#OnThisDay in 1948, Kinloch’s incorporation was approved by the St. Louis County Court. One of Missouri’s all-African-American cities, Kinloch’s development began decades earlier, when the Wabash Railroad took over a route previously constructed by the North Missouri Railroad Company, and expanded their operations in the late 1800s. Both Kinloch Park and neighboring Ferguson became communities where working class individuals could live, and commute into the City of St. Louis. Although the specifics are unclear, when African-American families began to buy lots in Kinloch Park, white families either moved or would not move in, resulting in a group of African American families forming South Kinloch Park. Exclusionary policies and racial covenants, which prevented African-Americans from purchasing houses in white neighborhoods, fueled segregation in St. Louis. In 1917, the Olive Street Terrace Realty Company worked around restrictions in Kinloch Park by selling lots to white individuals before reselling them to African Americans, for over double the price. The Company advertised this practice to white buyers as an “investment,” profiting off of discrimination. In 1937, white residents, threatened by the increased presence of African Americans on the Kinloch School Board, formed the City of Berkeley in opposition to integration. Encompassing the majority white area of Kinloch, “the boundaries of the new City of Berkeley were then drawn in such a way as to exclude the black residential area and confine them” to a wedge between Berkeley, Lambert Airport, and Ferguson, per John A. Wright Sr., author of Kinloch: Missouri’s First Black City. After petitioning to incorporate in 1941 and 1947, Kinloch’s successful petition to incorporate in 1948 allowed for the creation of its police and fire departments, and later business and residential redevelopment. While Kinloch is often thought of in terms of its decline, its history reflects a community that persevered, building religious and educational institutions, and later city institutions, despite limited resources. Interested in learning more about the administration of the City of Kinloch? The Missouri State Archives holds records from 1949-1997, as well as numerous other county and municipal records. (fb)

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