[music playing] NARRATOR: The following program is a production of Ozarks Public Television.

[music playing] H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): Springfield and the Ozarks are known for their deep history and culture, dating back to the original settlers that came to the area in the early 1800s.

But one aspect of our history often goes untold-- the resilience, struggle, and triumph of African-Americans, who were instrumental to the development of the area.

Hello.

My name is H. Wes Pratt.

I consider myself a native son of Springfield and the Ozarks.

I was raised here from elementary school through college, and it was too often challenging due to racial hostility and a lack of cultural consciousness.

Springfield is striving to become a more positive community for all, and a key part of that journey is to know and understand our local history and the contributions made by the many African-American citizens who have lived here for generations.

[music playing] Prior to Missouri becoming a state, the region was part of the Louisiana Territory, governed originally by France and later by Spain.

Most of the Black population in the area were brought here as slaves.

When it comes to enslavement in the United States, it starts in colonial America.

Race is at the heart of Missouri history.

And it was, of course, race that was at the heart of the slavery system.

In places like Missouri, when Missouri was a territory under Louisiana and under the French and the Spanish, their legal systems actually allowed for people to sue for their freedom.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): The Missouri Compromise of 1820 saw Missouri entered into the Union as a slave state.

ANNE TWITTY: There was an opportunity for some enslaved people living in Missouri to become free by pursuing what are referred to as freedom suits.

They would be alleging that they were free people who were illegally held in bondage.

What that means is that there's the establishment of a free Black population in Missouri.

It's small, but it's there.

They become landowners.

They become property owners.

The tricky part was that you had to prove that you were free.

I think it's important to remember who Missourians were.

That first generation of Missourians brought with them a commitment to the institution of slavery, and indeed, in many cases, brought their slaves with them.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): Greene County was established in 1833 by John Polk Campbell, a settler who came to the area with his family and six slaves in 1829.

One of the first court cases heard in the newly established county was a freedom suit brought by an enslaved woman named Milly Sawyers in 1834.

ANNE TWITTY: Milly Sawyers is a freedom suit plaintiff who sues twice in Saint Louis before she winds up in Greene County, Missouri and files a third freedom suit.

The Greene County circuit court has only just started meeting the previous year.

She's really in kind of a frontier area, in a lot of respects.

The Greene County circuit court actually meets in the home of John Campbell.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): Milly Sawyers files her freedom suit on September 1st, 1834, against William Ivey, accusing him of trespass, assault and battery, and false imprisonment.

Unlike her suits in Saint Louis, she's finally successful.

She is ultimately declared to be a free person.

So she is released from her enslavement, but that's not the end of Milly's story.

She is living in the home of a man named John Edwards, and she is dragged from this home one evening in April of 1836 and she's beaten by a mob.

This mob includes some really prominent members of Greene County's early society.

Eventually, there are charges filed against the men who have dragged Milly from her home and have beaten her.

We suspect that Milly survives her injuries because these men are not, in fact, charged with her murder.

But Milly disappears from the record thereafter, and ultimately the men who are charged with attacking her are not prosecuted.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): Several individuals, including John Polk Campbell and Sidney Ingram, were charged with rioting.

James McCarroll, Lucius Rountree, and John Campbell's brother, Junius, were charged with attacking Sawyers.

Junius Campbell also faced charges of lying under oath by a grand jury for attempting to cover up the incident.

ANNE TWITTY: Milly's story is ultimately one of perseverance.

Milly manages to use the law in order to obtain her freedom.

But that same law could not ultimately protect her when she was dragged from the home where she was living, and ultimately that law would not prosecute the individuals who beat her in the streets.

Everybody wants to, you know, to create myths about, you know, the past and their relatives and, you know, all these good things.

Nobody wants to hear about the sour or the negative things, but these were human beings.

That's the reality.

And I think that that also speaks to the nuances and the realities of Springfield's past.

It happened, but what were the consequences of that?

You know, how do we move beyond that?

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): Some of that history is still being revealed.

Documentation of Milly Sawyers' freedom suit was only recently rediscovered.

Local teacher Kendra Chappell produced a stage play with her students to raise awareness about Milly's story.

KENDRA CHAPPELL: When I read something that pierces my heart immediately, I know that it's sacred.

And I began to share it with my students, and as we worked together, it became really important to me that we begin our research about our shared history.

Who writes history?

GIRL: There are no bones.

BOY: No ashes.

GIRL: No grave.

But someone wrote it down.

KENDRA CHAPPELL: I think Milly Sawyers' story is a specific story that belongs to Springfield that also belongs to our state and our nation.

I think there are thousands of Millys.

And I think that once we begin to consider the walk of the different types of Americans, I think we might have an idea about what our American story truly is.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): In the decades leading up to the Civil War, more than 300 freedom suits were filed in Missouri, and around 40% of them were successful.

But one case, filed in Saint Louis in 1857, would forever alter the course of the state and the nation.

GARY KREMER: Prior to the Dred Scott case, African-Americans were relatively successful in filing freedom suits.

And the established law was that if you had been taken into free territory or a free state, that you were then entitled to your freedom.

Chief Justice Roger Taney hands down what is today one of the most infamous decisions in the Supreme Court's history, arguing that not only is Dred Scott not entitled to his freedom, he is also not a citizen of the United States and he has no standing to bring a suit.

And that was one of the precursors of the Civil War.

By 1860, Missouri has just about 115,000 enslaved people in the state.

There are about 3,500 free Black people in the state, largely along the Mississippi and Missouri River corridors.

But they were also located in southwest Missouri.

For, you know, most of America, the debate is about this idea of states' rights as it relates to the ownership of enslaved people.

You know, let's not kid ourselves.

The Southern states wanted the right to own slaves, to, you know, have a country that was based on white supremacy and owning enslaved people and taking them wherever they wanted to go whenever they wanted to go.

For the Union, it was about keeping the country together.

For enslaved Black people and for free Black people, they wanted the United States to fulfill its promise, the promise that is outlined in the Declaration of Independence.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): The Black population in southwest Missouri dropped sharply during the Civil War.

Many enslaved people endeavored to free themselves by fleeing to Kansas and other Union states.

Some would join the Union Army to fight for their freedom.

MARLIN BARBER: There were Black Union regiments.

And those would be formalized into what were called the United States Colored Troops, or USCT.

You had infantry units.

You had artillery units.

You had cavalry units.

Wallace White, my great grandfather on my grandmother's side, was the first Black man in the Missouri State Cavalry, the Fifth Cavalry.

And they fought at Vicksburg.

The cavalry found him working in a field in Mount Sterling, Kentucky.

They asked him if he wanted to go with them, and according to my grandmother, and he said, quote, "deed I do."

That is to say, "indeed I do."

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): Approximately 180,000 Black soldiers would enlist in the Union Army and Navy during the Civil War, playing a crucial role in the Union victory against the Confederacy.

In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

ANNE TWITTY: Because Missouri had not joined the Confederacy, it was not affected by the Emancipation Proclamation.

So it's ultimately not until January of 1865 that a Constitutional Convention passes an ordinance ending the institution of slavery in Missouri.

MARLIN BARBER: The Union and the Republican Party had very little plan on what to do or how to transition people from slavery to freedom.

So people that had spent generations, generations, going back to the 17th century, the 1600s, enslaved are now automatically expected to figure out how to transition from slavery to freedom.

They did figure it out.

You know, it took a long time, but they did figure it out.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): In the years following the Civil War, Missouri was seen by many formerly enslaved people as a land of opportunity.

The Black population in Springfield and surrounding counties grew rapidly.

The Freedmen's Bureau established a post in Springfield to provide education and assistance to the many Black immigrants who were coming to Greene County and surrounding areas.

Missouri had a law before the Civil War that prohibited Blacks not just from going to school, but being taught to read and write.

