"Tisn't he who has stood and looked on, 

that can tell you what slavery is -

'tis he who has endured." 

As a work of service, we have committed to educating and informing our community about how America still wrestles with the legacy of slavery.

Upcoming activities:

Sunday, October 6

Fall work day at Fr. Dickson cemetery (details TBD)

Sunday October 13, 10:00 am - 4:00 pm

Presentation of the Fr. Dickson walking tour to the greater community at Historic Sappington Days

African-American of Endurance:  

researched by Ginny Dahlberg

Wattie S. Brown, 6/10/1891-4/1/1958 

Albert and Hattie (Stevens) Brown probably had no memories of slavery themselves, but they were undoubtedly the children of slaves. Both were born in Virginia but, by the time their son Wattie was born in 1891, they were living in Tennessee. Reconstruction and its aftermath meant a hard life for blacks, and an uncertain one. That was as true in Tennessee as in Virginia. They could be accused of crimes - even petty theft - and hung or shot before charges were even filed. There were no consequences (at least, no legal ones) for those who "executed justice" on blacks.

Like all parents, Albert and Hattie must have dreamed of a better life for their son.

Wattie appears to have managed that. At some point before his mid-20s, he moved to East St. Louis, IL. We don't know if he was alone when he moved, or whether his parents moved and brought him with them. He certainly had some education at least, since we know he could read and write. 

We also know that some of the worst racial riots in U.S. history occurred in East St. Louis, in May and July 1917. White union workers on strike were enraged when the company replaced them with black workers. They beat and shot people to death, lynched them, - men, women and children -  burned down homes, shooting the residents as they tried to flee.

Wattie worked as a butcher for Swift & Co. Meatpacking when, in 1918, he was drafted for military service in the First World War. Wattie served in the 804th Pioneers Infantry Regiment - soldiers who served as engineers and construction workers, most often building or repairing railroad tracks and bridges. 

Sometime after the war, perhaps because of experiences in the riots, he moved to St. Louis, where he continued to work as a butcher in another meatpacking company. By the 1940 census, however, he owned a dry-cleaning business, lived upstairs from the shop and had a lodger who worked for him as a presser. Pretty prosperous, it seems, and no doubt it took determination and hard work to get there. 

According to city directories, he continued to live about the shop until the early 1950s. There was a hint of an early marriage but nothing I could confirm until he married Rose Brown somewhere between 1952 and 1955. By that later date, he and Rose were living in a house some blocks from the dry-cleaning store which remained in its original location on Pine St.

Married joy, sadly, was short lived. Wattie died of leukemia in 1958.