Part VI of the Saint Louis Series

🌪️ Part VI: Struggles and Shifts in the 20th Century (1930s–1970s)

St. Louis Between Hardship and Hope

Living in St. Louis now, you can’t help but feel the echoes of the 20th century in our streets, our skyline, and our stories. From the quiet resilience of North City to the industrial bones of the Riverfront, the decades between the 1930s and 1970s were a time of upheaval, reinvention, and reckoning. They shaped the city’s identity in ways we’re still unpacking today.

🌑 The Great Depression’s Impact: A City on the Edge

The 1930s hit St. Louis hard. Like much of the country, we saw factories shutter, families displaced, and breadlines stretch across downtown. But what made it uniquely painful here was the collapse of industries that had once defined us—manufacturing, brewing, and river commerce slowed to a crawl.

Still, St. Louisans found ways to survive. Community gardens popped up in vacant lots. Churches and mutual aid societies became lifelines. Black families, already navigating segregation and exclusion, leaned into networks of care and creativity. The Depression didn’t break the city—it revealed its grit.

⚙️ WWII Industries and the Wartime Boom

Then came the war, and with it, a boom. St. Louis became a vital cog in the national defense machine. McDonnell Aircraft and other manufacturers ramped up production, bringing jobs and energy back to the city. Women entered the workforce in record numbers, and neighborhoods buzzed with patriotic purpose.

But the benefits weren’t evenly shared. Black workers were often relegated to the lowest-paying jobs, and housing discrimination kept families locked out of the prosperity they helped build. Still, the wartime years planted seeds of change—economic, social, and cultural—that would blossom in the decades to come.

🏚️ The Pruitt-Igoe Project and Urban Renewal Failures

If there’s one symbol of mid-century St. Louis that still stirs debate, it’s Pruitt-Igoe. Built in the 1950s as a bold experiment in public housing, it was meant to offer dignity and modernity to low-income residents. But poor planning, racial segregation, and lack of maintenance turned promise into tragedy.

By the 1970s, the towers were demolished—an act that became a metaphor for failed urban renewal across America. For many in St. Louis, especially Black families displaced by the project’s collapse, it was a painful reminder that progress without community input is no progress at all.

✊ Civil Rights Struggles in St. Louis

St. Louis played a quiet but powerful role in the Civil Rights Movement. From the sit-ins at lunch counters to the fight for fair housing, local activists pushed back against segregation and injustice. The Jefferson Bank protests in 1963, led by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), demanded employment equity and sparked broader awareness.

Churches, schools, and grassroots organizations became hubs of resistance. The Ville, once a thriving center of Black culture, nurtured leaders and artists who carried the movement forward. These struggles weren’t just about policy—they were about dignity, visibility, and the right to belong.

🏘️ Suburbanization and Demographic Shifts

As highways expanded and federal policies incentivized suburban growth, white families left the city in droves. The phenomenon—often called “white flight”—reshaped the region. North City and parts of downtown were left underfunded and over-policed, while suburbs like Florissant and Ferguson grew rapidly.

This shift wasn’t just geographic—it was emotional. It fractured communities, drained resources, and deepened racial divides. Yet even in the face of disinvestment, St. Louis’s core neighborhoods held on. They adapted, resisted, and reimagined what community could look like.

🌟 Living the Legacy

Today, when I walk through Old North or pass the remnants of Pruitt-Igoe, I think about what it means to build—and to rebuild. The 1930s to 1970s were decades of struggle, yes, but also of vision. They taught us that cities are more than infrastructure—they’re people, stories, and choices.