(soft music) - [Jim] It's a story found in cemeteries, archives, and the family trees of those who discovered their ancestors were enslaved by the Jesuit founders of St. Louis University.

- So when I saw that record, it just opened up a whole new chapter for us.

- [Jim] Saving, telling, and coming to terms with a complicated history.

And maybe you've noticed, they're all over town, dozens of works of art.

And if you sometimes don't quite get it, well, that's not a bad place to start.

- We hope people go deeper than just this exhibition.

These artworks are kind of openings.

They're invitations to experience something new.

- [Jim] The Counterpublic Art Project is getting St. Louis a lot of attention.

It's all next on "Living St.

Louis."

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - I'm Ruth Ezell.

History is always informative, and sometimes uncomfortable.

On this Juneteenth, the holiday celebrating the end of slavery, we take a look at one institution's effort to acknowledge and confront that discomfort.

There was a time when St. Louis University owned slaves.

Yes, it was a long time ago, but even in the 21st century, the full story is worth telling.

(soft music) Along the northwestern edge of St. Louis's Calvary Cemetery, you'll find this section where members of the Catholic Order Society of Jesus are buried, and among the headstones that include the names of past presidents of St. Louis University, there is a memorial revealing a troublesome chapter of Jesuit history.

It reads, "In memory of three slave couples, Tom and Polly, Moses and Nancy, Isaac and Succy, who accompanied the pioneer founders, and whose labor, not freely given, helped to establish Jesuit presence in the Midwest."

In other words, the couples were forced here by the clerics who owned them.

This certificate stored in the Jesuit Archives, dated November 21st, 1822, is a manifest of human cargo from the Roman Catholic clergymen of Maryland to the Reverend Charles F. Van Quickenborne of Missouri.

It lists the same three couples who were the first to arrive here at the behest of their new masters.

More enslaved followed by birth or purchase, and their numbers eventually grew to at least 70 people held in bondage by the Jesuits across the St. Louis area, and across the province that encompasses Missouri and several other states, the number of enslaved either owned or hired over time was closer to 200.

Now, in a moment, we'll explain how this all unfolded.

First, meet a descendant of the enslaved.

We first met her in June of 2022 right here at Calvary Cemetery.

- Family.

They owned the bones.

(crowd converses) - [Ruth] This is Robin Proudie, founder of the nonprofit organization, Descendants of the St. Louis University Enslaved.

She joined relatives and friends at a ceremony to dedicate a headstone marking the grave of her great-great-uncle Sylvester Chauvin.

In the early days of baseball's Negro Leagues, Chauvin was captain of the 19th century team, the St. Louis Black Stockings.

He was a talented musician from a family of musicians.

But more important to Robin Proudie this day, Sylvester Chauvin was born to a woman enslaved by St. Louis Jesuits.

Her name was Henrietta Mills Chauvin.

- I have been the person in my family who was putting together our family tree on a genealogical website.

So I knew about Mother Henrietta 'cause I found her in the 1880 census.

But after that I was stalled because I didn't know where she came from.

- Proudie didn't know until she received a letter containing the answer from the Society of Jesus.

In 2016, the Jesuits did some genealogical research of its own to track down living descendants of slaves the order owned.

Three years later, Proudie was contacted.

The efforts are part of an ongoing initiative called the Slavery, History, Memory and Reconciliation Project.

We reconnected with Robin Proudie in May of 2023 after she moved back to her native St. Louis from Maryland.

We continued the conversation about what happened after she read the letter about her great-great-great-grandmother.

- They said that they had her communion record and then her marriage records.

When she was 15 years old she was allowed to marry Charles F. Chauvin.

On the record it said, "Charles F. Chauvin, a slave of Amanda Curtis, I bequeath to you in holy matrimony Henrietta Mills, a slave of St. Louis University."

So when I saw that record, it just opened up a whole new chapter for us.

- [Ruth] Knowledge of these records allowed Proudie to reach back farther in her family tree to Henrietta Mills' maternal grandparents, Proteus and Annie Hawkins Queen.

They and other members of the Queen family were taken to Florissant, Missouri, for the purpose of building and maintaining a mission and a farm.

Saint Stanislaus Seminary Urshan stands empty, but the limestone structure is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

- You know, when I think about that, how they had to carry those limestones and how they had to work and build this building, and it's still standing today.

It is.

It is a testament to our ancestors and we want them to be acknowledged.

