St. Louis Civil Rights: Jefferson Bank Protest
Fifty years ago today, just days after the 1963 March on Washington ended, protestors were staging a sit-in at Jefferson Bank, then located on the SW corner of Jefferson & Washington, 2600 Washington Ave. The dispute, however, wasn’t new, it had been ongoing for seven years by this point.
Photo courtesy of Kristen Gassel/St. Louis Curio Shoppe
As I detailed a few years ago, Jefferson Bank moved into their new building in 1956. After the move, all their cashiers were suddenly white. Black customers were no longer represented behind the teller windows. To learn more about the struggle, protest, and change consider attending an event tonight at the Missouri History Museum:
Commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Jefferson Bank protests, one of the most important chapters in St. Louis civil rights history, with those who lived the experience and those who continue the work today.
Jefferson Bank Protests: Looking Back, Looking Forward Friday, August 30 • 7pm • Lee Auditorium • Free
I still find it weird that I was born just three and a half years after the March on Washington. I know society has progressed immensely since then, but work remains.
— Steve Patterson
Young blacks born in North St. Louis today still face a horrible amount of racism.
One of the worse things for race relations in recent St. Louis history was the construction of the interstate highways that cut our city in half.