So they wanted to go to school.

They wanted to establish their own churches.

They wanted to own their own land.

They wanted to make their own decisions for themselves.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): Some of these families and their descendants have remained in the area to this day.

Fleming McCulluh was born enslaved and traveled to Springfield from Osceola on foot as a free man after the Civil War, along with his mother and siblings.

McCulluh was able to purchase farmland, and used his success to lift up his community, donating land for Springfield's first Black Methodist church and helping to build Springfield's first school for Black students.

The Tutt family, a white widow of a slave owner and her children, came to Springfield from Yellville, Arkansas, guided by their Black half brother, Lewis Tutt.

Lewis Tutt thrived in his new home, becoming a prosperous businessman who owned a grocery store and a tasty residence.

In stark contrast, Lewis's half brother, Dave Tutt, was a well-known gambler, and infamously died in a shootout with Wild Bill Hickok on the Springfield square over a pocket watch.

The Tolliver family bought a farm south of Springfield in the 1860s, and remained active farmers for more than 120 years.

Many in the Tolliver family found great success in business, politics, and sports.

The family of John Brewer came to Springfield in 1893, and his descendants are still a part of the Springfield community today.

CLARENCE BREWER: In 1893, Miss Mary Wilson came to work for a man named John Brewer.

Mr.

Brewer was a dark-skinned Dutchman.

He fathered three children with her-- Bill, John, and Clarence.

In 1893-- that would be the same year as Plessy versus Ferguson-- she packed up her three sons and moved to Springfield.

Now, John started a wagon service between Rolla and Tulsa.

Bill was a furrier.

And Clarence, my namesake, was a plowright.

In the early 1930s, my grandfather dug the basement to foundation footings for Campbell School.

The next year, he dug the basement and foundations for Jarrett Junior High School.

He was always very proud of that, even though his children couldn't go to those schools.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): Union Army veteran Evan Whitley, led a wagon train of 30 families from Tennessee, destined for Kansas, in 1880, but ended up settling in the Marshall and Hartville area.

His brother, Isaac Whitley, was a founding member of the Mount Zion Baptist church in Hartville, in 1909.

Isaac's son, Frank Whitley, broke horses for Allied forces during World War I, and later owned a successful bookstore in Los Angeles, California.

This was kind of a crossroads.

I think the largest population of African-Americans in Springfield, from what I was told, and what I read, was right after the Civil War.

The local slave population stayed and did pretty well.

They were stonemasons, bricklayers, and midwives.

There were some people here who had extraordinary skills.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): George Crittenden is another Union Army veteran that settled in Springfield after the war, who would go on to make an enduring impact on the community.

He escaped slavery from Arkansas.

But he ended up at the Battle of Wilson's Creek.

ELIZABETH LOGAN CALVIN: Looking at his enlistment papers for the Civil War, it said that he came from Arkansas.

He met Eliza in Springfield, on the square.

They were buying provisions to take back to Wilson Creek.

OK. And Springfield would be the place where they would be coming, to buy provisions.

And that's when he saw Eliza on the square and said, when the war is over, I'll come back and marry you.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): Eliza Bedell was a formerly enslaved woman George had met in Springfield during the war.

The Bedell family is one of the earliest African-American families in the area, brought as slaves in 1834.

George and Eliza were married soon after the war.

And George built their family home on Sherman Street.

He ran a blacksmith business, and later worked for the Springfield wagon company, one of the few employers in the area that would hire African-Americans.

CHRISTINE PEOPLES: What was fascinating to me about George Crittenden because meeting Eliza on the square-- and says he's going to marry her.

And of course, he comes back and he does that.

He was a well-respected gentleman.

He builds homes for each of his children.

He makes sure he sends his girls to finishing school.

He was just amazing.

He was a lodge member.

And he was the Knight of Pythias.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): Black fraternal organizations emerged in many communities, during the 1800s, to provide a space for Black Americans to develop their identity within a segregated society that often promoted degradation of Black people.

These orders provided a training ground for leadership while elevating the prestige and community standing of its members.

Some of the groups active in the Ozarks includes the Knights of Pythias, the Prince Hall Masons, the Elks Lodge, and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

George was also very active in the religious community, serving as a traveling pastor for small churches in the area.

[music playing ] Faith was often the sole source of comfort for enslaved African-Americans, but was closely scrutinized prior to reconstruction.

As Black communities organized in towns across the Ozarks, churches became a focal point.

Gibson Chapel Presbyterian Church was founded in 1865 as the first Negro Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and was part of a larger network of churches which had been active in recruiting Black members as early as 1844.

In 1891, a new brick church was built at the corner of Washington Avenue and Tempe street, that served the community for more than 100 years.

Benton Avenue AME Church was established in 1877, with land donated by Alex Burns.

Lewis Tutt was one of the founding trustees.

The church was remodeled and enlarged in 1886.

And services were held there until 1923, when a new chapel was built on the same site, where it still stands today.

The Washington Avenue Baptist church was organized in 1867, originally on the corner of Benton Avenue and Water Street.

In 1884, the congregation sold the original frame building and constructed a new church on the West Side of Washington Avenue.

The congregation grew rapidly and was an influential member of the Southwest Baptist Association.

One of the earliest Black churches established in Springfield was Wilson's Creek chapel, which later became Pitts chapel.

CHARLOTTE HARDIN: The congregation was established in 1847 on the banks of Wilson's Creek.

It was a group of enslaved Africans, enslaved Black people, that went to their master and asked permission, if they could build a structure that they could use for worship because at the time, it was not permitted.

And amazingly, the master said yes, and granted them permission to move forward with their plan.

And they built this log cabin.

But it was pretty amazing that something like that would happen in 1847.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): George Crittenden is recognized as one of the earliest supporters of Pitts chapel.

George and Eliza Crittenden lived the rest of their lives in Springfield.

And their descendants have remained a part of the Springfield Community for generations.

Many have become successful business owners and pillars of the community.

We didn't know, for a long time, exactly how we came to be Black folks living in Springfield-- Springfield or in Greene County.

I remember, as a child, always asking-- because I read a lot.

And I was always asking, where did we come from?

We didn't have any relatives outside of Springfield.

So my mother's answer was always, we've always been here.

After the Civil War, about 25% of the population in the Springfield-- Greater Springfield area-- was Black.

There were a fair proportion of African-Americans who bought property and bought houses.

And that happened not only in Springfield, but in the outlying areas.

My great grandfather and grandmother, William and Caroline Boone Berry, built this house.

My grandfather was born and raised in this house.

My father was born and raised in this house.

I was born and raised in this house.

My great grandmother, Caroline, was the daughter of Nathan Boone, and one of his slaves.

And so we've been here, and a part of the Ozark landscape, for a long time.

The story is, from my great-- from my grandmother-- that William Berry rode into town on a matched team of Percheron horses.

[music playing] And he was smitten by Caroline.

And so they fell in love.

And they built this house 10 years after the Civil War.

And so my family are part of the Ozarks.

ELIZABETH A. SOBEL: Out in Ash Grove, there was a company called the Ash Grove White Lime Association, initially.

And then it became, eventually, the Ash Grove Cement Company.

Between 1881 and the 1930s, they had a massive quarry and lime plant out there, that operated, often, around the clock.

A lot of their workers were Black.

Other companies didn't necessarily hire African-Americans.

Because of that employment opportunity, Ash Grove had a sizeable Black community of scores of families and hundreds of individuals up through about 1930.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): Despite the ongoing challenges of racism and segregation, the latter half of the 19th century saw the rise of a strong middle-class Black community in Southwest Missouri, prospering in business, education, and politics.

So by the late 1800s, you do have Black businesses.

You do have Black schools-- elementary schools-- you have the starts of Black middle and high schools.

And so education was absolutely critical.

