A look through the Arch - at Dred

In 1965, the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, also known as the Gateway Arch, was built in St. Louis, Missouri, along the western shore of the Mississippi river.

It was designed to commemorate the Louisiana Purchase, the first civil government west of the Mississippi, and the debate over slavery raised by the Dred Scott case. In practical and political ways, it was also intended to provide jobs.

But clearly, the "Jefferson National Expansion" moniker points to Jefferson's role in overseeing the purchase of the vast tract of land into which our nation would grow, starting right in St. Louis, where Lewis and Clark began their journey.

Another journey began in St. Louis - a caustic debate on slavery, which led to a rare Supreme Court ruling and - eventually - to civil war and staggering bloodshed for those on both sides of the argument. The debate was triggered by a slave - a man - named Dred Scott.

Dred had been traveling with his master, John Emerson. Scott had lived Illinois and Wisconsin - both
free states - after moving from Missouri (a slave state). When Emerson, an army surgeon, left Fort Snelling in Wisconsin, he left Dred behind and hired out his services to others. It was argued that, by selling slave services in a free state, Emerson initiated the act of slavery in that state, which violated the Missouri Compromise, the Northwest Ordinance, and the Wisconsin Enabling Act.

Emerson subsequently died, and for three years his widow continued to hire out Dred's services in Wisconsin. Dred first tried to buy his freedom from the widow but she refused. So Dred sued - in Missouri. The case went to the Supreme Court, where, in 1857, Judge Robert Taney's Majority Opinion rejected Dred's plea.

The language that Taney used in his Opinion (http://bit.ly/1GaHAA4), was, by today's standards, so inflammatory as to be hardly believable. He referred to blacks as "people of an inferior order." And that "Negroes in bondage are property and the Constitution protects property owners from deprivation.." and therefore "could be bought and sold and treated as an ordinary article of merchandise and traffic."

At that point, Abraham Lincoln, the presidential candidate, entered the fight. Lincoln characterized Taney's option as "a warped judicial interpretation of the (constitutional) framers' intent."

Taney's decision against Dred Scott fueled Lincoln's passionate oratories and helped define his political strategy during the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Historian Graham Peck wrote: “To Lincoln, the Taney and Douglas racial doctrine culminated a retreat from the idea of equality since the Revolution and provided an intellectual and legal capstone to the nation’s increasingly discriminatory racial practices..."

It can be argued that the the Lincoln-Douglas Debates decided the presidency. And the Dred Scott case helped Lincoln beat Douglas in those famous sessions. But by the time the debates - and the election - were over, war was imminent. It would be a war to define freedom. A war that would kill 620,000 Americans.

And now, back to St. Louis. Everyone knows of the social and racial unrest that have unfolded in nearby Ferguson. But not many Americans know that, just blocks away, in the Calvary Cemetery in Florissant, is Dred Scott's grave.

There, his gravestone is covered in pennies left by visitors. It's thought they link Dred's memory with Lincoln - and they attest to the heroic efforts of both men against slavery and social injustice.

Poverty, racism, and social injustice in America are widespread, complicated, and longstanding problems. They are neither socially unilateral nor can they be fixed with existing federal programs.

Dred's grave. Ferguson. The Arch. All part of St. Louis.

Looking through the gateway arch, out across the Mississippi River, are the vast tracts of land that Lewis and Clark explored. But, sadly, there are also new lands. Deserts. Deserts of jobs, of food, of affordable housing. Deserts of fairness and justice.

I've seen those deserts. Growing up on the South side of Chicago and subsequently working in places like Detroit and Flint, I've seen poor neighborhoods that stretch to the horizon. I've wondered about unemployment and despair in those places. And about whether the people living there can feel real, everyday hope for their future.

For those cities and others like Ferguson, perhaps their voices will eventually be heard. How and when change will unfold is unknown, but it's inevitable. For all of us, I hope the solution - this time - is one that can be peaceful, planned, and embraced.

Until then, when we look at the Arch, we should be reminded of the juggernaut of change that Dred Scott started in 1857.

And we should remember that in it's shadow, we'll find the troubled city of Ferguson ... and the paradox of Dred Scott's gravestone - a marble marker adorned with copper pennies and the eternal company of Abraham Lincoln.