STE. GENEVIEVE RACE RIOT PART OF HISTORY

Ste. Genevieve has a reputation for historic French architecture and for having the gumption to survive the Flood of 1993. But an incident in 1930 is not a glorious chapter in the town's history.

In the aftermath of the killing of two white men by a black man, black families were banished from town, and National Guard troops set up machine gun nests on the square.

Though marked by threatened violence and intimidation rather than blood, newspapers at the time called the event a riot.

"There isn't any better term for it," says Dr. Patrick Huber.

Growing up in St. Genevieve in the 1970s and 1980s, Huber never heard anything about a race riot in his hometown.

Now a professor of history at the University of Missouri at Rolla, Huber began collecting information about the riot four or five years ago. He now is writing a book.

Huber will deliver a lecture about the riot Wednesday in St. Genevieve. The free lecture will begin at 7 p.m. at the Ste. Genevieve County Services Building, 255 Market St. It is co-sponsored by the Southeast Missouri State University Field School and the Department of Conservation.

Story of riot

This is the story Huber has compiled based on newspaper reports from the time and court records: Just after midnight on Sunday, Oct. 12, 1930, black quarry workers Lonnie Taylor, Columbus Jennings and companion Vera Rogers flagged down a car driven by two white lime-kiln workers, Harry Panchot and Paul Ritter. They wanted a ride to Little Rock Landing two miles north of town. The white men asked for $1.50 in return. A fight began when the two black men held up the two white men by a trestle near the Mississippi River, according to court testimony. Panchot, was shot through the heart and killed. A bullet to the abdomen partially paralyzed Ritter.

According to accounts given investigators, the white men were thrown in the river, and when Ritter began calling out the black men threw rocks at him, fracturing his skull. Federal prohibition agents still on the river after busting a bootlegging ring heard Ritter's calls for help and rescued him.

The suspects were arrested later that day. Police got a confession after "sweating them," the Ste. Genevieve Herald reported. Taylor admitted shooting the men but said he acted in self-defense, though no one at the fight said the white men were armed.

When a large crowd gathered outside the jail, Sheriff Louis Ziegler had the prisoners removed to Hillsboro, Mo., for safekeeping. That night, groups white men went to black settlements in Ste. Genevieve and on the outskirts to deliver the message that every black person had until 5 p.m. the next day to get out of town.

Huber says they made no distinction between the black migrant workers who had come to the area in the 1920s and those who had settled in Ste. Genevieve long before. Many had mixed blood and were descendants of French families who had been in the area 150 years.

Blacks flee town

Huber says 150 to 200 African-Americans fled the town the next day. Two families remained. One was the family of the church custodian.

Worried about threats and intimidation, the sheriff phoned Gov. Henry Caulfield, who called in National Guard troops from Festus and De Soto. The 75 Guardsmen set up machine guns. They found the town peaceful. Meanwhile, black resident were leaving on foot, on horseback and on trains.

The Guard left Oct. 14, but the mob spirit was reawakened later that day when Ritter died in a St. Louis hospital. That night, three carloads of white men went after Louis "Cap" Ribeau, one of the black men who refused to leave. He escaped into the woods.

Caulfield called the Guard back into town at 3 a.m. Oct. 15. At a public meeting later in the day, the Rev. Charles van Tourenhout, the Catholic priest, spoke out against mob violence. That night, the American Legion pledged to uphold law and order and volunteered to be deputized. They passed a resolution inviting certain longtime black residents back to town, though not the migrants.

The priest and other civic leaders left Ste. Genevieve to bring back the long-standing residents. Not more than a dozen families returned. None of the migrant families came back.

Because Ribeau was a mailman, federal charges were filed against six white men who had gone after him. They served 60 days and were paroled.

Taylor, still maintaining he acted in self-defense, was convicted of murder by a jury in St. Francois County.

After the Missouri Supreme Court overturned his conviction, Taylor pleaded guilty and was given life sentences for both murders. Jennings also pleaded guilty and was given two life sentences. Both men were paroled in 1940.

Rogers reportedly turned state's evidence and was not prosecuted.

Huber said the men almost certainly did not receive a fair trial. The jury was all-white, and the account Ritter gave detectives before he died was admitted as testimony, and Taylor's attorneys, both respected black lawyers from St. Louis, were repeatedly thwarted in their objections and motions.

Defining event

"The race riot was the defining event in the 20th century history of Ste. Genevieve," Huber says. "It dramatically altered the composition of the community."

Only one black family lived in Ste. Genevieve when he was growing up, he says. More moved in during the 1990s. The 2000 census figures for the city are not available, but the figures for Ste. Genevieve County put the black population between 128 and 145, which is 0.8 percent of the population.

The riot was recounted in a millennium edition published by the Ste. Genevieve Herald and in the recent coffee-table book "Ste. Genevieve: A Leisurely Stroll Through History" by Bill and Patti Naeger and Mark Evans.

Huber is beginning to take oral histories from people who may have witnessed some of the events or even heard stories about them.

Many people in Ste. Genevieve have heard about the riot, he says.

"It's something not talked about very much unless you ask specifically," Huber says. "But it's something that is not forgotten by the generation that was alive at that time."

WANT TO GO?

WHAT: A lecture on the Ste. Genevieve race riot

WHEN: 7 p.m. Wednesday

WHERE: Ste. Genevieve County Services Building, 255 Market St.