Education has long been a priority for African-Americans in the Ozarks.

Although very few opportunities existed for Black students, the Black community understood the empowering value of education.

Although legal segregation existed until 1954 in our public schools, historically, African-Americans knew that knowledge was power.

Individuals had been denied access to education.

The state of Missouri, by 1847, prohibited any Black person, free or enslaved, from receiving an education.

The state of Missouri wrote this.

There's an entire section in the revised statutes of the state of Missouri, in 1856, that's called an Act for Negroes and Mulattos.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): Following the end of the Civil War, Missouri began to establish a public education system.

In 1866, Missouri passed a law requiring separate schools for African-Americans.

Springfield started its own segregated school system in 1867.

The first school built specifically for Black students was the Washington Avenue colored public school, built in 1872.

It operated until 1883, when it was purchased by the newly founded Drury college.

WILLIAM GARVIN: When this area was chosen as a site for Drury college, Nathan Jackson Morrison, who was the first president, had it in his mind that the easiest way to start the school would be to come in and buy that building.

And so in April of 1873, there is a public referendum on this.

And it barely passes.

Drury is given the schoolhouse.

And then it builds what would become the first Lincoln School, which is opened in 1884.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): The first Lincoln School in Springfield was headed by Principal William Harrison McAdams.

Born in Missouri in 1863, he came of age during a transformative period in American history, and dedicated his life to promoting education and professional development for Black students.

The impact of his efforts were felt by generations of students and educators who followed him.

The first Lincoln School served African-American students in Springfield for more than 40 years, until it was replaced by the second Lincoln School in 1930.

The drive to innovate resonated with many African-Americans around the turn of the century and several prominent figures would emerge in the Ozarks.

George Washington Carver is a prime example, born a slave, probably in 1864, on a farm in Southwest Missouri, near Neosho.

But he couldn't go to school because there weren't enough Black students there to justify a Black school.

And he couldn't go to a white school.

So as a young kid, he walked roughly 12 miles.

And he found a Black school in Neosho, quickly learned that he knew as much as the instructor, and left Missouri for Kansas and better education, and ended up in Iowa, and became the first Black person with a graduate degree in agriculture.

And that attracted Booker T. Washington.

And he ended up in Tuskegee, Alabama in 1896, and stayed there until his death in 1943.

But the Carver's of the world are the exceptions.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): Despite the challenges of discrimination, Carver became an accomplished botanist, agronomist, and inventor.

His establishment of the Agricultural Experiment Station, at the Tuskegee Institute, led to the discovery of innovative crop-rotation methods, that revitalized Southern agriculture, particularly the use of peanuts, sweet potatoes, and soybeans, to improve soil fertility.

Beyond his scientific contributions, Carver also left a lasting legacy as a passionate educator, dedicated to uplifting and empowering the African-American community.

I am not sure that I am worthy of this splendid citation.

But I wish to say, also, that I thank you from the depths of my heart.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): In Springfield, Burton Hardrick, alongside his brother, Grant, owned and operated Springfield's largest grocery store, just off the square on St. Louis street.

Hardrick Brothers grocery was very successful, and operated a fleet of 12 delivery wagons to keep up with the high demand.

What made Hardrick's grocery store so successful is they had mastered the idea of logistics.

His genius was that he figured out a method to make commerce run more efficiently.

And so this was a tremendous accomplishment for this time period, to have a grocery store that was selling to both Blacks and whites, and to have such a big business, and to be known for being good at logistics and delivery.

That is a remarkable, remarkable achievement.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): In Springfield, one of the most successful Black innovators and entrepreneurs, around the turn of the century, was a man named Walter Majors.

RICH SHUR: Walter Majors was born in Springfield about 1881.

And he really appears, at first, in the historical record, in the lead up to the Spanish-American War.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): The Seventh Volunteer Colored Infantry Regiment was made up of volunteers from various states.

Company L was from Greene County, Missouri.

Walter Majors served as a Sergeant of Company L during the Spanish-American War, and was well known for his expertise in mechanical engineering.

He returned to Springfield after the war, and continued to develop his talents.

HAROLD MCPHERSON JR.: But while he was in Springfield, Majors-- he was a bicycle mechanic, a violin repairman.

He had a newspaper-- a weekly newspaper.

He sold gadgets and trinkets at his little shop on Jefferson and St. Louis street.

That much talent in Springfield, Missouri, that much knowledge, that much creativity was a direct result of the pressure that was put on these people to fail.

And they did just the opposite.

Walter Majors built the first car ever seen in Springfield.

Many referred to the newfangled invention as Walter Major's machine, as the term, "automobile," was not yet familiar to people at the time.

HAROLD MCPHERSON JR.: The Majors family, Walter, Frank, and Bud, all had skills enough to work at the wagon factory.

Majors used some of that same skill, that he used at the wagon factory, to make the wheels on his car.

You can look at those wheels.

Those were wagon wheels.

Those aren't bicycle wheels.

RICH SHUR: The Walter Majors story says there was another form of social activism.

And it involved opening businesses and inventing things.

And that was breaking down all the stereotypes that whites had.

And so when we learn about Walter Majors driving a car through Springfield, being the first person to build a car, that just blew people's minds.

A big factor, all around the country, were people knowing that they've been passing laws for years around here, accommodating white people standing over top of us, telling them, you can't read.

We can't-- you can't learn to read.

You can't congregate in groups of more than 10.

You can't read the Bible.

You can't do this in public.

Those things made them want to do it more.

And it gave them that drive and incentive to educate themselves.

There was a period, between about 1865 and '70, when there was support for Black education, when there was support for Black political participation.

But that changed pretty significantly in the mid to late 1870s.

There is, certainly, widespread discrimination in terms of employment opportunities.

Additionally, during this period, what we start to see is the rise of various forms of lynching.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): In the decades after the Civil War, and into the early 1900s, lynching became part of a larger pattern of racial violence in the United States, with thousands of documented incidents across the country.

Many instances of lynching-- it was about controlling economic prosperity of Black people.

It was definitely a ploy, or a tactic, to instill fear.

And then that would resonate with everyone else, and to keep everyone else in line.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): One of the earliest documented lynchings in the Ozarks occurred in Pierce City in 1901.

MARLIN BARBER: You have a young, white woman, who was murdered there.

And you have the belief that the perpetrators were two Black men.

You have a mob that forms to collect these individuals and to murder them in a very public way.

Now what ends up happening in Pierce City is that ire spills out.

And that entire community gets targeted and burned out.

And so there, you have an instance of racial cleansing.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): In 1906, a similar fate would befall of the town of Springfield.

On Good Friday, April 13, Horace B. Duncan and Fred Coker were arrested for allegedly assaulting a white woman, but later released when their employer provided an alibi.

On Saturday, April 14, they were arrested again, and later that evening, were forcibly removed from the jail by a mob of more than 1,000 men and boys, who hauled them to the square, where they were hanged from Godfrey Tower, and burned beneath a replica of the Statue of Liberty.

The mob later went back to the jail to retrieve another prisoner, Will Allen, gave him a mock trial, and repeated the ritual.

As tensions remained high throughout the city, the state militia was called in on Sunday evening to quell the unrest.

HAROLD MCPHERSON JR.: The whole town was in defense mode, trying to find a place to hide, that was safe.

Jonathan Fairbanks used-- letting his house be a sanctuary.

And then of course, the churches-- I'm not sure about Pitts Chapel but I know for sure Gibson Chapel-- my grandmother and her mother-- and her mother's mother-- all stayed there for about a week.

MARLIN BARBER: Thousands of people would gather.

People would dress up in their Sunday's best.

They would take their children to these events and take pictures with the-- the mutilated bodies.

And people would send these postcards through the US Postal Service.

This was something that was very public.

