Fairground Park and the Civil Rights Fight in St Louis

Cost: $5

Unseen STL History Talks returns this month with a powerful look at how one St. Louis park helped shape the city’s early civil rights story.
We’re honored to welcome Marvin-Alonzo Greer of 4theVille for an evening that reframes Fairgrounds Park as a key site in St. Louis’s ongoing struggle for civil rights.

St. Louis is known for its fantastic parks. But in this program, you’ll discover the history of one of its most important — and most overlooked — sites: Fairgrounds Park. While its significance is often forgotten today, during the Civil War, the park served as a massive military base known as Benton Barracks.

This talk traces how Fairgrounds Park became a key site in the early fight for civil rights in St. Louis. From the Emancipation Proclamation to streetcar desegregation, the park and the people who gathered there played a critical role in advancing liberation and justice in the city. It’s a story that connects national movements to very local ground, and challenges how we think about where history happens.

More here: https://unseenstlouis.substack.com/s/unseen-stl-history

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