The Ville

1880’s-Present

If the adage is true, that you’re a product of your environment, then “The Ville” was a birthplace of pioneers and trendsetters. If you are looking for the stomping grounds of trailblazers such as Annie Malone, Chuck Berry, Homer G. Phillips, Tina Turner, Madame C. J. Walker, Roscoe Robinson, Jr., and Grace Bumbry – to name a few – “The Ville” supported all of these pioneers and more. Between the years of 1920 and 1930, a small but steady stream of African Americans migrated to the community for employment opportunities and better housing, thereby making the area the black economic powerhouse of St. Louis, MO. As the black population grew, native Irish and German residents relocated to other sections of the community and established restrictive covenants among themselves to exclude black residents. Residents of “The Ville” were unfazed. “The Ville” grew to be an elite African American community in St. Louis and was one of the most prosperous black neighborhoods in the nation. It was also home to Sumner High School which was notably the first Black high school west of the Mississippi. Not surprisingly, “The Ville” also became the center of Black Cultural Life in St. Louis through the 1950s.