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ABIBIFAHODIE…..Bobby Seale

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Rosewood Survivors go Back to Rosewood

Sixty years after the Rosewood Massacre, survivors returned to the place where it all happened. This clip is from a 1983 60 Minutes report hosted by Ed Bradley, and it captures something rare — the moment Minnie Lee Langley and several other survivors set foot in Rosewood for the first time since they were driven out as children in January 1923.

John Berry Meachum was born into slavery in 1789. After learning carpentry, however, he was successful enough to buy his family’s freedom!

Before he could free his wife, Mary, she was sold to another slaver. However, he followed her to St. Louis, MO and eventually bought her freedom, too.

He immediately got to work fighting for the liberation of others in St. Louis, starting the first Black church in the city and opening a school to educate free and enslaved Black folks of all ages.

In 1847, the state of Missouri banned all education for black people, one of several restrictions on the lives of both enslaved blacks and free people of color. It also prohibited them from having independent black religious services without a white law enforcement officer present, or from holding any meetings for education or religion. In order to ensure a proper education for all, Pastor John Berry Meachum and his wife Mary Beachum responded with the "Floating Freedom School." This innovative solution took advantage of a legal loophole and went on to provide an education for hundreds of African Americans, rich and poor, slave and free.

The river was under federal law, not state law, so there was nothing they could do about it! The steamboat classroom functioned just outside the jurisdiction of Missouri law enforcement officials, making it both legal and safe. This uniquely situated schoolhouse was not only safe but also affordable and available to all regardless of social status. Indeed, many inspiring minds were shaped in the hull of this humble vessel. One of the most famous of Meachum's pupils was James Milton Turner, who would go on to play an instrumental role in Missouri's Department of Education by establishing 30 new schools for African American students, including the Lincoln Institute (via Historic Missourians).