Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. 393 (1857), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that held the U.S. Constitution did not extend American citizenship to people of black African descent, and thus they could not enjoy the rights and privileges the Constitution conferred upon American citizens. The decision is widely considered the worst in the Supreme Court's history, being widely denounced for its overt racism, perceived judicial activism, poor legal reasoning, and crucial role in the start of the American Civil War four years later. Legal scholar Bernard Schwartz said that it "stands first in any list of the worst Supreme Court decisions". Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes called it the Court's "greatest self-inflicted wound".
Dred Scott was an enslaved African American man who, along with his wife, Harriet, unsuccessfully sued for freedom for themselves and their two daughters, Eliza and Lizzie, in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case of 1857, popularly known as the "Dred Scott decision". The Scotts claimed that they should be granted their freedom because Dred had lived in Illinois and the Wisconsin Territory for four years, where slavery was illegal, and laws in those jurisdictions said that slaveholders gave up their rights to slaves if they stayed for an extended period.
Carondelet is a neighborhood in the extreme southeastern part of St. Louis, Missouri. It was incorporated as an independent city in 1851 and was annexed by the City of St. Louis in 1870. The neighborhood has a population of 9,960 people, as of the 2000 Census,
Clifton Heights is a neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri, US, located along the southwest border of the city and highlighted by a park — Clifton Park (38.6143°N 90.2916°W) — with a playground and a lake.
The Old St. Louis County Courthouse was built as a combination federal and state courthouse in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Missouri's tallest habitable building from 1864 to 1894, it is now part of Gateway Arch National Park and operated by the National Park Service for historical exhibits and events.
The Peacock Alley was a jazz club at 2935 Lawton Boulevard St. Louis, Missouri. It was one of St. Louis' most important nightclubs in the 1950s. Due to its close proximity to Union Station, it was favored among musicians.
John Everett Tourtellotte was a prominent western American architect, best known for his projects in Idaho. His work in Boise included the Idaho State Capitol, the Boise City National Bank, the Carnegie Library, and numerous other buildings for schools, universities, churches, and government institutions. From 1922 to 1930, he worked in Portland, Oregon.
The Millennium Hotel St. Louis, more commonly known simply as the Millennium Hotel, is a defunct hotel complex in downtown St. Louis, Missouri that closed in 2014. The lower complex consisted of a plaza and several recreational facilities. Two towers, Millennium Hotel Tower I and Millennium Hotel Tower II, made up the hotel space. Tower I is 28 stories tall and was constructed in 1968. Tower II is 11 stories tall and was constructed in 1974. The building is adjacent to the Gateway Arch. The hotel had 780 rooms and 19 suites. It also featured a revolving restaurant called "Top of the Riverfront" on the 28th floor of Tower I.
The Gateway Mall in St. Louis, Missouri is an open green space running linearly, one block wide, from the Gateway Arch at Memorial Drive to Union Station at 20th Street. Located in the city's downtown, it runs between Market Street and Chestnut Street.
The Washington University School of Dental Medicine (WUSDM) was the dental school of Washington University in St. Louis. It operated from 1866 to 1991. Over 5,000 dentists were educated at WUSDM. WUSDM was a pioneer in the practice of scientific dental education previously absent in the dental profession. The school was founded by the Missouri State Dental Society and dentist Henry E. Peebles as the Missouri Dental College in 1866. The first dean of the school was Homer Judd. It is the first dental school west of the Mississippi River and only the sixth dental school in the U.S. In 1892 the Missouri Dental College merged with Washington University in St. Louis, becoming the Dental Department of Washington University. In 1908 the first woman was admitted to study at the university. In 1928, Washington University School of Dental Medicine relocated to 4559 Scott Avenue at the Washington University School of Medicine campus.
Calvary Cemetery is a Roman Catholic cemetery located in St. Louis, Missouri and operated by the Archdiocese of St. Louis. Founded in 1854, it is the second oldest cemetery in the Archdiocese. Calvary Cemetery contains 470 acres (1.9 km2) of land and more than 300,000 graves, including those of General William Tecumseh Sherman, Dred Scott, Tennessee Williams, Kate Chopin, Louis Chauvin and Auguste Chouteau.
