(bright gentle music) - [Jim] The Old Courthouse is new again.

(crowd cheering) After years of renovations and exhibit redesign, the important stories of local and national history are open to all.

Her case started at the Old Courthouse in 1872 and went all the way to the Supreme Court, which said, "No, Virginia Minor.

You do not have the right to vote."

- There hadn't been a case like this before, certainly not with the argument that they brought forth.

- [Jim] No one can say if the hairy monster really existed.

But it is true that the story of Momo lives on in Louisiana, Missouri.

- People are still interested in it.

It's still a mystery.

- [Jim] And remembering the day when the Safety Patrol boys marched to City Hall demanding better drivers and safer streets.

It's all next on "Living St.

Louis."

(upbeat jazzy music) (upbeat jazzy music continues) - Hi, I am Anne-Marie Berger.

The Old Courthouse is one of the postcard images of St. Louis, but pictures don't come close to telling the story of the role it played in St. Louis history and American history.

But now visitors can get the inside story.

Kara Vaninger has a look at the new-and-improved Old Courthouse house.

(crowd applauds) - [Kara] The Old Courthouse at Gateway Arch National Park celebrated its grand reopening on May 3rd, 2025 with the ribbon-cutting honor performed by the great, great granddaughter of Dred and Harriet Scott, Lynne Jackson.

The ceremony featured a keynote address by dean and professor of law at St. Louis University, Dr. Twinette Johnson.

- But today I want to pause and acknowledge the ability to fight for justice.

(chorus vocalizing) - [Kara] And performances by the St. Louis Symphony's IN UNISON chorus.

- Here at the Old Courthouse, we are one of those very complicated symbols, right?

The Old Courthouse is a symbol of injustice, and it's also a symbol of hope for the future.

Enslaved people and families were sold on the steps right behind where I'm standing now.

This is the building where people were repeatedly denied freedoms through our legal system, but it's also a symbol of hope because it reminds us of how far we have come as a nation in expanding freedom, liberty, and equality.

(bright music) - [Kara] Once the doors opened, visitors poured into the historic site, including Mayor Cara Spencer, Representative Wesley Bell, and actress Jenifer Lewis.

At a recent media preview day members of the press toured the newly renovated historic building, which included accessibility, structural, and system upgrades, as well as brand new exhibits undergoing some finishing touches.

Enhancements to the Old Courthouse were part of the City Arch River Project, the private public partnership that was also responsible for the transformation of the Arch Grounds and Museum.

- $250 million of that project was raised through philanthropy from St. Louis.

Not only that, but the voters of St. Louis City and county voted to tax themselves.

The only time in the history of the National Park Service that local jurisdictions have voted to tax themselves to make improvements to a national park.

That shows how much St. Louis cares about this park, not just the symbol that it represents us to the world, but what this place means.

- When Gateway Arch National Park was first established as Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in 1935, it was created for three main reasons.

So one was to commemorate Thomas Jefferson's vision of a continental nation and the role of St. Louis as a gateway to the west.

The second was to tell the stories of the people who interacted, traded, and came into conflict as our nation grew west.

But the third, and very important reason, was to protect the Old Courthouse as the site of the Dred Scott trial.

So this is a key part of the reason that this national park was created.

- [Kara] So that visitors can better understand the high stakes involved in freedom suits like the one brought by Dred Scott, one of the new exhibits explores several centuries of the Black experience for both free and enslaved people in St. Louis, while another focuses specifically on the Scott family.

- For the first time, we're telling the Scott story as a personal story, a story of a man and a woman, parents of daughters, and how they faced the trials and tribulations of the court system.

- It feels like destiny today, and I really am excited that they're telling the whole story and about not just Dred and Harriet, but the other cases that were here.

- The stories that exist here in this building are so important.

They're difficult and, I mean, there's no getting around that, but they are important and we need to uplift them.

- Our program manager, Pam Sanfilippo, worked with a challenging history group to talk about ways that we can present this history in a way that doesn't sugarcoat the facts, but doesn't traumatize young children and just can help deliver information in a way that they can understand.

