When 10:15 a.m. Friday • Where Visitor center at the Gateway Arch • How much Free • More info gatewayarch.com
Elizabeth Keckley was an enslaved African American who lived in St. Louis and bought her freedom by working as a seamstress. She eventually befriended and became the personal seamstress to first lady Mary Todd Lincoln. Join living history interpreter Marlene Rivero to learn more about Keckley’s remarkable life. Black History Month programming continues Feb. 15 with a presentation on African American women's suffrage by Lynne Jackson, a direct descendant of Dred and Harriet Scott. By Valerie Schremp Hahn
African Americans who carved a place in St. Louis history
More than 50 Black people who carved a place in St. Louis history
Ronnie and Ernie Isley
Maya Angelou
Lou Brock
Henry Armstrong
Josephine Baker
Fontella Bass
James "Cool Papa" Bell
Chuck Berry
Grace Bumbry
William L. "Bill" Clay Sr.
Ryan Howard
Miles Davis
Gerald Early
Dick Gregory
Robert Guillaume
Donny Hathaway
Johnnie Johnson
Jackie Joyner-Kersee
Bob Gibson
Cedric "The Entertainer" Kyles
Archie Moore
Jo Jo White
Nelly
Ntozake Shange
Clark Terry
Bradley Beal
Akon
Curt Flood
Frankie Muse Freeman
Dred and Harriet Scott
Ozzie Smith
Tina Turner
Elston Howard
Sonny Liston
SZA
Scott Joplin
Jeremy Maclin
John Berry Meachum
Jayson Tatum
Maxine Waters
Lavell Crawford
Katherine Dunham
Redd Foxx
Robert McFerrin Sr.
Willie Mae Ford Smith
Henry Townsend
Albert King
Angela Winbush
Mykelti Williamson
Ella Jenkins
Margaret Bush Wilson
Darius Miles
Reginald and Warrington Hudlin Jr.
Sterling K. Brown
Homer G. Phillips
David Steward
Robbie Montgomery
Donald F. McHenry
Annie Malone
Clyde S. Cahill
Theodore McMillian
Ken Page
And even more ...
Here are other famous African Americans, suggested by readers:
• Steve and Mike Roberts, brothers who served on the Board of Aldermen, founded Channel 46 in 1986 and ran Roberts Wireless along with other business ventures.
• Wayman F. Smith II, the first Black licensed CPA in Missouri.
• Clifton W. Gates, first Black person named to the city Board of Police Commissioners; co-founder of Gateway National Bank and former publisher for the American newspaper.
• Ina M. Boon, NAACP leader who was national regional director in the 1960s and helped the integration oft he St. Louis Fire Department.
• Clovis A. Bordeaux, who served with the World War II Tuskegee Airmen and worked with Enrico Fermi.Â
• Ethel Hedgeman Lyle, founder of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority at Howard University in 1908. She was a teacher in Oklahoma, Illinois, and Pennsylvania.Â
• Kenneth Brown Billups Sr., choir director for the Legend Singers, St. Louis public schools' supervisor of music, president of the National Association of Negro Musicians in 1959.
• Ivory Perry, a civil rights activist who rose to lead activism during the Jefferson Bank protest in 1963. He led the effort to educate people about lead paint and the impacts of lead on children's health.
• Archer Alexander, an escaped enslaved man who became the inspiration for the Emancipation Memorial in Washington, D.C.
• David E. Hines, a jazz trumpeter who performed with James Brown, Ray Charles, Pattie LaBelle and many others, and his own David Hines Ensemble.
• Phil Perry, an R&B musician
• David Peaston, an R&B and gospel singer whose performance on "Showtime at the Apollo" led to fame.
• Football player Ezekiel Elliott, a graduate of John Burroughs School.
• Harry Edwards, a sports sociologist who taught at the University of California, Berkeley and worked as a consultant to several major league baseball teams, as well as the San Francisco 49ers and the Golden State Warriors.Â
• Ivory Crocket, a Webster High School graduate who set the world record for fastest manually timed 100-yard dash in 1974, and still holds that record to this day.Â
• Actress Jennifer Lewis, who has appeared in "Black-ish," and the movies "Beaches" and "Sister Act."
•Sister Mary Antona Ebo, a nun with the Franciscan Sisters of Mary who was a hospital director, marched in Selma, Ala., and worked on social justice issues into her 90s (including in Ferguson).Â
• Larry Hughes, who had a 14-year NBA career and played with the Philadelphia 76ers, Golden State Warriors, Washington Wizards, Cleveland Cavaliers, Chicago Bulls, New York Knicks, Sacramento Kings, Charlotte Bobcats and Orlando Magic. He went to CBC and St. Louis University.
• Eddie Mae Binion, organizer of the South Side Welfare Rights Organization and activist for renters and low-income people. The group Legal Services of Eastern Missouri gives a community service award named after her.
• Gen. Roscoe Robinson Jr. was the first black man to become a four-star general in the Army. After graduating from West Point, he served in the Korean and Vietnam wars. He retired in 1985 and died in 1993.
• Norman R. Seay, one of the "St. Louis 19" who led the 1963 demonstrations at Jefferson Bank & Trust Co.Â
• Isiaah Crawford, president of the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington.Â
• Ernest A. Calloway, who worked with the Teamsters Union in St. Louis to try to integrate public schools. He then became president of the local NAACP, and worked in politics to elect black people to local and state offices.Â
• Albert Burgess, the first Black attorney in St. Louis, who was born in Detroit, moved to St. Louis in 1877, and passed the bar. He died in 1932. Information from the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis
• Dorothy Freeman, the first Black woman attorney in Missouri and St. Louis in 1942. Information from the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis
• Judge Robin Ransom, the first Black woman on the Missouri Supreme Court.
• Dana Tippen Cutler, the first Black woman elected president of the Missouri Bar. Information from the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis
The St. Louis Walk of Fame honors those who were born, lived or had their success in the area. Here are the people whose names are on the star…
Â