It was very intentional and very targeted.

And in fact, in many instances, what we find is that the postcards-- they weren't just souvenirs for the people who had attended the lynchings.

They were attempts to essentially extend that racial order beyond the bounds of their community, and out into the broader United States.

So what we do know is there was actually a commemorative coin for the 1906 lynching.

[music playing] H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): The exact origins of the coin are unknown.

A grand jury was convened to investigate the lynchings.

Several people from the mob of thousands were charged with second-degree murder.

But the trial ended with a hung jury.

WILLIAM GARVIN: The usual MO, in situations like this, is that the police would claim that they had been overpowered, the mob and overpowered them, and taking these prisoners out against their will.

But very often, there was complicity.

It wasn't about protecting the integrity of white women, which was often the case-- especially men.

That was often the excuse that was used.

What you find is that these individuals had successful businesses.

If you terrorize that group, and everybody leaves, who fills that void?

If you are a poor, white citizen, and you're in Springfield or Pierce City, and you're struggling, and you look, and you see someone whom at one point used to be enslaved-- even though they're working their tails off, they now have a business.

They're doing well.

They live in a decent house.

They're able to send their kids to school-- to use a euphemism, people felt some kind of way about that.

And so those individuals would be targeted.

That's what happens in Tulsa, in 1921.

That's definitely what happens in Pierce City.

And it's definitely what happens in Springfield.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): The 1906 Easter lynching had a devastating effect on the Black population of Springfield.

Many people fled the area.

Some returned.

Some did not.

MARLIN BARBER: Prior to the early 20th century, most Black people lived in rural areas.

Most Black people lived in small towns.

My family-- they're from small-town Southeast Missouri, small-town Arkansas, small-town Louisiana, small-town Mississippi.

But it was unsafe.

The thing about those lynchings is, it forced Black people to, again, to adapt or to adjust how their communities looked-- what their communities looked like, what their families now looked like.

And so people begin to move into larger urban areas.

A lot of people got so disgusted that they dropped out.

People who were part of the city council didn't run again.

They didn't have enough people to confront the problem.

They weren't going to go grab their guns and go march on town square, on the city square.

What are you going to do?

Where are you going to start?

People like Majors, he left in 1908, two years after the lynching.

But I think he felt the pressure of living here.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): Walter Majors moves to Saint Louis after the lynching, where he opened an auto repair shop, and eventually connected with Annie Turnbo Malone.

RICH SHUR: Annie Turnbo Malone was probably the richest African-American woman at this time.

And she actually predated Madam CJ Walker as being the queen of Black beauty products.

Walter Majors, himself, had over 15 patents with the Library of Congress after he left Springfield.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): Walter Majors would go on to file patents for a range of innovations, from the taxicab meter to the electric hair dryer.

Hardrick Brothers grocery moved to a less prominent location.

RICH SHUR: We do know that his business moved.

And we do know that when his business had to move, it was no longer as successful.

African-Americans in this town were very god-fearing, quiet, mild-mannered, hardworking, disciplined people, who didn't go out of their way to cause any problems.

They went back and did what they did all along, took care of his business and didn't interfere with anything.

They were marginalized.

They knew it.

I think they felt powerless to fight it-- because it was just overwhelming.

Lynchings during the Jim Crow era sought to terrorize and intimidate African-Americans from making progress in this nation.

I recall, as a teenager, growing up here, that many older Black people refused to acknowledge or speak about the lynchings.

I Learned about the 1906 lynching when I was a senior in high school.

And when I spoke about it in an interview with a local newspaper, an older Black business leader berated me, as I was walking home from school one day, for publicly raising the issue.

He swore that it had not happened.

This memorial signage on our public square is a testament that it did in fact happen, and that three innocent Black men were lynched on the square in Springfield.

The irony of this violent incident is not lost on me and many others, as we grew up with the relatives of the men lost on that Easter weekend in 1906-- Mr. Horace Duncan, Mr. Will Allen, and Mr Fred Coker.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): While the lynching certainly contributed to an exodus of African-Americans of Springfield and the Ozarks, there were also other factors that would exacerbate the population decline in the early 20th century.

If you were to look at a demographic map, by the 1950s, you're like, wow, this is mostly white people, mostly white landowners, mostly white homeowners.

But that wasn't just-- it didn't just happen.

It was the result of limited educational opportunities and economic opportunities for Black families out there.

The challenges, for African-American education in Missouri, was that whites did not want to support it.

Their success was largely the result of their absolutely driven commitment to the notion of the value of education.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): In 1930, the first Lincoln School in Springfield was replaced by the second Lincoln School, which was funded by an $8,000 grant from the Julius Rosenwald Foundation.

Julius Rosenwald was, then, the head of Sears, Roebuck and Company.

And he established the Fund, that helped construct nearly 5,000 Rosenwald Schools throughout the US South and neighboring states.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): The new Lincoln School was a considerable upgrade, with 15 rooms, including a gymnasium and a library, that was also open to the public two evenings a week.

Springfield's public library was segregated at the time, with limited accessibility to African-Americans.

CHARLOTTE HARDIN: My parents-- they always talked so fondly about school.

They both attended Lincoln School, here in Springfield.

But that was the center of the community at that time.

They just really put a strong value on education, as a way to better yourself and prepare yourself.

They felt like the Black teachers that they had were very nurturing and encouraging, and really wanted them to succeed.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): Many Black educators dedicated their lives to teaching, and were well-respected members of the community, mentoring countless African-American students in the area.

Albon Foster graduated from the original Lincoln School.

He went on to study at the historically Black Wilberforce University, and returned to Springfield after serving in the Army during World War I.

He later became the principal of the new Lincoln School for several years, and is responsible for securing state approval and accreditation.

Ada Fulbright graduated from the first Lincoln School in Springfield, in 1891, and became a teacher at the New Lincoln High School.

She was known for her love of literature and music.

And in 1928, she helped found the Literary Comcheck Club with several other Lincoln School teachers.

Olive Decatur was born in 1900, in Lebanon, Missouri.

After graduating from Lincoln School in 1917, and earning her teaching degree from Wilberforce University, she returned to Lincoln School as an English and General Education instructor, and as the Dean of girls.

Ms. Decatur was a vocal advocate for civil rights, and later, a member of the NAACP and the Interracial Council.

After desegregation, in 1954, she taught at several Springfield elementary schools, until her retirement in 1968.

She also co-founded the Kitty Cove daycare center with her sister, Roberta Bartley, now known as the Bartley-Decatur neighborhood center.

Roberta Bartley graduated from Lincoln School in 1919, obtained a teaching degree from Wilberforce University, and returned to Springfield to teach third grade at Lincoln School.

Ms. Bartley was active in her church and community organizations, working to support single mothers pursuing education, through the Kitty Cove daycare center.

Zelma Graham moved to Springfield in 1911, at age seven, graduated from Lincoln University, and taught first grade at Lincoln School until she married in 1929.

Zelma and her husband, James, opened Graham's Rib Station, a popular restaurant among both Black and white Springfieldians, that operated from the 1920s until 1967.

Zelma Graham remained involved in education, and helped found Springfield's first Black Girl Scouts troop at Lincoln School.

Mary Tolliver was a distinguished educator and community leader.

Born in Springfield in 1905, she later attended Lincoln University before starting her career in Lincoln School in 1932.

After desegregation, she taught English and social studies at Jarrett junior high, and was heavily involved in civic, religious, and educational organizations, including the Mayor's Commission on Human Rights, the American Red Cross, and the Literary Calm Chat Club.

The Literary Calm Chat Club was organized in 1928, by a group of Black educators at the Lincoln School, including Ada Fulbright, Zelma Graham, Roberta Bartley, and Oliver Decatur, among others, to encourage student literacy and academic engagement.