Slavery has been forbidden in the state of Minnesota since that state's admission to the Union in 1858. The second section of the first Article of the state's constitution, drafted in 1857, provides that:
There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude from the State otherwise there is the punishment of crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.
Harriet Robinson Scott was an African American woman who fought for her freedom alongside her husband, Dred Scott, for eleven years. Their legal battle culminated in the infamous United States Supreme Court decision Dred Scott v. Sandford in 1857. On April 6, 1846, attorney Francis B. Murdoch had initiated Harriet v. Irene Emerson in the Circuit Court of St. Louis County, making the Scotts the first and only married couple to file separate freedom suits in tandem.
The Southern Hotel was a historic hotel located at the corner of 4th Street and Walnut Street and stretching between 4th and 5th Streets in St. Louis, Missouri. The building was built at the location of the Old Southern Hotel which burned in 1877. This 1877 hotel fire and the loss of life that occurred here made this the worst hotel disaster in St. Louis history. The new Southern Hotel had white marble, extensive fresco work, a rotunda, and a wide promenade. The hotel was owned by Robert G. Campbell who had a close friendship with President Grant.
The St. Nicholas Hotel was a historic hotel located at the northwest corner of 8th Street and Locust Streets in St. Louis, Missouri. After the hotel was closed in 1905, it was turned into an office building and renamed the Victoria Building. The original St. Nicholas Hotel in St. Louis was located on 4th Street, but this building was destroyed by a fire in 1884. The fire was not a hotel fire as the building was only occupied by stores at the time. This January 4, 1884, fire is remembered as one of the most difficult for the St. Louis Fire Department as the temperature had fallen to 26 degrees below zero with ice reaching two-feet thick to the outside walls after water had been sprayed on the exterior.
The National Hotel was a historic hotel located at the southwest corner of 3rd and Market Streets in St. Louis, Missouri. The hotel originally opened in 1832 as Scott's Hotel, but this building was destroyed with a new hotel building built in 1847. Other names for this hotel included the New Scott's Hotel, United States Hotel, Germania House, Atlantic Hotel, St. Clair Hotel, and Rice Hotel. The hotel was five stories high and was known as the St. Louis's most luxurious hotel at the time. The hotel was included in the federal Historic American Buildings Survey, but this did not prevent it from being demolished in 1948. Notable guests at this hotel included Abraham Lincoln, Daniel Webster, and Jefferson Davis.
The Henry VIII Hotel, also known as The Henry VIII Inn and Lodge, was a hotel of Tudor Revival architecture which was located near the St. Louis Lambert International Airport with an address of 4690 North Lindbergh Boulevard, Bridgeton, Missouri. The hotel remained in business until 2000 when it was removed to expand a runway area for the nearby airport. The Federal Aviation Administration had approved the expansion in 1998 with airport runway planners calling for the demolition of the hotel as far back as 1995.
St. Louis City Hall was designed by architects Eckel & Mann, the winners of a national competition. Construction began in July 1890 and completed in 1904. Its profile and stylistic characteristics evoke the French Renaissance Hôtel de Ville, Paris, with an elaborate interior decorated with marble and gold trim.
The St. Louis School of Fine Arts was founded as the Saint Louis School and Museum of Fine Arts in 1879 as part of Washington University in St. Louis, and has continuously offered visual arts and sculpture education since then. Its purpose-built building stood in downtown St. Louis on Lucas Place.
Francis Butter Murdoch was an American attorney and newspaper publisher. As a lawyer, he practiced law in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Illinois and Missouri, and initiated freedom suits for Dred Scott and Harriet Robinson Scott in 1846. Between 1840 and 1847, Murdoch filed nearly one-third of all freedom suits in St. Louis, and secured freedom for many of his clients who had been enslaved, including Polly Berry and her daughter, Lucy A. Delaney. Before that, Murdoch was the city attorney in Alton, Illinois, where he unsuccessfully prosecuted rioters who killed Elijah Parish Lovejoy, an anti-slavery newspaper publisher, in 1837.
