1413 Lucas Street

By the end of the Civil War, five schools for African American children existed in Saint Louis, with a total enrollment of 1,600 pupils. These schools were overseen by a Board of Education of Colored Schools, composed of Black community leaders. The board received support and guidance from white members of the Western Sanitary Commission—a Saint Louis-based organization that had distributed relief supplies, opened hospitals, and established homes for refugees during the war.

After the Civil War, public education for Black children came under the authority of the Saint Louis Board of Education, following the adoption of the Reconstruction-era State Constitution of 1865, which mandated public support for the education of all children in the city. In 1866, the first public schools for Black students were established. These early schools often operated in severely dilapidated rented rooms, requiring additional funds to make them suitable for instruction. They eventually absorbed the students from the original five schools.

Colored School No. 1 opened at 5th and Gratiot; No. 2 operated at 10th and Chambers and in the Chambers Street Baptist Church; and No. 3 was located at 24th and Morgan. These early schools frequently changed locations. For example, in 1868, Colored School No. 3 moved to 14th and Christie, and again in 1880 to 11th Street between Carr and Biddle, before closing in 1881.

By 1890, there were 12 elementary schools for Black students in Saint Louis. These schools were designated by numbers, while schools for white children were named after prominent individuals. In 1878, the Colored Education Association requested that schools for Black children also be named after notable figures, but the Board of Education did not approve this request until 1890.

Colored School No. 1 had moved several times before settling at Lucas and 14th Streets. By 1880, it was renamed Dumas School, in honor of the French writer Alexandre Dumas (1802–1870), author of hundreds of works including The Three Musketeers, The Man in the Iron Mask, The Corsican Brothers, and The Count of Monte Cristo. Dumas’ father was French and his mother was of Haitian descent. Dumas Elementary School closed in the early 1970s.