The group operated for more than 50 years, and inspired thousands of students in Springfield.

Another Lincoln School teacher, who had a major impact on his students and the community, was Gerald Brooks.

After serving in the Navy during World War II, Brooks moved to Springfield and became the first foreign-language teacher at the Lincoln School.

He was also instrumental in transforming Lincoln's fledgling band program into a community powerhouse.

His passion for education carried him through desegregation.

And he continued teaching English, French, and music across various Springfield schools for 29 years.

MARK MILLER: Lincoln School remained open, as a school for African-American children, until 1955.

It closed after the 1954 Brown versus Board of Education ruling that eliminated segregation in public schools.

Brown versus Board of Education was all about, was equal access.

There were many African-Americans that didn't really want it.

And many mothers held their kids back.

I do remember my aunt saying that she-- when they integrated it, I think for a year, they had a choice to stay at Lincoln or go to Central or Springfield high-- I think it's what it was then.

And she chose to go to Central.

But some chose to actually stay at Lincoln.

HAROLD MCPHERSON JR.: My mother-- she said, you're going to be competing against these kids for the rest of your life.

So you might as well go on and get started.

Integration in the schools was pretty simple.

African-Americans in Springfield were never confined to just one section.

We're on the North side.

We're on the far West side.

We're in the South.

We're in the middle.

And it integrated itself because there was interaction in all those parts of Springfield.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): While the integration of public schools was a huge step towards equity for African-Americans, it was not without its challenges.

CHERYL CLAY: When they integrated the schools, they moved all the students.

But they didn't hire any of those teachers.

So all those teachers were immediately unemployed.

RICH SHUR: Unfortunately, even in a place like Springfield, which was a little bit of a forerunner when it came to integration, it wasn't forward thinking enough, hiring Black teachers and Black principals.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): After the Supreme Court ruling, Reverend Oliver Brown and his family moved to Springfield, in 1959, when he became a pastor at the Benton Avenue African Methodist Episcopal Church.

CLARENCE BREWER: Oh, boy.

Reverend Brown was a rock star.

Reverend Brown's church just filled up.

People wanted to hear his sermon because he-- winning a case in the Supreme Court?

A Black man?

It was just unheard of, even if it had happened six or eight years before.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): His eldest daughter, Linda, would go on to graduate from Central High School in 1961.

Sadly, Reverend Brown passed away suddenly, later that year.

GARY KREMER: The integrations of the schools was extremely important largely because, I think, African-Americans interpreted that not as the end, but as the beginning.

And indeed, in many ways, it was.

That would lead to the integration of, essentially, all of America, with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and '65.

And ultimately that led, I think, to the successes of the 1960s Civil Rights acts.

My brothers and I went to with the Ash Grove Public schools before Brown versus Board of Education because we were a known quantity.

And it's very difficult to be at odds with somebody that you know, and you've had some experience with.

If people have relationships with one another, we won't be foreign to one another anymore.

In that way, we can bring about some sort of-- of harmony.

We have the possibility of harmony.

You can't hate me if you know me.

I think there was this preconceived notion that African-Americans in Springfield had an inferior education.

We didn't compete on the same level, educationally, as white kids.

And there was no way to measure that until we got in the same school and the same classrooms.

And the reality hit that we were better educated than a lot of white kids.

My mother, who was a preschool educator-- she ran the Lincoln nursery school.

In her schools, kids were able to read before they got the first grade.

So we were prepared.

In '54, I remember Mom saying to me, she says, well, the decision has been made that there's going to be integration.

And Mom says, well, you guys don't have a choice.

You're going to be looking ahead and not behind.

So you're going to the new, integrated system.

So I left Lincoln and went to Taft elementary school, here.

And when it was time for me to go to the junior high, I came back to Eastwood, which was Lincoln.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): After schools were desegregated in 1954, the Lincoln School was repurposed as an integrated junior high school.

Later, it was used by Springfield Public schools as a vocational institution, until it was sold to the newly-founded Ozarks Technical Community College in 1990.

Today, it remains a part of OTC, housing many of their popular programs.

MARK MILLER: Ozarks Technical Community College is proud to be the caretaker of Lincoln School's legacy.

And we understand its historical significance to the African-American community of Springfield.

Of the nearly 5,000 Rosenwald Schools that were built, only about 500 remain standing today.

Lincoln is one of only five Rosenwald Schools that are still a part of an educational institution.

And that's a big source of pride for us, here at OTC.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): The Lincoln School not only provided education to the Black community, but was also the center of many local events, and second only to the area's active churches in fostering community bonds.

Throughout history, the church and spirituality have sustained Black people in America.

From slavery to the present day, our churches were the foundation on which the Black community developed academically, economically, and socially.

As a child, a young boy, and teenager, I worshipped at Washington Avenue Baptist church, sang in the youth choir, and attended Bible school.

It was in that same church, now the Drury University Diversity Center, that my journey in a lifetime of public service began in the local NAACP Youth Council, in 1965, as a 15-year-old Central High School freshman.

The church was the cornerstone of the Black community in Springfield, and was second only to Lincoln School in its impact on the Black men, women, and children of Springfield.

[music playing] Well, church, back then, was-- it was the pillar of the community.

You went to church on Sunday-- true-- Sunday school and church.

But you also did various events.

My father was a member of Gibson chapel.

But I remember we went to the different Bible schools.

So everybody might come to Pitts chapel at the time that Pitts chapel had its Bible school.

Then we might go to Washington.

I don't remember if we went to Gibson.

But I'm thinking that we probably did.

So you-- they kept us busy.

Our summers were spent going to Bible school.

They called it the four corners.

There was AME Church on the one corner.

And then you have the-- The Baptist.

--Washington Avenue Baptist Church, yeah, the-- Gibson-- Gibson.

--Presbyterian.

Yeah, Presbyterian.

And then you had the-- Pitts chapel was Methodist.

And then you had Temple-- in Timmons, which was Church of Christ.

So between those, everybody in the community went to one of those churches.

And a lot of times, they went to more than one church.

1919 is when the Church of God in Christ came to Springfield, Missouri.

Carter Timmons, which was a pastor of the church, from 1930 and to 1974, he came from Moberly, Missouri.

And he also pastored church there and Huntsville and in Hartville.

The church, itself, was actually completed in 1932.

It's like a lighthouse because every African-American church, you could say it was like that, because inside, it was always about citizenship, about family.

And you had-- you were going to school in church.

You had-- you learned manners.

You learned all kinds of things, and then how to deal with the outside world, as well.

And so it's like a social hub.

It had a full band like guitars, drums, organs, pianos, and about 20 people in a choir.

So in that little structure, they filled the place up with music.

The congregation had outgrown the church.

And so it was sold.

And it was slated for demolition.

And the community-- they raised money to save it.

And so it was like a rebirth.

And folks are drawn to it.

When they come into the space, it's like they're home.

In 2015, Timmons Temple was moved to the historic Silver Springs Park, the only park in Springfield accessible to African-Americans during segregation.

It is now known as Timmons Hall, and continues to serve Springfield through educational programs and community outreach.

Today, Silver Springs Park continues to be a gathering place for many African-American families, and is the center of Springfield's Park Day celebrations each year.

Today, most of the original African-American churches in Springfield have been closed, and their congregations absorbed by the churches Pitts Chapel, United Methodist Church, has maintained a continuous congregation since it began, and has met in the same chapel since 1911.

We've been worshipping, as a congregation, since that time, non-stop the whole time.

A few different buildings, but nonstop that whole time.

That's what we were born out of.

And I think that's what makes us resilient to this day.

CHARLOTTE HARDIN: In 1911, the land where this building is, right here, on the corner of Benton and Tampa, was donated.

They decided they were going to build another church.

The name did change to Pitts Chapel.

And that was due to a man that was the pastor of the chapel three different times, Edgar Pitts.

