WRSTL: (community)
Living in North Saint Louis, there are many people of Black and Native American descent. Through cultural, familial, and nutritional inquiry we explore how we define ourselves, keep ourselves well, and keep our stories alive. These interviews encapsulate the sub-cultural and multiplicity of experience.
Michelle G. and Brittany Cordera 2023
Michelle G. and Treasure Shields Redmond 2023
Sade Hobson 2023
Ahmad Jackson and Michelle G. 2023
Kendall 2023
Evette Clayton and Michelle G. 2023
Katrina Hungary 2023
A.T. and Michelle G. 2023
Ronald Ward 1 2023
Ronald Ward 2 2023
Anonymous 2023
Sequoi and Michelle G. 2023
Tyrean Heru Lewis 2023
WRSTL (family/relatives)
Families traveled from the American South to the Midwest. As a means of survival, community living has been integral in the survival of all. The Haynes and Citchen family keep a strong connection over five generations. Each family has achieved a new life of success in Saint Louis, from Mississippi.
Natchez- Hazel Citchen Welch 2022
Hazel Citchen Welch 2022
Druscilla (Haynes) McCool 2023
Mama Julie by Ethel Moore 2022
Article by Mississippi Folklife Here
Companion Article by Dail Chambers (Autobiographical Narrative)
Supporting Dialogue:
In Saint Louis we have been impacted by both the Trail of Tears and American Black Migration. The Trail of Tears. Trail of Tears, in U.S. history, the forced relocation during the 1830s of Eastern Woodlands Indians of the Southeast region of the United States (including Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole, among other nations) to Indian Territorywest of the Mississippi River. Estimates based on tribal and military records suggest that approximately 100,000 indigenous people were forced from their homes during that period, which is sometimes known as the removal era, and that some 15,000 died during the journey west. - Encyclopedia Britannica
The American Black Migration
The Great Migration was one of the largest movements of people in United States history. Approximately six million Black people moved from the American South to Northern, Midwestern, and Western states roughly from the 1910s until the 1970s. The driving force behind the mass movement was to escape racial violence, pursue economic and educational opportunities, and obtain freedom from the oppression of Jim Crow.
The Great Migration is often broken into two phases, coinciding with the participation and effects of the United States in both World Wars. The First Great Migration (1910-1940) had Black southerners relocate to northern and midwestern cities including: New York, Chicago, Detroit, and Pittsburgh. When the war effort ramped up in 1917, more able bodied men were sent off to Europe to fight leaving their industrial jobs vacant. The labor supply was further strained with a decline in immigration from Europe and standing bans on peoples of color from other parts of the world. All of this afforded the opportunity for the Black population to be the labor supply in non-agricultural industries.
-National Archives
The American Indian Removal Act
The Indian Removal Act was signed into law by President Andrew Jackson on May 28, 1830, authorizing the president to grant unsettled lands west of the Mississippi in exchange for Indian lands within existing state borders. A few tribes went peacefully, but many resisted the relocation policy. During the fall and winter of 1838 and 1839, the Cherokees were forcibly moved west by the United States government. Approximately 4,000 Cherokees died on this forced march, which became known as the "Trail of Tears." - Library of Congress
Previous to the Trail of Tears and the American Black Migration, there has been difficulty in authentically documenting the interactions of Native and African people in the United States. Not all modern day black or white people who are associated with indigenous and native ancestry are associated with freedmen, as mixed race interactions at all levels have been a large part of American history.
In Saint Louis, and other river cities of the Mississippi River, we have been affected by both colonization, enslavement, The Trail of Tears and the American Black Migration.
Many American families have been torn. During the years of the United States government’s implementation of the American Removal Act, many American Indians made a choice to assimilate into urban environments out of the need to survive. Some families took on the identity of white and/or black. Adults married white and black throughout history, but during this time with a heightened sense of humanity, to literally stay alive.
In this modern time, many Black Americans are left only to the memories of their past to stay connected to their ancestral roots. Through the lack of documentation, governmental negligence and racial attacks through colorism, classism and more, it is not popular to learn and understand our mixed race roots.