(warm music) - [Kara] This approach led to an animated short about Dred and Harriet's fight for freedom, featuring dynamic illustrations by internationally renowned artist Cbabi Bayoc and narrated by Scott descendant Lynne Jackson.

Bayoc was also commissioned to do new branding for the Old Courthouse.

The artist worked from original images of key players in the site's history like the Scott's, Virginia Minor, and Lucy Delaney to infuse his illustrations with a vibrancy that would feel more relatable than a black-and-white photograph.

- Haven't drawn faces for 30 years.

I could look at them and then make slight changes, give 'em a little bit more life.

Hopefully I could provide a little fresher look and you know, gave 'em some color in their clothes and, you know, just, yeah, made 'em look like regular everyday people.

- [Kara] While a lot in the Old Courthouse has been changed, one particular experience remains largely the same.

- In this gallery, school children and school groups will be able to come in and do a mock trial here.

We had a little family preview the other night, and my daughters came in, and watching them interact with that gallery and see how excited they were to go around and see the different functions of the court and sit in the seat and sit in the judge's chair.

I got really excited to see the mock trials and see the kids start to come back here on their field trips, which is a major way that people have interacted with this building through the ages.

(gentle music) - [Kara] Although there have been some major additions to the building, one of the most striking features of the renovation is the result of something being removed.

- These drapes that blocked the windows and disconnected you from the city are all gone.

So when you go into these exhibit zones, you can see the city around you.

And for a building that's so important physically and visually, for it to be reconnected psychologically for our visitors is pretty cool.

- [Kara] And another major removal has found a new home in another St. Louis landmark.

- We had to move out the library, the archives, and the museum collections, and we are now located over in the Old Post Office, and we hope to have our research center there open soon to the public so people will be able to come back in and do research in our historical collections.

(warm music) - [Kara] And while the grand reopening has once again made the Old Courthouse available to the public, renovations and improvements will continue.

- We'd like to see the murals restored.

We'd like to see some work on the exterior, but it's been closed long enough.

We need to get back open, let the public come back in.

So any further work will take place in stages and we'll try and keep everything open.

- [Kara] Also ongoing will be the Gateway Arch National Park Foundation's commitment to supporting the historic site and ensuring that everyone has access to it.

- The Foundation will maintain the exhibits here at the Courthouse.

We are funding field trips for Title 1 schools to ensure that every single child in St. Louis gets to go to the Arch.

We eliminate all barriers for that to happen.

- I'm glad the new generation of kids will be able to come in here and like know why things are the way they are here in our city.

Some of these stories here have shaped the, you know, just the vibe of the nation.

- There's nothing as a park manager and a long-term National Park service employee that I care more about than having the American people come to national parks and enjoy these places.

These belong to the American people.

We're here to serve them and make sure they have a good experience.

And so having them back in this building and having them in the park, that's the best thing that I can imagine.

(gentle music) - One of the stories featured in the courthouse museum is that a Virginia Minor, a St. Louis woman who took her fight to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Jim Kirchherr has the story of a legal setback that was an important step forward for women's suffrage.

(subdued music) - [Jim] Virginia Minor was part of the women's suffrage movement gaining momentum after the Civil War.

She wouldn't live nearly long enough to see the passage of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote, but she wasn't going to wait for that anyway.

- So in 1872, Virginia Minor, a St. Louis woman, attempts to register to vote.

- Elizabeth Eikmann researched Minor's story while working on her PhD in american studies.

- Goes in, meets the registrar, Reese Happersett, and attempts to register to vote for the presidential election happening just a month later.

She meets Reese Happersett and he denies her attempt to register to vote on the basis that she isn't male.

- She knows this is going to happen, I'm guessing.

- Yes.

(serious music) - Missouri's constitution at the time limited voting to men only.

Virginia Minor had not broken any law by trying to register.

But she argued that, based on the U.S. Constitution, it was the registrar who broke the law by turning her away and took that argument to the courthouse downtown.