And after his death, the congregation decided that the church should be renamed in his honor because he had done so much to keep the church going and helping it to grow.

My mom was going to church here so my dad started coming to church here.

They were both members of Pitts Chapel for over 60 years, very active members.

And they raised me and my brother and my two sisters here, at Pitts Chapel.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): In 2019, a campaign was launched to raise funds for much-needed renovations to Pitts Chapel.

SID NEEDHAM: We have been very, very fortunate.

And people have prayed for us and contributed and all.

And we couldn't have done without prayers and contributions from the community.

The renovation has been an amazing thing.

It has given us a kind of hope.

There's other churches and other groups and other people who have tried to do things like that.

And it didn't work.

So it is strictly by the grace of God.

And we know it.

God has something in store for this place.

Otherwise it wouldn't have happened.

CHARLOTTE HARDIN: I vaguely recall when there were lots of houses around the church.

I can remember just right behind the church, there was a barber shop.

And that's where my dad would get his haircut.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): As time went on, Black-owned businesses opened in the areas surrounding the churches.

HAROLD MCPHERSON JR.: Tampa was the real business corridor for my generation and for my mother and dad's generation.

They used to call it Pine Street.

And the city changed the name of it to Tampa.

There was a grocery store.

There was a restaurant, a barber shop, another restaurant, a garage right behind that restaurant.

Across the street, there was a key club and a pool hall, all within a block.

That was the business community.

You take it down another block, there was a funeral home.

There was Alberta's Hotel.

Across the street from Alberta's Hotel was the community youth center, American Legion home, which was built by some World War II veterans, to serve the African-American community.

That neighborhood had quite a bit going for it at that time.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): One of the most iconic businesses in the area was Alberta's Hotel.

Sitting across the street from Pitts Chapel, the building was formerly a hospital for African-Americans, that was converted into a hotel by Alberta Ellis, granddaughter of George and Eliza Crittenden.

ELIZABETH LOGAN CALVIN: Because we were right on Route 66, all of the African-American musicians traveling from East to West or West to East, they were coming through Springfield.

And if you're driving or in a bus or in a car, you've got to stop somewhere.

So one of the places where you stopped was in Springfield, and at Alberta's hotel or at Graham's-- Graham's Motel.

If you were going to stay somewhere, that's where you stayed.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): In 1954, it was listed in the Negro Motorist's Green Book, and became a destination for Black travelers along Route 66.

In addition to the hotel, Alberta Ellis also owned several other properties and businesses.

Alberta's Snack Shack was adjacent to the hotel, and was a popular destination for children in the neighborhood.

She maintained a farm that would house travelers when the hotel was full, as well as a restaurant on Benton Avenue.

ELIZABETH LOGAN CALVIN: Through the years, and as I watched Alberta, she was a woman ahead of her time.

She really was.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): Another popular destination for African-Americans, traveling through Springfield, was a Graham's Rib Station, a barbecue restaurant that also maintained a motor court.

CLARENCE BREWER: Graham's room rib station-- my third cousin, Zelma Graham, married Jim Graham.

Cousin Zelma was a schoolteacher.

She had formerly taught over at Lincoln, with Ms. Decatur and Ms. Bartley and Ms. Penn.

My dad and Mr. Graham were real good friends.

Mr. Graham was a few years older than my dad.

But my dad helped Mr. Graham, in his spare time, deliver ribs and cater-- going to get stuff out of the station wagon and bringing it out, just to serve.

And my pay was anything I could hustle-- and a ring of baloney.

There was this entire community around here, this very vibrant, African-American community.

There were homes.

There were businesses-- Alberta's Restaurant, Charlie Fuller's All-Nation Cafe, Wilcox's Garage-- that were in this area.

Charlie Fuller had a two-story building.

And it was on the Southeast corner of Benton and Tampa street.

Fuller's was, like I say, a two-story building.

And he had a few rooms upstairs and this greasy spoon down below.

He had a jukebox that-- it was blues from the '30s, '40s.

Well, I had a pretty good memory.

And I just memorized every song.

Music has traditionally been a major part of the African-American experience.

Included in that experience is a history of innovation and showmanship that has always United people from all backgrounds and across racial lines.

The Ozarks has produced many famous African-American musicians.

And I can fondly remember the Philharmonic's, Dallas Bartley, Bebop Brown, Don Shipps, and Dave Bedell, just to name a few.

I remember student bands, such as the Fabulous Elites and the KC Express, and our current local musicians, Arthur Duncan, Ernie Bedell, and Richard Allen, who are still jamming today.

Yes, music is a salve that soothes and unites us still.

(SINGING) How'd you like to stay up?

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): The Ozarks has long been known for producing unique and enduring musical talent.

And many local musicians went on to have long careers in the music industry.

The same is true of Black musicians in the Ozarks, although many did not achieve the same notoriety as their white counterparts.

One of the earliest and most influential Black musicians in the Ozarks was Scott Joplin.

Often referred to as the King of Ragtime, Joplin was a composer and pianist, known for his complex compositions, which mixed African rhythms with European classical structures.

Music, such as "The Maple Leaf Rag" and "The Entertainer" are synonymous with the ragtime genre, and are characterized by intricate, syncopated rhythms, which became a key element of jazz.

A contemporary of Scott Joplin, John William "Blind" Boone was also an accomplished musician, and contributed to the ragtime genre.

Despite his blindness from infancy, Blind Boone was a gifted concert pianist and a composer.

His music bridged the gap between popular music at the time, classical, and folk tunes, including African-American spirituals.

His style was characterized by elements of improvisation, which influenced later techniques in ragtime, blues, and jazz.

CLARENCE BREWER: People like Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway, they began to elevate blues into jazz.

And jazz was the musical standard for African-Americans until rock and roll came in, in the '50s.

Music was-- it's all we had.

And that's how we got together.

We played music.

We all started here, in Springfield.

We all started as a community.

And it was just unity.

That's our whole life.

Yeah, our whole life-- it was music.

Everybody knew everybody.

Everybody played music.

The Black community, here in Springfield, Missouri, as far as music, was very strong.

And the churches-- back then, everybody went to church.

And all the churches-- we all had a few people there.

My parents, they were singing the choir, stuff like that.

And then I played music in the band-- in school band.

And I played trumpet.

And I played tuba.

And we played in the talent shows all through school.

That's the fascinating thing, that's overlooking Springfield.

How can one area generate so many young musicians?

It was amazing.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): One group of young musicians from the neighborhood were the Hardin brothers, a family of singers who honed their musical skills under the guidance of Ada Fulbright, at the Lincoln School.

While still in their teens, they traveled to New York City, to perform on "Major Bowles Amateur Hour."

For more than a year, they toured the East Coast, performing in venues such as the Apollo Theater and Carnegie Hall, and later, released recordings on Decca Records.

My fondest memories of the music scene, in Springfield, actually started with one of my father's brothers, James Logan, who was part of a group called the Philharmonic's.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): The Philharmonic's were a talented African-American quintet from Springfield in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Homer Boyd, James Logan, George Culp, Eldridge Moss, and Clarence Rice met in the choir at Gibson Chapel, and were soon performing together at venues across the country.

Several members had been educated at the Lincoln School.

And Homer Boyd was a drum major for the marching band under Gerald Brooks.

It was really something to see your uncle and the other Philharmonics on television at the time when we were first all getting televisions.

And so, there's Uncle James.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): The group performed often on KWTO radio and the Ozark Jubilee, and were one of the first African-American groups to be featured on national broadcast television.

(SINGING) Get out in that kitchen and run those pots and pans.

Well, get out in that kitchen and run those pots and pans.

Well, roll up my breakfast because I'm a hungry man.

Well-- IRV LOGAN: The Ozark Jubilee had a place at the corner of Chestnut and Sherman.

