Name: The Last Children of Mill Creek
Brand: Vivian Gibson
SKU: 9781948742641
Price: 18.95 USD
Availability: InStock

The Last Children of Mill Creek

9781948742641

$18.95

Vivian Gibson's bestselling memoir of growing up in the 1950s in a segregated St. Louis neighborhood has been hailed by critics as a spare, elegant jewel of a work and a love letter to Gibson's childhood.

Vivian Gibson grew up in Mill Creek Valley, a segregated working-class neighborhood in St. Louis that was razed in 1959 to build a highway, an act of racism disguised under urban renewal as progress. A moving memoir of family life at a time very different from the present, The Last Children of Mill Creek chronicles the everyday lived experiences of Gibson's large family―her seven siblings, her crafty, college-educated mother, and her hard-working father―and the friends, shop owners, church ladies, teachers, and others who made Mill Creek into a warm, tight-knit African American community. In Gibson's words, This memoir is about survival, as told from the viewpoint of a watchful young girl―a collection of decidedly universal stories that chronicle the extraordinary lives of ordinary people.

Winner of a Missouri Humanities award for literary achievement, The Last Children of Mill Creek is an important book for anyone interested in urban development, race, and community history―or for anyone who was once a child.

Cover image for The Last Children of Mill Creek, isbn: 9781948742641

Kansas City

9780738534480

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Since 1803, when York, a slave in the Lewis and Clark expedition, stood on the bluffs overlooking Kansas City, African Americans have contributed to the city's rich history. Men and women like Tom Bass, Emily Fisher, Sam Sheperd, and Hiram Young built the region in slavery and in freedom. Musicians such as Julie Lee, Bennie Moten, Joe Turner, and Count Basie turned Kansas City into a jazz mecca in the 1920s and '30s. The professional class made their voice heard with the establishment of the Kansas City Monarchs baseball team, the Kansas City Call newspaper, and election of the city's first black mayor, Emanuel Cleaver. With over 200 vintage images, Kansas City recreates this beautiful mosaic of African-American community.

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Segregation was a way of life in St. Louis, aptly called the most southern city in the North." These thirteen oral histories describe the daily struggle that pervasive racism demanded but also share the tradition of self-respect that the African American community of St. Louis sought to build on its own terms."

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9780738508429

$24.99

Some say that Kansas City has the best black baseball, blues, and "Q" in the nation. It has been called the heart of America, a cultural melting pot, and the breadbasket of the Midwest. It was also home to the famous Kansas City Monarchs. Black baseball began in Kansas City with the Maroons in 1890. However, it wasn't until 1921, when the black Kansas
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Ville, The

9780738508153

$24.99

A few miles from downtown St. Louis, The Ville was once locked off from much of the area. In spite of racial obstacles, this small community became nationally known as the cradle of black culture and intellect in St. Louis. Current and former residents will recognize photographs of Sumner High School and Homer G. Phillips Hospital, as well as many famous former residents. Over the years this once thriving community fell into decline, and is now struggling to recapture some of its former glory.

St. Louis

9780738533629

$24.99

Since the founding of St. Louis, African Americans have lived in communities throughout the area. Although St. Louis' 1916 "Segregation of the Negro Ordinance" was ruled unconstitutional, African Americans were restricted to certain areas through real estate practices such as steering and red lining. Through legal efforts in the court cases of Shelley v. Kraemer in 1948, Jones v. Mayer in 1978, and others, more housing options became available and the population dispersed. Many of the communities began to decline, disappear, or experience urban renewal.

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9781467115094

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The city of St. Louis is known for its African American citizens and their many contributions to the culture within its borders, the country, and the world. Images of Modern America: African American St. Louis profiles some of the events that helped shape St. Louis from the 1960s to the present. Tracing key milestones in the city's history, this book attempts to pay homage to those African Americans who sacrificed to advance fair socioeconomic conditions for all. In the closing decades of the Great Migration north, the civil rights movement was taking place nationally; simultaneously, St. Louis's African Americans were organizing to exert political power for greater control over their destiny. Protests, voter registration, and elections to public office opened new doors to the city's African Americans. It resulted in the movement for fairness in hiring practices and the expansion of the African American presence in sports, education, and entertainment.

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9780738531670

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Since the founding of St. Louis in 1764, Downtown St. Louis has been a center of black cultural, economic, political, and legal achievements that have shaped not only the city of St. Louis, but the nation as well. From James Beckworth, one of the founders of Denver, Colorado, to Elizabeth Keckley, Mary Todd Lincoln's seamstress and author of the only behind-the-scenes account of Lincoln's White House years, black residents of Downtown St. Louis have made an indelible mark in American history. From the monumental Dred Scott case to entertainers such as Josephine Baker, Downtown St. Louis has been home to many unforgettable faces, places, and events that have shaped and strengthened the American experience for all.

Kinloch

9780738507774

$24.99

Located just outside of St. Louis, Kinloch was once a community locked off from the rest of the area by natural and man-made barriers. In spite of a lack of financial resources, it once provided its residents with a school district, city hall, post office, business district, and recreational facilities. Residents will recognize Dunbar Elementary, the oldest school for blacks in St. Louis County, Holy Angels, the oldest continuing black parish in the St. Louis Archdiocese, as well as former residents Congresswoman Maxine Waters and political activist Dick Gregory. Eventually, due to insufficient revenue, this once thriving community fell into decline, and is now struggling to keep its small town values and ideals alive.

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9781596296091

$21.99

Brought to Mid-Missouri to serve as slaves but rising up to proudly serve the community as leaders, African Americans have made an indelible contribution to the region. Join historian Rose M. Nolen for the story of some of the most remarkable characters and institutions to come out of Columbia and Sedalia. Allow yourself to be drawn in by authors like Chester Himes and ragtime legends like Scott Joplin and to be inspired by educators like C.C. Hubbard and innovators like Tom Bass. Or link arms with some George R. Smith alumni and let loose a rousing rendition of the college yell from one of the best schools on the prairie.