If the Missouri Legislative Black Caucus can push its Black History Month agenda through the white Republican-dominated Missouri Legislature, Missouri will have a Walthall Moore Day and a Dred and Harriet Scott Day, as well as a Juneteenth Heritage and Jazz Festival. The state will recognize the third week in September as Historically Black College and University Week. St. Louis voters will be authorized to decide whether a taxing district should be expanded to establish an African-American History Museum. And the Missouri General Assembly will formally renounce the Missouri Supreme Court’s 1852 Dred Scott decision.
State Rep. Kevin Windham, D-Hillsdale, is sponsoring HB 1939, which would designate May 1 as Walthall Moore Day in Missouri. May 1 is the birthday of Moore, Missouri’s first black state legislator. A St. Louis Republican, Moore was first elected to the Missouri House of Representatives in 1920 but lost his seat in 1922 following redistricting. He returned to the House in 1924 and was re-elected in 1926 and 1928
“State Rep. Walthall Moore was a profile in the political courage and mental fortitude that Missourians hold dear to this day nearly 100 years later,” Windham said in a statement. “Rep. Moore battled against Republicans and Democrats, but most importantly he fought for education in the black community, reorganizing Lincoln Institute into Lincoln University and improving its funding.”
State Rep. Wiley Price, D-St. Louis, is sponsoring HB 1399, which would designate March 6 as Dred and Harriet Scott Day. March 6, 1857 was the date the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Missouri Supreme Court’s 1852 ruling, which had reversed the St. Louis trial court’s decision that the Scotts should be freed.
“Having a Dred and Harriet Scott Day in Missouri would further help spread the education of these once-enslaved individuals whose story is still all to poorly known,” Lynne Jackson, president of the Dred Scott Heritage Foundation and the great-great granddaughter of the Scotts, told The American.
State Rep. Barbara Washington, D-Kansas City, filed HB 1381 designating the third week in September as Historically Black College and University Week in recognition of the importance of historically black institutions of higher education, particularly Lincoln University in Jefferson City and Harris-Stowe State University in St. Louis.
State Rep. Alan Green, D-Florissant, filed HB 1826, which would authorize voters in St. Louis city and county to decide whether the existing local zoo and museum taxing district should be expanded to establish an African-American History Museum. He also filed HB 1827, which would use revenue from an existing tax on visiting athletes and entertainers to fund an annual Juneteenth Heritage and Jazz Festival to be celebrated in either Kansas City, St. Louis or St. Louis County.
Black Caucus Chairman Steven Roberts, D-St. Louis, sponsored House Concurrent Resolution 74, which calls upon the Missouri General Assembly to formally renounce the Missouri Supreme Court’s 1852 decision that denied Dred and Harriet Scott freedom.
“The March 22, 1852 Dred Scott Decision of Missouri has never been renounced,” said Lynne Jackson of the Dred Scott Heritage Foundation. “We are very hopeful that in 2020, we will see HRC 74 passed that will condemn this state decision. This action will effectively set straight the fact that the 1852 decision was purely political and went against the justice that was due Dred and Harriet Scott, laying the groundwork for the further infraction of 1857 U.S. Supreme Court decision.”