And there used to be all kinds of musicians, of all races, who would come by there and practice and play.

So my fondest memories of of that time are of those people, Red Foley and some of the other people-- Brenda Lee-- we used to play with her on the front porch at that time, back in the day.

Our oldest brother, Tommy, "Dash" Anthony, was a drummer.

He used to drum and play drums with the country singer, Brenda Lee, when Brenda Lee was doing shows in Springfield and surrounding areas.

We had great musicians in that neighborhood.

Ms. Florence Duncan, Arthur's mom-- but she was-- you think Arthur's great?

His mom was the bomb.

My mom, Florence Duncan, she got me started playing the keyboard and piano.

She was pretty well known, as far as a musician in Springfield.

She played with so many people.

She played with Bebop.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): John "Bebop" Brown was a gifted saxophone player.

His family was from Hartville, originally settled by his grandfather, Union veteran, Elias Brown.

He attended the Lincoln School in Springfield, and played in the Lincolnites band, alongside many of Springfield's most talented and celebrated musicians, including Dave Bedell and Dallas Bartley.

Brown would later travel the country, performing with various orchestras, before settling back in Springfield, in the late 1950s, where he worked as a plumber.

He also owned several clubs in the area, which were the center of nightlife in the Black community for more than 20 years.

Right behind this was the greatest bass player that ever lived, Dallas Bartley-- right behind us.

Right behind us.

I'm serious.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): Dallas Bartley was a master bass player, and found his musical home with the original Louis Jordan Tympany Five.

He composed some of the group's biggest hits, including "Early in the Morning" and "Smalltown Boy."

Throughout his career, Dallas Bartley collaborated with many iconic figures in the jazz and blues scene of the time, such as Billie Holiday and Earl Hines.

He performed in renowned venues, like the Apollo and the Black Hawk theaters, with Louis Jordan, as well as his own ensemble, The Smalltown Boys.

Dallas Bartley was one of the many talented Black musicians to come from Springfield.

SPEAKER 1: Grandmother's family, the Wollards-- the whole family was-- they had big, traveling shows-- Minstrel shows.

--minstrel shows for years.

So all the music came from my grandmother.

Yeah, everybody was a musician.

Everybody played.

That was the whole thing, right there.

Uncle David-- Uncle David put it to a different level.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): David Bedell was in the same class at the Lincoln School with Bebop Brown and Dallas Bartley, and performed together in the Lincolnites Band, at clubs and churches in the area.

He later opened a music shop, in Springfield, called The Drum Key, and mentored many up-and-coming musicians in Springfield.

DJ (ON TAPE): This afternoon, we have the pleasure of listening with a classmate and our high school combo in Springfield Missouri, back in 1935, a fine drummer, my next-door neighbor for the past 15 years, and above all, a hell of a businessman-- introducing Dave Bedell.

Come on in here, Dave.

And tell them everything.

DAVID BEDELL (ON TAPE): We started the Lincolnites in 1934 with a toy horn.

By 35, we had the real thing.

I purchased my first set of drums.

I probably owe my pursuit of this instrument, the Dallas Bartley-- DALLAS BARTLEY (ON TAPE): Thank you.

DAVE BEDELL (ON TAPE): --and his high school band.

DALLAS BARTLEY (ON TAPE): Thank you very much.

DAVID BEDELL (ON TAPE): From there, after I graduated, I went to Kansas City Conservatory-- and done a short stretch of three years.

And in the between time, I worked with Jay McShann, Tommy Douglas.

But the King of all was Julia Lee.

She probably taught me the show business.

And from there on, I pursued the drumming in Kansas City, with different gigs, and so forth.

Finally, in 1950, I returned back to Springfield.

Presently, I have my own group.

And I have The Drum Key in Springfield, Missouri, which is my business.

And Dallas speaks of a hell of a business there.

[laughter] DALLAS BARTLEY (ON TAPE): Thank you, Dave was-- Charlie Parker around Kansas City when he was a-- Charlie Parker was on the band with-- Jay McShann Band.

And I asked Jay, who is this guy, up here, who won't talk?

[laughter] He said, man, that's Charlie Parker.

[laughter] People like you that-- you said Buddy Rich, Ed Shaughnessy, and Louie Bellson and Pearl Bailey-- all of them people were right under Uncle David's umbrella.

And you-- tell you what, we were very fortunate to-- to be around these caliber musicians.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): Over the years, the Bedell family has formed various groups, including The Fabulous Elites, founded in Springfield, in the 1960s.

SPEAKER 1: We were just putting it all together.

Joe-- our brother, who was right above me-- he had the idea that there was some more musicians out there, that we can have a review.

So he got his classmate, Danny Adams, another saxophonist, lived in the neighborhood, got him, got a good friend of ours that played-- another trumpet player-- --and guitar.

That played guitar and trumpet.

And then, right across the street was the-- Sue Marshall.

And-- They had a girl's group.

They had a girl's group.

The Idolettes.

And next thing you know, there it was, the show and review.

Everybody in the band was a product of one school, the North side, Pipkin Central.

Coming up, it was the Black social clubs, that was 85%-- Right-- about-- --finances.

Yeah, because the white nightclubs here didn't have a center.

No, No.

No, not at all.

No.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): During the 1950s and '60s, Black social clubs were providing a platform for Black musicians to express and develop their talents.

Many clubs operated in and around Springfield.

Ernie Bedell: Back then, the Black community functioned off of social clubs.

The social clubs carry the weight of all the-- per se-- of entertainment, all the camaraderie, when it comes to private parties.

You had to be part of the social club-- Larry Bedell: Yeah.

Ernie Bedell: --if you're going to have any kind of functions-- the Five Six Club.

Larry Bedell: --Club 15.

Ernie Bedell: Silvertones.

Larry Bedell: The Silvertones-- uh-huh.

Leisure Hour.

Yeah, Leisure Hour.

There was a bunch of them.

There was a bunch of them.

These were social clubs.

These were-- this is what kept us going.

The In Crowd-- that was a place to go, like I said, on Sunday.

There was a big dance hall, that was run by Ron Arnold, was the guy that done it.

And some TV guy took that over and everything, and started that.

But I remember that very well, though.

That-- that was the place to go, the place to jam, every Sunday-- and Sunday.

You go to a party.

And all the people would be standing around, on the outside.

Nobody would dance.

Yeah.

So-- but when you played at the In Crowd-- you didn't have to wait, say, get up and dance.

They cut up from the time you started to the time you ended, and then hollered, don't stop, keep playing.

Yeah, they don't want you to stop.

We got to go.

Y'all got to go home.

We had a song, a 45.

I though, this is a place that we've got to sell these Stax Records.

And so we went to Memphis.

We were produced by Joe Bridges and Tom Nixon.

Tom Nixon was the sax player for Isaac Hayes.

Him and Joe Bridges were producers at Motown.

But they went to Stax Records.

And that's when they signed us.

We didn't get to finish nothing on Stax because the company went bankrupt.

Ernie Bedell: Yeah.

So we went on the road.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): The band continued to perform in Springfield and around the country for many years.

Several of the original members went on to have successful careers in the music industry, and are still performing, and mentoring young musicians in Springfield today.

HAROLD MCPHERSON JR.: I was blessed enough to be close neighbors to Dallas Bartley and Dave Bedell, and was able to play music with those old guys.

Those guys were my mom and dad's generation.

Those guys have influenced every young Black musician in Springfield-- bar none.

I look at back, and I look at the musicians now.

It's a different world, I think, a little bit, with the musicians.

It's different times.

The community here, and just being a part of Springfield, with the Black and white musicians, that are playing, I feel there's no color with music.

And there shouldn't be no color with music.

Good music is good music.

