Join the Camp­bell House on Sun­day, Feb­ru­ary 11 for a lec­ture on the new book, Black St. Louis. The book cov­ers more than 250 years of his­to­ry and tells the sto­ries of extra­or­di­nary peo­ple who helped pave the way for the St. Louis we know today.

Black St. Louis explores the rich and inspir­ing his­to­ry of African Amer­i­cans in St. Louis from the city’s found­ing as a French fur trad­ing post dur­ing the Span­ish colo­nial era to the new mil­len­ni­um. Author NiNi Har­ris high­lights great fig­ures who showed lead­er­ship, inno­va­tion, and courage despite the injus­tices they faced.

You will hear about the peo­ple like feisty Charl­ton Tandy, a Union Army vet­er­an who fought for Civ­il Rights, or John Berry Meachum, an ex-slave who led the Black com­mu­ni­ty with kind­ness and found­ed the First African Bap­tist Church. In the ear­ly 20th cen­tu­ry, busi­ness­woman Annie Mal­one built an indus­try that served and enriched African Amer­i­cans and left a last­ing impact on the city. Jor­dan Cham­bers, a night club own­er, held so much polit­i­cal sway that he was known as the “Negro may­or of St. Louis.”

The event is free and no reser­va­tions are required. There is lim­it­ed free park­ing in the lot adja­cent to the house, how­ev­er, street park­ing is free on Sundays.