Lost history

In the tiny riverfront town of Thebes, Ill., there is a historic building with a commanding view of the Mississippi River. It is an old courthouse, and a plaque in front of the building says Dred Scott, the slave's whose legal battle to become a free man resulted in one of the most significant U.S. Supreme Court decisions ever, spent a night in a holding cell.

Because of a lack of both funding and attention, the Thebes courthouse has fallen on hard times. It is losing more than its physical integrity. With each passing year the history of the building is becoming dimmer. Local historians say they have no documentation that Dred Scott was ever in Thebes, much less that he spent a night in the courthouse.

Why would he have been there? Was he under arrest? For what? Was he kept there for protection? Had he already filed his lawsuit, first heard at the Old Courthouse in St. Louis?

Dred Scott is getting a great deal of attention right now. It's the 150th anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling that blacks could not be U.S. citizens, adding fuel to the strife that led to the Civil War.

It is a shame that whatever evidence existed at one time to cause a plaque to be erected in front of the Thebes courthouse has been lost. It is easy to imagine that whoever put up the plaque knew a great deal more than we do now. What would it take to reclaim that information?

As the nation marks the sesquicentennial of the Dred Scott case, it would be an appropriate time to mount an effort to dig into the history of the Thebes courthouse -- before more years erode any chance of learning the truth.