By early October 1963, demonstrations at Jefferson Bank & Trust had gone on for more than a month. Civil-rights groups demanded that the bank, with only two black employees, hire four more for office jobs. It was a year of civil-rights actions across the country, and the Jefferson Bank protests endure as the most significant local event in the modern civil-rights era.
10/9/2009
Album ID: 860234
Photos by Post-Dispatch staff photographers
Look Back: Bobby Greenlease kidnapping
27 photos
for sale
Bobby Greenlease Jr.’s kidnapping and murder in 1953 was one of the most sensational crimes in Missouri in the 20th Century. His killers, Carl Austin Hall and Bonnie Brown Heady, were captured in St. Louis, and were executed 81 days after their crime. Two St. Louis police officers went to prison over the mysterious disappearance of half of the ransom money.
9/22/2009
Album ID: 842577
Photos by Post-Dispatch staff photographers
Look Back: Daniel Boone, 1734-1820
16 photos
for sale
Frontiersman Daniel Boone moved from the crowds in Kentucky to St. Charles County, Missouri, where he lived for over 20 years before dying on Sept. 26, 1820. An explorer, legislator, militia officer, surveyor and Indian fighter, Boone’s story was a mixture of folklore and robust deeds.
9/18/2009
Album ID: 839984
Photos by Post-Dispatch staff photographers
Look Back: St. Louis’ Auto Industry
24 photos
for sale
Ford Motor Co. opened their new $12 million plant in Hazelwood on Sept. 20, 1948, as part of Ford’s muscular post-war expansion. By the time Benson Ford, 29-year-old grandson of the Ford Motor Co.’s legendary founder, arrived for the formal dedication, the plant’s workers already had begun making 1949 Mercurys.
9/17/2009
Album ID: 838969
Photos by Post-Dispatch staff photographers
Look Back: Space Race, Sept. 12, 1962
17 photos
for sale
In September 1962, the United States was in space but still trailing the Soviet Union. President Kennedy dropped by McDonnell Aircraft Corp. in north St. Louis County "to see some of the hardware the dollars are buying." McDonnell was building both the Mercury capsules already in use by America’s first astronauts and the untested two-seat Gemini capsules, the next U.S. hot rod in the space race.
9/11/2009
Album ID: 834210
Photos by Post-Dispatch staff photographers
Look Back: Grand Avenue Splendor
12 photos
On Sept. 7, 1982, Fox Theatre in midtown celebrated their grand reopening. The lavish old movie palace underwent a $3.6 million renovation, making it the catalyst for a rejuvenated Grand Avenue district.
9/3/2009
Album ID: 828852
Photos by Post-Dispatch files and Missouri History Museum
Look Back: Aug. 22, 1876
9 photos
On Aug. 22, 1876, voters in St. Louis city and county went to the polls to decide the region’s most fateful ballot question -- the "Great Divorce," or whether to split the city away from the county.
8/21/2009
Album ID: 819928
Photos by Missouri History Museum, Compton & Dry
Look Back: 1942 Civil Rights protest
4 photos
for sale
9,000 people rallied in the old St. Louis Municipal Auditorium (site of the Scottrade Center) against defense plants that refused to hire black Americans in the war effort.
8/12/2009
Album ID: 814560
Photos by Post-Dispatch Staff Photographers
Look Back: 1954 Urban renewal
13 photos
for sale
The Mill Creek Valley area, dating back to 1765, was home to nearly 20,000 people living in 5600 homes. In 1954, when Mayor Raymond Tucker announced plans to demolish the tenements, it would become the city’s biggest urban-renewal project and, for a time, the largest in the nation.
8/5/2009
Album ID: 810355
Photos by Post Dispatch staff photographers
Look Back: Strike of 1877
6 photos
In 1877, the fourth year of a depression, an east coast wildcat railroad strike spread quickly, turning violent along the way. It reached the bustling yards of East St. Louis on July 22. Marchers inspired spontaneous walkouts at foundries, stove works, canneries and barrel factories. Deckhands and roustabouts abandoned steamboats. Newsboys quit selling papers. Union Depot, the city’s train station, "was like a banquet hall deserted. The protest blossomed into a general strike, paralyzing the city’s industry and commerce. Some historians say it was the biggest of its sort ever in America. And no one was killed here