- So the way I actually met Robin was I was helping at an archeology dig on the Eastern Shore of Maryland at one of the former Jesuit plantations where we had enslaved people.

- [Ruth] Brother Ken Homan of the Jesuit's Midwest Province began learning the extent of the order's ties to slavery as a graduate student.

- Part of where it came in for me is my own research looks at the history of the labor movement in St. Louis and the Catholic Church and a number of the Black Catholic parishes were formed by people who were either freed before or after the Civil War.

And some of them were the families of those that we Jesuits enslaved.

- [Ruth] What do you think the rationale might have been, how the community, the Jesuit community could reconcile holding other people in bondage?

I know I'm just asking you to speculate on this, but- - Yeah, so I think there are a number of things at play here.

So one of the things that happens for the Jesuits is they early on decide whatever culture we go to, we will enculturate, we will take on and adapt to that culture, especially with the elites of that culture.

And that will be kind of our entree or foray into that space.

And I think they said, "Well, slave holding is the common feature here."

To be honest, I don't think we did an adequate job saying, "Should we be doing this?"

(laughs) Even to the point that we got letters from Rome from the head Jesuit offices in Rome saying, "You all need to really question what you're doing here.

This is too much."

We entered it because we said like, "Well, this will give us access to society."

I think though at a certain point we as Jesuits said, "Well, it's easier."

- [Ruth] Enslaved people were also forced to labor at St. Louis College, now St. Louis University, in addition to several regional schools, churches, and missionary outposts.

Robin Proudie shares what she's learned through lectures, panel discussions, and a variety of programs in the community.

Here's what else Proudie shared with us about Henrietta Mills and her family.

Henrietta's husband, Charles F. Chauvin, fought in the US Colored Infantry during the Civil War.

He was drafted as a private but within a year was promoted to sergeant.

His name is among those listed at the African American Civil War Memorial in Washington, D.C. Charles and Henrietta Chauvin had 10 children.

Sylvester, the St. Louis Black Stockings star, who was also a professional brass musician, was the oldest.

The eighth child, Lincoln, was a guitarist who also worked as a driver and laborer.

He was Robin Proudie's great-great-grandfather.

The youngest sibling, Louis, had the biggest reputation in music circles.

He was a ragtime player and composer who performed with Scott Joplin.

The pair even wrote a tune together titled "Heliotrope Bouquet."

(soft music) Not far from Sylvester Chauvin's grave in Calvary Cemetery is his mother's final resting place.

Henrietta Mills Chauvin died in 1905 and her grave has no headstone.

That's a situation Robin Proudie's organization, Descendants of the St. Louis University Enslaved, wants to make right.

- We have several legacy initiatives, and that's one of 'em, to make sure that our ancestors are properly buried, to provide them with headstones.

- [Ruth] For Brother Ken Holman's part, he's developed educational materials to explain Jesuit ties to slavery and why it's relevant today.

- The stories of the enslaved persons are the stories of then free Black people here in St. Louis and free Black communities.

It's the story of Mill Creek.

St. Elizabeth's Parish was largely populated by people who had been enslaved by the Jesuits or adjacent and then their parishes demolished in the name of expanding two universities, one of which was ours.

And so I think that long legacy is what I really wanted people to connect with.

- St. Louis University hasn't been operated by the Jesuits for some 50 years and is controlled by a lay board of trustees.

A university spokeswoman says a series of discovery meetings with Robin Proudie and her organization have already taken place and that a standing committee will be formed to determine next steps.

It is a story, as they say, to be continued.

(soft music) Robin Proudie's efforts to trace her lineage and the frustration she encountered is something many amateur genealogists can identify with.

But being a descendant of slaves brings its own set of challenges.

Our guest has special insights on this issue.

She's Linda Simms, President of the St. Louis African American History and Genealogy Society.

Linda, thanks for joining us today.

- Thanks for having me.

- Now, I am a big fan of the PBS show "Finding Your Roots," so I'm really looking forward to this conversation.

Before we get into the work of your organization, I'd like to know what sparked your personal interest in genealogy.

I assume you've traced your family tree.

- [Linda] Yes.

- What did you find, and why did it interest you so much?

- I have traced my family.

I have been tracing my family since high school, so that's well over 30 plus years.

My interest sparked, I was always that kid that when my other siblings would be out playing, I would be in the house being that kid that kind of sat near the elders, listening to the conversations.

When we would go stay with my grandmother, her aunts lived next door and I would just sit there and just listen to them talk.

