Missouri Democratic Rep. Bill Clay Sr., the first black congressman from the state, died on Thursday after serving 32 years in the U.S. House. He was 94.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Clay, a civil and workers\u2019 rights advocate, represented the state\u2019s 1st district from 1969 to 2001, and he was a driving influence in St. Louis\u2019 recovery after \u201cwhite flight\u201d following the Civil Rights Act. He bartered with construction trades and corporate C-suites to see his hometown transformed into the skyline that now surrounds its iconic arch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prominent Democrats\u2019 endorsements had a significant impact on the election prospects of fellow party members, and he was known for demanding unwavering loyalty from those who gained his approval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Black community, almost overwhelmingly, looked at him as a fighter for them,\u201d said his son, former Congressman Lacy Clay (D-MO).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the years after the enactment of the 1965 Civil Rights Act, black St. Louisans moved quickly to capture power in a city that had long separated its communities via historically discriminatory redlining policies. Clay, Sr. was ahead of his time, gaining his first election to the St. Louis Board of Aldermen in 1959 at the age of only 28.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He became a staple during sit-ins as members of St. Louis\u2019 black community protested the segregation enforced by businesses such as White Castle and Howard Johnson, which divided black and white customers into separate seats and hotel rooms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSt. Louis was no different from any of the cities in the South,\u201d Clay said in a 1998 profile. \u201cWe had rigid segregation \u2014 not by law, but by custom.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Missouri Democratic Rep. Bill Clay Sr., the first black congressman from the state, died on Thursday after serving 32 years in the U.S. House. He was 94…. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1904,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodarticles.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodarticles.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodarticles.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodarticles.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodarticles.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8588"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/goodarticles.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8589,"href":"https:\/\/goodarticles.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8588\/revisions\/8589"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodarticles.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodarticles.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodarticles.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodarticles.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}