or Order No. 11.”

• Reese, A.W. Personal Recollections of the Late Civil War in the United States, 1870. (WHMC-C 3627)
  Recollections of a surgeon who served under Sherman in Georgia. Describes army life, battles, impressions of the South, and the war in Missouri.
• Scott, Elvira Ascenith Weir, Diary, 1860-1887 (WHMC-C 1053)
  Diary of a Miami, MO, woman including descriptive observations on the themes of home, family, and religion, as well as the impact of the Civil War on life in her own community and region.
• Eakin, Joanne. Tears and Turmoil: Order # 1. Independence, MO: J. C. Eakin, 1996.
• Goodrich, Th. Black Flag: Guerrilla warfare on the Western Border, 1861-1865. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995.

Missouri's pro-southern governor, Claiborne Fox Jackson, attempted to force secession with a secret plan to obtain control of the guns and ammunition stored at the U.S. Arsenal in St. Louis.  On May 10, 1861, he ordered the State Guard to meet at Camp Jackson, planning to then march on the arsenal.  However, they were thwarted by a "Home Guard” of German troops led by Captain Nathaniel Lyon. After Lyon demanded unconditional surrender, his force of 7,000 troops marched the prisoners through the city while hostile citizens taunted them and threw rocks.

The Battle of Wilson's Creek, near Springfield, Missouri, was the most significant 1861 battle in Missouri. It gave the Confederates control of southwestern Missouri and marked the "beginning” of the Civil War in Missouri.

Upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt on April 12, 1945, Harry S. Truman became the 33rd U.S. president. At the time, the world was entrenched in World War II, where fighting was continuing in two theatres-- European and Pacific. Shortly after taking office, Truman was notified of a secret weapon that U.S, British, and Canadian scientists were developing-- a nuclear weapon. The war ended in Europe on May 8, 1945 but continued in Japan. On July 26, 1945 the Potsdam Declaration was sent to Japan, calling for an unconditional surrender but it was rejected by Japan two days later. To end the war, Truman, with military advice, decided to drop the first atomic bombs used in warfare on Hiroshima, on August 6, and on Nagasaki, August 9. This pivotal decision affected foreign policy and diplomacy from that day forward.

Champ Clark was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1892. He was defeated in 1894, reelected in 1896, and served until 1921. During his tenure, he was twice elected minority leader, 1907-1909 and 1919-1921 and, from 1911 to 1919, he served as Speaker of the House. Clark was a candidate for the 1912 Democratic presidential nomination, losing to Woodrow Wilson on the eighty-fourth ballot at the national convention. Clark was a supporter of tariff reform and advocated isolationism and the creation of a volunteer army prior to and during World War I.

Nellie Tayloe Ross was born near Saint Joseph, Missouri, on November 29, 1876. She drew national attention when she became the first woman to serve as governor of a U.S. state. Upon the death in 1924 of her husband, the governor of Wyoming, Ross was urged by the Democratic Party to run for the vacated office, and she won by more than eight thousand votes a month later. During her term in office, Ross sought regulations for mine safety, tax relief for the poor, updated state banking laws, and examined child labor laws. Her political career continued onto the National scene as she served as the Vice chairman of Democratic national committee and was appointed as the director of the U.S. mint in 1933, where she stayed until President Eisenhower took office in 1953.

Mayme Ousley was the first woman mayor in Missouri, serving the city of St. James. She was elected on April 5, 1921, shortly after women received the right to vote.

Baxter was elected Jasper County clerk in 1890, almost 30 years before women were allowed to vote by the passage of the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1919.

• Carthage Evening Press, March 2, 1971.
• Lewis, Jane. Before The Vote Was Won: Arguments For and Against Women's Suffrage. New York: Routledge & K. Paul, 1987.
• Priddy, Bob. "Across our Wide Missouri, God Bless Annie Baxter!- Before Women Could Vote, She Won Elected Office,” Missouri Life 10 (May-June 1982): 20-22.

In 1830, Mormon missionaries reported to Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormons, that Western Missouri was a land "flowing with milk and honey,” so Smith and his followers hiked across Missouri, to settle in Independence. Over the next few years, hostility developed between the closely knit Mormon community and the residents of Independence. In 1833, the citizens of Independence held a meeting to express a list of grievances against the Mormons. They decided at this meeting to expel the Mormon community from Missouri. Ensuing violence forced the Mormons to leave with considerable loss of money. The Mormons moved to Liberty, Missouri, which they also had to leave. After several years of unrest in Missouri they moved west, settling at last in Utah.