That sparked my interest.

And so I would just write stuff down.

Then when "Roots" came out, my interest peaked even more.

My family kept good records and pictures, and I love pictures.

And so that kind of got me started into having an interest in tracing my family.

I have traced my family back to South Carolina.

Two of my branches I've gotten back to my third great-grandparents, and that's pretty remarkable.

So that's kind of got me on my journey.

It's been going ever since.

- So, tell me a little bit about specifically, like, then you have their names.

If you have their pictures, you have their names.

- I have their pictures.

I have my second great-grandmother, Josephine Hill.

What was remarkable about her, not only was I able to obtain a photograph of her, but I was able to trace her back to Chester, South Carolina.

My family, they landed in Chickasaw County in a little town called Holcomb, Mississippi.

Josephine was brought there in 1850 by her slave owner, Littleton Hill.

And so, the Littleton Hill, they kept good records, and so I was able to find her in the will and inventory.

So slaves weren't viewed as people, so they were listed among the inventory, and where I saw her listed there with a price tag next to her, with an amount next to her name.

After slavery, they went into another form of servitude under the labor contracts and seen her there listed by name.

So not only do I have her picture, I have her brother's picture, and I also have traced all of our descendants down to myself.

- Now, that is pretty unusual, because normally you don't have with records, it is so rare to have that kind of detail, and I'm sure other people who have traced their records are probably very impressed by what you've done and what you have.

- Yes.

A lot of people are able to trace their ancestry, but rarely do you find pictures going back that far in your lineage unless someone kept up with it.

In our family we were fortunate to keep up with the pictures, but I would say the family is impressed, and I'm that type of person that just keep pushing and keep looking and keep looking until I get what I want.

And so those answers are out there.

It's a challenge, but it's out there.

- But finding the country of origin, like you said, you've been able to trace your family to a plantations, and that's where it stops very often.

And I would imagine, unless you get a DNA test, trying to confirm the original country of origin, you've hit a brick wall.

- I would say brick walls are somewhat of a myth.

And I say that because we as African American look at the 1870 Census as our brick wall because that is the first census where you see us listed by name in a census record.

However, in 1866, former slaves, the males would have to register now to start paying poll taxes, so now you can find them in the poll tax records as before 1870, and our ancestors left footprints, so more and more records are opening up where discovery of our ancestors are available.

Looking at those census records in 1870, you're looking at not only the place where your ancestor is listed, but you're looking at the whole record, because in 1870 they didn't go very far, so you're gonna find connections either to the former slave owner or to another relative close by, and you have to study the whole census record.

It's exhilarating.

In addition to that, when you find a slave owner with that surname, you have the 1850 and 1860 slave schedules.

They're not listed by name, just by race and age and gender.

However, that is a clue as to start looking in 1870 and even as early as 1866, looking for people around that age category and just kind of research those people.

And not all African Americans were slaves.

Some were free people of color.

So when you're researching your history, you wanna look and first make sure they weren't enslaved.

And once you find that they weren't enslaved, then the records are there.

But if they are, then there are other record sets to dive into.

- So somebody wants to get started, they come to you, they ask for advice, where do they begin?

- Start with yourself.

You always start with yourself and then you go back to your parents, your grandparents, your great-grandparents, as far as you can go, and there's records, vital records to start with to trace your parents, and ask questions.

You want to ask questions of those ancestors that are still here, your parents, your grandparents.

Don't miss that opportunity.

And one of the mistakes we make is we take off looking for the deceased when the living is still here.

So you wanna get them so you don't miss that opportunity to trace your history.

After you've built your tree, then you want to dive into DNA if that's an option for you.

Dive into DNA, but that's useful after you've built your tree.

- Okay, well, that's a good start, and as they say, when someone dies, a library burns, so it is important to talk to people who are still here.

Linda Simms, thank you so much for joining us.

- You're welcome, and thanks for having me.

- So our next story by Brooke Butler is about something that has been bringing St. Louis some positive attention.

The Counterpublic Project is all about public art.

It's hard to call it an exhibit though, because it's scattered all over town and it's temporary, wrapping up in just a couple of weeks.

(upbeat music) - [Brooke] One of the biggest perks about living in or visiting St. Louis is the number of things you can do for free.

Without spending a penny, well, maybe aside from a parking fee, anyone can learn about animals, science, history, and the multifaceted areas of art.

And now, taking it to a more contemporary level, is Counterpublic.

- Really the introduction to Counterpublic is it's a free public art festival.

