“We can’t let the knowledge of these places pass into nothing.”

“Those towns became a kind of paradise for black people, because it allowed them to create a space free from external oppression, to a certain extent. “These are places where black people came to escape Jim Crow,” Lawrence said. Kinloch is the oldest incorporated African-American community in Missouri. We’re losing that sense, certainly in the Midwest, that there is this culture of rural blackness.”įreed slaves founded Pennytown in 1871, and sharecroppers in the 1920s settled Pinhook. Those were places where black people lived in rural settings and thrived. They don’t think about African-Americans raising animals. “They don’t think about African-Americans as farmers. “People don’t really think about African-Americans in the country,” said Todd Lawrence, a descendant of Pennytown residents. Their residents and descendants are scattered, struggling to maintain their history and in some cases struggling to reclaim their homes. But these testaments to the state’s African-American history have all met a similar fate: They’re nearly empty, if not completely wiped from the map. Once home to thousands, these three small black communities in different parts of Missouri are of a sort that was once common throughout the region.

Much of Kinloch - which lies in the shadow of a major airport - is overgrown with weeds and covered with trash. Rotting skeletons of houses represent the remains of Pinhook. All that’s left of Pennytown is a small church.

Largest ghost towns in Missouri