• Aldrich, Jamon, Letter, 1838, (WHMC-C 1446)
  A Mormon immigrant wrote his brother about Missouri. Topics covered in this collection include geographical location of his homestead, fertility of land, crops, prices, wages, Indians, U.S. military forts and troops, anti-Mormon sentiment, Joseph Smith, and news of family and friends.
• Missouri, Boone County. Circuit Court Records, 1839, (WHMC-C 2690)
  Records of the Boone County Circuit Court in three cases against Joseph Smith, Jr., Caleb Baldwin, Parley P. Pratt, King Follett, and others resulting from the Mormon War. Others are on file in the Circuit Court Office, Boone County, MO.
• Missouri, Daviess County. Circuit Court Records, 1839, (WHMC-C1603)
  Court records, April Term, 1839. Affidavits and indictments concerning Mormon difficulties. Joseph Smith, Jr., Lyman Wright, Moses Daily, Joseph Younger, Terry Durpee, Ephraim Oivens, John Lemon, James Whitaker, Alonson Brown, James Bingham, Amos Tubbs, Absolem Dutchfield, William Aldridge, George Smith, and Cabel Baldwin.
• Johnson, Clark V. Mormon Redress Petitions : Documents of the 1833-1838 Missouri Conflict. Provo, Utah : Religious Study Center, Brigham Young University: Salt Lake City, Utah Distributed by Bookcraft, 1992.
• LeSueur, Stephen C. The 1838 Mormon War in Missouri. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1987.

Niebuhr was a pastor, teacher, author, and political and social activist. Born in Wright City, his family then moved to St. Charles, and then to Illinois. One of his earlier pulpits in Detroit, Michigan profoundly affected him, as he continually questioned the relationship of Christianity to culture, social, and political events of his time such as the Industrial society, racial division, and social movements. He thought of himself as a pacifist, a Socialist (ran for President on their ticket), and an integrationist. He became a writer for publications such as the Christian Century, the New Republic, and the World Tomorrow. His most recognized and adopted contribution was "The Serenity Prayer.” In 1964, Reinhold received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his contributions to American life.

When workers sought better working conditions (such as salary and hours), from owners and managers, their chances increased when workers concentrated their efforts and banded together. Union efforts to negotiate with owners and management included negotiation, picket lines, and strikes.

In reaction to unfair treatment, a failing economy, and new technology replacing sharecroppers and forcing them out of work, hundreds of workers protested in the ditches along the roadsides of southeast Missouri.

In reaction to a ten percent wage cut during the Depression of 1873-1877, railroad workers in St. Louis, along with others from around the country, participated in the nation's first major railroad strike. The general strike succeeded in gaining increase wages for the workers.

• Yard, Alex. "Workers, Radicals, and Capitalists: The St. Louis Strike of 1877." WHMC-SL 320
  Unpublished manuscript on the response of the St. Louis chapter of the Working Men's Party to the 1877 national railroad strike.
• Burbank, David. Reign of the Rabble: The St. Louis General Strike of 1877. New York: Augustus M. Kelley, 1966. St. Louis's direct involvement in the Great Strike.
• Stowell, David O. Streets, Railroads, and the Great Strike of 1877. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999. Examines the urban origins of the Strike in three upstate New York cities--Buffalo, Albany, and Syracuse.

In 1973, St. Louis public school teachers went on strike for 28 days and again for 56 days in 1979. In both cases, the courts sided with the school administration and ordered teachers to return to the classroom.

St. Louis activist who used his positions of leadership in the NAACP and Teamsters, as well as local politics, to improve labor conditions, gain civil rights for blacks, and solve urban problems. In February, 1961, he and his wife DeVerne began publishing Citizen Crusader, later named New Citizen, a newspaper covering black politics and civil rights in St. Louis.

DeVerne Calloway was born in Memphis, Tennessee. She joined the American Red Cross and traveled to China, Burma and India during World War II. While in India, she led a protest against the segregation of Negro Soldiers in the use of Red Cross facilities. Calloway moved to Chicago after the war and helped form the Committee for Racial Equality (CORE) in 1946. In 1948, she married Ernest Calloway, a political activist and union organizer. Calloway was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives on her first bid for public office in November, 1962. She was the first black woman elected to the Missouri Legislature. She served on the House committees on education, public health and safety, and social security.

On July 26, 1948, President Truman signed Executive Order 9981, which states, ". . . there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin." This action was not received positively by all military heads. A month later the Fahley Committee -- the President's Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services -- was established, composed of five people, including two African-Americans. The Army and the Marines argued in front of the committee in favor of continued segregation, while the navy and air force began desegregation procedures. President Truman remained firm in his goal and by July 6, 1950, President Truman notified the Fahley Committee that, in opposition to the desires of most of its members, segregation was being discontinued.

William Hirth was responsible for the early success of the Missouri Farmers Association (MFA). Hirth started lecturing on the economic, political and social benefits of building a cooperative of farm clubs, advocating this idea by publishing The Missouri Farmer in 1908, a magazine that informed subscribers on legislative issues and farm club news and later became MFA's house organ. The first farm clubs were formed in 1914 and the first state association meeting was held in Sedalia in 1917. Among the MFA's cooperative enterprises were grain elevators and produce exchanges in about 400 communities, sales offices for poultry and dairy products in Chicago and New York, live stock shipping associations, the MFA Oil Company, and the handling of automobile insurance.

Born in Carthage, Missouri in 1905, Perkins began his career with the St. Louis Zoo in 1926, where he rapidly rose to the position of Curator of Reptiles. In September, 1938, Perkins accepted the Curatorship of the Buffalo Zoological Gardens developing it into a modern and attractive small zoo. In May, 1944, he was appointed Director of the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, and under his direction the Lincoln Park Zoo became internationally known. Dr. Perkins returned to St. Louis accepting the Directorship of the St. Louis Zoo on October 1, 1962. Upon his retirement in 1970, he was named Director Emeritus of the St. Louis Zoo.