In 1858, Cyprian Clamorgan wrote a brief but immensely readable book entitled The Colored Aristocracy of St. Louis. The grandson of a white voyageur and a mulat

In the aftermath of the Civil War, thousands of former slaves made their way from the South to the Kansas plains. Called “Exodusters,” they were searching f

The Damning, Absurd, and Revelatory History of Race in America Told through the History of a Single Family Historian Julie Winch uses her sweeping, multigenerat

Every American city had a small, self-aware, and active black elite, who felt it was their duty to set the standard for the less fortunate members of their race

From the beginning of French rule of Missouri in 1720 through this state's abolition of slavery in 1865, liberty was always the goal of the vast majority of its