At its core, it's meant to be a kind of reintroduction to the city of St. Louis through public art in many different venues.

- One of the largest civic exhibitions in the United States, Counterpublic has 25 sites with 37 commissions across the St. Louis area, and as it goes with the contemporary style not every piece of art is straightforward, which of course is intentional to reflect the complexities of St. Louis's past, present, and future.

(mellow music) - [Narrator] How can a community reflect on its past and prepare for its future?

Counterpublic answers this question through the work of artists of both global and local recognition.

- [Brooke] Counterpublic is in its second run of what they plan to be a continuing triannual event.

In other words, every three years the exhibition will run for three months.

This year, it officially opened in April and will continue through July 15th, but the planning has been in process for years.

- One of the unique parts of Counterpublic is that we really start with the neighborhoods.

We start with our neighbors.

So this is something that is for St. Louis first, and so the first year we weren't talking to artists.

We weren't thinking about what specifically are we gonna see.

We were just really out in the neighborhoods talking to people.

So we met with almost 1,000 people in the first year along Jefferson Avenue, so from far South City to North City and everything in between.

We talked with people and just kind of what was on their minds, what did they want to see in their neighborhoods, but also kind of what the public spaces of the city were telling them or not telling them.

(light music) - [Brooke] Once the Counterpublic Curatorial Team gathered the community feedback, there was an open call for artists to submit their ideas, but the team also sought out specific artists that would appropriately represent certain sites, for example, Sugarloaf Mound, the oldest human made structure and the last intact Native American mound in St. Louis.

(light music) - So we call ourselves Mound City, and what does that mean if we sort of have lost this history, if we've destroyed it over years, hundreds of years of development and settlement.

That is a really sacred space for the Osage people and we wanted to enter that very thoughtfully, so we're working with artist Anita Fields and her son Nokosee Fields at that site, as well as a Native film collective called New Red Order.

- [Brooke] While the artists involved with the Sugarloaf Mound site are not from St. Louis, there are a number of local creators, like Simiya Sudduth, who created both a mural and a more interpretive piece for Counterpublic.

- So Tha Muthaship is a 1970s Terry Travel trailer that has been remodeled and turned into a mobile meditation studio.

So the inside of this space is raw plywood, has a great smell, and there is space for six people to sit on Zafu meditation cushions and come in and have just a space to relax, meditate, take almost like a sensory break from the world.

So it's a mobile mindfulness studio.

(peaceful music) - [Brooke] As a social practice artist, Simiya's work is created intentionally for people and spaces to interact, and while this doesn't technically count as interaction, their work has received national attention through this New York Times article.

In fact, Counterpublic has been recognized through many major publications.

All of this is super important and positive, puts St. Louis in a positive light in which everybody loves that, but do you ever get the feedback of like, "Yeah, I don't get it"?

- Definitely.

I mean, I think we really hope it is the starting of a conversation.

So here it is a piece like this, it opens up to a lot of learning, a lot of questions.

We hope people go deeper than just this exhibition.

The thing about St. Louis is we have such an incredible culture of art and arts organizations.

So these artworks are kind of openings.

They're invitations to experience something new.

You might not want to take that step to go to a museum, but it being in your neighborhood I think opens up a possibility of like, in public space you feel like it's for you.

- What I love about public art is that it is a part of the landscape because I do believe that art is a part of our everyday lives, and I'm often so like in my head and working on the projects and it's all about what I think, but it's so nice to hear what other people's interpretations are, even if it's nothing like what I intended.

But I also think the art takes on a life of its own and it becomes its own entity once I finish it, and it belongs to the public more so than it belongs to me when I'm done with a piece.

(light music) - [Brooke] And while Tha Muthaship might not be around after Counterpublic's 2023 exhibition, Simiya's mural will be a permanent installation among others like the Pillars of the Valley outside of the new soccer stadium.

(light music) - Art is an opportunity for us to have these conversations and have meeting points.

Whether we agree or not is not the point.

It's bringing about that conversation that I think is super important.

(light music) - You can explore all the works of art until July 15th.

The plan is for Counterpublic to be back, but not for another three years.

And that's "Living St.

Louis."

We like hearing from you.

Get in touch with us at NinePBS.org/livingstlouis.

Thanks for joining us.

I'm Ruth Ezell.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - [Veronica] "Living St. Louis" is funded in part by the Betsy & Thomas Patterson Foundation and the members of Nine PBS.