Music is unique in its ability to bridge cultural divides, and played a pivotal role in the Civil Rights movement in the United States, serving as a powerful vehicle for unity, resistance, and expression.

Through music, Black artists were able to voice their experiences with racism and segregation, amplified by the technological advances in radio and television.

As the country slowly awakened to the struggles of its Black citizens in the 1950s and '60s, the Civil Rights movement gained momentum in communities across the country.

You see the groundwork for the Civil Rights movement being laid in World War II.

Large numbers of Black men and Black women joined the fight.

And with that service to their country came the expectation and the hope that they would be rewarded with greater access to full political and civil rights in the country.

That was encouraged by some actions, during the war, when an executive order was issued that outlawed racial discrimination in the hiring of war-industry employees, and then after the war, in 1948, when our own Harry Truman integrated the armed forces.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): Black soldiers' performance and sacrifice during the war indirectly challenged the racial stereotypes held by many white Americans.

The dichotomy of fighting for freedom abroad while being denied basic rights at home was a powerful argument used by Civil Rights activists to expose the hypocrisy of racial segregation and discrimination.

[music playing] The boom was on.

More kids were coming to school.

And new attitudes were around, that we'd had a cultural experience of World War II and the Korean War.

And it was fairly apparent, to that new crop of educators, that segregation would not work.

It was just an impossible institution to make happen.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): Although school desegregation was purported to have been a simple transition in Springfield, it did not extinguish long-held prejudices against Black Americans, who are still often denied service in restaurants and businesses, and treated unfairly in educational institutions.

To combat injustice, students at Central High School, in Southwest Missouri State University, organized protest, in 1971, to bring awareness to the continued inequities faced by the Black community in Springfield.

IRV LOGAN: Some of my schoolmates, both Black and white, talked about it and got together and said, you know what?

We need to take a stand and make a scene.

Alberta said to me-- when I told her what we were going to do, she says, look-- she says, this is going to cost you.

And I said, what do you mean?

She says, when people can go anywhere that their money will take them, they won't go back to the places that they used to go to all the time.

They want to go to something new.

She said, so that's going to cost you.

She said, you're doing it for the right reason.

You absolutely are.

And you go ahead and do that.

If that's what you want to do, you're in the NAACP Youth You do that.

But it's going to cost you.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): Peaceful protests and forceful demonstrations against racial segregation, across the country, continued to gain support through the 1960s.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

This landmark legislation was a significant milestone for racial unity in communities throughout the nation.

It also had unintended consequences.

[music playing] MOSES BERRY: Before integration, they had distinct African-American communities.

And within those communities, they had all sorts of business.

There were filling stations, hotels, restaurant, and so forth.

We had people who were doctors living next door to people who were janitors.

And we had all kinds of people in the same community, working for our community.

So when-- when integration occurred, we became free to abandon our communities.

And as a result of it, the community started to fail.

And it was a big loss.

The neighborhood has basically gone, as far as residential housing.

And that had an impact on the church because a lot of the members of the church used to also live in this neighborhood.

And it was convenient.

They could walk.

And that took away children.

And the church just went through a transition.

The area, now, is more industrial.

It makes the church outreach even more important because we have to go out, beyond the neighborhood.

The homeless population or unsheltered population-- it's all around us.

And we try to do outreach with that population.

But again, it presents some-- some challenges for us.

H. WES PRATT (VOICEOVER): Several iconic businesses in the area closed, including Alberta's Hotel and Graham's Rib Station.

And organizations that once catered solely to the Black community were shuttered.

Ernie Bedell: The biggest thing that Springfield missed is the Springfield Community Youth Center.

Without the youth center, everything in the community went to hell because there's nowhere you can function.

There's nowhere to meet.

There's nowhere you can-- no camaraderie.

You couldn't learn nothing without the youth center.

If you want to learn how to read, if you want to learn how to play, if you want to learn how to be an actor, if you want to learn everything-- oh, by the way, you need somewhere to practice?

Go to Springfield Community Youth Center.

That was the place where we showed off our talent and our youth talent.

Everybody showed off their talent at the community youth center.

Ernie Bedell: Yeah.

It was a meeting place, political meeting place.

Anytime there were issues in the community, where all these civil activists met, they met at the youth center.

The youth center was everything.

CHERYL CLAY: All that is gone.

Everything's a parking lot now.

All those neighborhoods are gone.

All our friends lived in this area.

We all played together.

Everyone's parents knew everyone.

We were a tight-knit community.

I left right after high school.

So I really wasn't around to see the imploding of this neighborhood.

So-- but when I came back, when I moved back, I realized that we're spread here, there, and everywhere.

There's no-- no cohesion.

There's no community between us anymore.

[music playing ] Although much has improved since our fight for civil rights began, more than 60 years ago, there's still work to be done.

Springfield and the Ozarks is still home to many African-American families, some who have been here since the area was settled more than 200 years ago.

As we continue to foster knowledge and awareness of our region's history, we can more effectively negotiate our cross-cultural differences and make our home more welcoming to all who live, learn, and earn in the Ozarks.

One of the realities of the Black experience in Missouri, or in the Missouri Ozarks, is that there are simply far, far, far fewer Blacks living in the Ozarks than there was a century ago.

I know within my own family, my brother and one of my sisters, once they had an opportunity to leave Springfield, they were anxious to do so.

They just wanted to be in a more diverse setting.

They wanted to leave Springfield for what they felt were better opportunities, or just to see what else was out there.

I think people are getting more conscious of what they do.

But it doesn't get better unless you work on yourself.

It doesn't automatically get better.

It doesn't generally get better for the whole group.

You have to work on yourself.

I'm from Cape Girardeau, Missouri, Southeast Missouri.

And-- family's from the boot heel.

And percentage wise, there are actually more Black people over there than there are in Southwest Missouri.

I ran for the Springfield school board in 1990 and was elected.

I was the first African-American to be elected since the early 1900s.

So that was an indication, to me, that things are possible.

Opportunities are here.

It's just a matter of how hard you want to work at it.

There's the stigma that hangs over Springfield.

It's unwarranted.

Yeah, there are issues here.

Yes, there are problems that are race related, absolutely.

Not denying that.

Not saying that at all.

But somebody's got to do something to change that instead of just saying, yeah, no, thank you, I'm just going to move on to the next thing.

Well, let's change something because there are people here that want to move beyond that.

There are people here that want to reconcile-- that do want to change the narrative of Springfield and the Ozarks in Southwest Missouri.

So I'd much rather be a part of that change than to just say, I want to go and follow what someone else has already blazed.

Let's come here and let's blaze a new trail.

We need our past to be successful in our future.

We've got to expect that we're going to make a better world because we're coming together, as that grassroot community.

So everybody's invited to that table.

You can be born here.

And that's home.

That's home.

No matter who it is, home is going to be where you were raised at.

My great grandfather, Wallace White, was owned by his-- three masters in his lifetime.

And one of those people lived near here.

They had moved to this area as well.

And he was always very kind to everyone he met.

And my father and my uncles asked him, one time, why he was so nice to those people, who held him in bondage.

And he said, because I want to go to heaven.

I love the Ozarks.

There's something about it.

I maybe-- I don't know what it is.

I don't know what it is.

But I love this part of the country.

It's because it's part of where my roots are.

It's where my sense of place is.

And I've been given a great sense of place, through my ancestors.

It's fascinating, in the sense that you have a group of people that endured enslavement.

They endured having their families and communities taken apart at-- at a whim.

They endured generations of this.

They survived lynchings.

And they survived the terror that no one should ever have to go through.

And it-- it hits me because I've-- I've looked, and found my own relatives.

And I can't find anybody in my family before the 1870 census.

And every time I look at myself, I see myself as the result of their struggle.

So in that sense, long term, they won-- because-- because of me and my children.

So, yeah.

[music playing]