1937]. · [St. Louis
by [African Americana]: [Young, Nathan B.]
[St. Louis: N.B. Young, 1937].. 80pp., including extensive photographic illustrations and printed advertisements. Original illustrated stiff wrappers. Wrappers tanned and a bit worn at edges and around staples. Later gift inscription from the author on first leaf. Internally clean. Near fine. An inscribed copy of this rare, thorough, and inventive glimpse into the African-American experience in interwar St. Louis, written and compiled by the remarkable Nathan B. Young, Jr. Young (1895-1993) was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, next door to Booker T. Washington. His father was a personal friend of Washington's, becoming an instructor at the Tuskegee Institute and later accepting a position as president of Lincoln University. Nathan Young, Jr., filled his nearly 100 years with accomplishments of every sort, practicing law professionally and becoming the first Black municipal judge in St. Louis, while also writing history, fiction, and poetry, volunteering for the NAACP, painting, and performing music. Most relevant for the publication at hand, he was also the founder of the ST. LOUIS AMERICAN, a long-running news outlet for St. Louis' Black community which continues to publish weekly.
Young eloquently prefaces YOUR ST. LOUIS AND MINE with a forward-thinking passage which speaks to his conscientiousness and acumen as a social observer and publisher:
"'YOUR ST. LOUIS AND MINE' is but an introduction to a distinctive and colorful urban group. It is not an attempt to present a problem nor offer propaganda except as it might do so of is own force. Here is 'YOUR ST. LOUIS AND MINE' by sample, past and present. There is no moral intended. In it are personages and events and pictures, but they are not conclusive or exclusive - they are merely choices. Be reminded, St. Louis has height because it has depth; it has faults because it has faculties, and is, and has always been, a city of generous living humans. And for the sake of some distant and unsuspecting perusers, this book is focused on that portion of the city's population that wears the label of 'Negro' or 'Colored.' The other eight-ninths St. Louisans are slighted only because of this circumstance by chance. This is no paradox - their St. Louis is ours - it has been thus since the founding. "
Young fulfills this mission by filling the pages of his booklet with history and literature by and about the Black community in St. Louis. Inside are poems both previously published and original to this publication, illustrated histories of schools and churches, biographies of prominent men and women born or raised in St. Louis, descriptive articles, and of course a multitude of advertisements for local businesses. Among these profiles are artist Elmer Simms Campbell, Josephine Baker, the descendants of Dred Scott, and more general odes to the African-American population in various industries such as the post office, women in social work, the military, and the railway and steel industries. Other articles describe the social and political landscape of the city. One article, entitled "Where in Politics?", notes that "St. Louis holds the balance of political power as it is in no other Northern city. And of late years, with the Democrats getting 40 to 55 per cent of the Colored vote that totals 50,000, the situation is excellent for great strides in political benefits to the group as a whole." The author makes no attempt to pick sides, but only notes that the fact that Black voters in St. Louis subscribe to both parties should benefit them politically. Regarding the social aspect, another article affirms that "Colored St. Louisans are a fixture, not an importation due to the World War. From the founding of St. Louis 175 years ago there were Negroes here....Many of them free people and property owners. So we can claim with any and all other elements a fee title in our St. Louis," while maintaining that "St. Louis is basically wrong in its aping of those Southern decadents by tolerating Jim Crow and discrimination in its theatres, hotels, and cafes."
This copy was inscribed by Young more than fifty years after its publication to Adele Tyre, dated March 24, 1981. Tyre (1951-1988) was a journalist who is credited as the first Black female television reporter in the Tampa Bay area (where she moved after several years of reporting in St. Louis and Salt Lake City). The University of South Florida currently hosts a scholarship for multimedia journalism in her honor.
A detailed and important study of the African-American community in St. Louis, presenting a noteworthy local figure's nuanced perspective of the city. OCLC records only eight copies, three of which are located in St. Louis. OCLC 30340988. (Inventory #: WRCAM62443)
Young eloquently prefaces YOUR ST. LOUIS AND MINE with a forward-thinking passage which speaks to his conscientiousness and acumen as a social observer and publisher:
"'YOUR ST. LOUIS AND MINE' is but an introduction to a distinctive and colorful urban group. It is not an attempt to present a problem nor offer propaganda except as it might do so of is own force. Here is 'YOUR ST. LOUIS AND MINE' by sample, past and present. There is no moral intended. In it are personages and events and pictures, but they are not conclusive or exclusive - they are merely choices. Be reminded, St. Louis has height because it has depth; it has faults because it has faculties, and is, and has always been, a city of generous living humans. And for the sake of some distant and unsuspecting perusers, this book is focused on that portion of the city's population that wears the label of 'Negro' or 'Colored.' The other eight-ninths St. Louisans are slighted only because of this circumstance by chance. This is no paradox - their St. Louis is ours - it has been thus since the founding. "
Young fulfills this mission by filling the pages of his booklet with history and literature by and about the Black community in St. Louis. Inside are poems both previously published and original to this publication, illustrated histories of schools and churches, biographies of prominent men and women born or raised in St. Louis, descriptive articles, and of course a multitude of advertisements for local businesses. Among these profiles are artist Elmer Simms Campbell, Josephine Baker, the descendants of Dred Scott, and more general odes to the African-American population in various industries such as the post office, women in social work, the military, and the railway and steel industries. Other articles describe the social and political landscape of the city. One article, entitled "Where in Politics?", notes that "St. Louis holds the balance of political power as it is in no other Northern city. And of late years, with the Democrats getting 40 to 55 per cent of the Colored vote that totals 50,000, the situation is excellent for great strides in political benefits to the group as a whole." The author makes no attempt to pick sides, but only notes that the fact that Black voters in St. Louis subscribe to both parties should benefit them politically. Regarding the social aspect, another article affirms that "Colored St. Louisans are a fixture, not an importation due to the World War. From the founding of St. Louis 175 years ago there were Negroes here....Many of them free people and property owners. So we can claim with any and all other elements a fee title in our St. Louis," while maintaining that "St. Louis is basically wrong in its aping of those Southern decadents by tolerating Jim Crow and discrimination in its theatres, hotels, and cafes."
This copy was inscribed by Young more than fifty years after its publication to Adele Tyre, dated March 24, 1981. Tyre (1951-1988) was a journalist who is credited as the first Black female television reporter in the Tampa Bay area (where she moved after several years of reporting in St. Louis and Salt Lake City). The University of South Florida currently hosts a scholarship for multimedia journalism in her honor.
A detailed and important study of the African-American community in St. Louis, presenting a noteworthy local figure's nuanced perspective of the city. OCLC records only eight copies, three of which are located in St. Louis. OCLC 30340988. (Inventory #: WRCAM62443)