Was it meant to be a test case?

Was that what they were attempting to do there?

- Yeah, I think so.

They were ready, they had a plan, and they were gonna see how far they could take it.

Oh, I think that there hadn't been a case like this before, certainly not with the argument that they brought forth.

- The they she's talking about is Virginia Minor and her husband, Francis Minor.

They moved to St. Louis before the Civil War, bought a farm east of Kings Highway, right here.

And he was an attorney and hardly a bystander in all of this.

In fact, Virginia Minor literally could not have made her case without him.

- Per Missouri law, Virginia wouldn't have been able to bring this suit forth by herself.

It was illegal for married women to sue.

So he, if you look at old court documents, you'll see it's his name and her name in everything.

So it was a joint suit, very much a joint effort.

And he was one of the three attorneys that also represented the case.

(lofty music) - [Jim] While she was the one who tried to register to vote, Francis Minor had prepared the legal argument.

And after losing in Circuit Court and then the Missouri Supreme Court, he ended up arguing the case in the highest court in the country.

- She was the first to argue on the basis of the 14th Amendment that actually, as they argued, women already had the right to vote.

- [Jim] The recently-passed 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was designed to give African Americans and former slaves the full rights of U.S. citizenship.

And the Minors zeroed in on this sentence: "No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of the citizens of the United States."

They argued that voting was one of those privileges, and since Mrs. Minor was a citizen, she had the privilege of voting, even if Missouri's Constitution said otherwise.

The Supreme Court unanimously disagreed.

Chief Justice Morrison Waite read the ruling that voting had never been one of the privileges of citizenship.

That the Constitution does not confer the right of suffrage on anybody.

That, the court said, is up to the states and Missouri is free to limit that right to men only.

This was news because Virginia Minor's action, the legal challenge in 1872, was much more than a local story, and it was meant to be.

- It was most definitely part of a larger movement.

(mellow music) - The women's suffrage movement in the U.S. marks its beginning in the 1840s.

It was to some extent put on hold during the Civil War.

But many women came out of the war years more determined than ever to achieve that right to vote.

Like other women, Virginia Minor had volunteered in Union Army hospitals in St. Louis.

She worked with a group that helped refugees that had streamed in from Southern battlefields.

She, and many other women during the Civil War, had served their country.

It kind of reminds me of the way women felt when they were working during World War II, the Rosie the Riveters, and redefining their role in society.

- Yes, absolutely.

Without a doubt, women saw a connection between their work during the Civil War and the work that they would eventually do in the suffrage movement.

So they sort of became mobilized during this moment of the Civil War.

It's ended and they're thinking, "Okay, what can we do next as citizens?

How can we best perform our citizenship?

How can we best be an engaged citizenry?"

And for them, that was to be involved in the political process and to vote.

(gentle music) - [Jim] The ruling in Virginia Minor's case that started in the Old Courthouse was important because it made it clear to the suffrage movement that the constitutional argument wasn't going to work.

And suffragists then focused their efforts either on winning the vote state by state, or promoting a constitutional amendment.

And they did win the vote in many states in the coming years, and finally for the whole country, when the 19th Amendment took effect in 1920.

But even then, Minor versus Happersett still had relevance because states still had powers over voting and they would use it.

- Their narrow defining of the 14th Amendment really changed how states approached suffrage and how they put limits on suffrage.

So this is where we get a sort of precedent for literacy tests or poll taxes that come in the decades that follow that limit who has access to voting, whether or not they have some kind of right to it.

- After losing their case, Virginia and Francis Minor kept fighting the fight.

His 1892 obituary said that "together with his wife," Francis Minor was "an efficient and untiring advocate of women's suffrage."

Virginia Minor died two years later at the age of 72.

The paper noted that there were no religious services.

And also reported that in her will, she would leave her two nieces $500 each as long as they didn't marry.

- So maybe she was hoping for a future in which women would be able to make gains without having to be married.

And wanted to pass that on to her nieces.

- She left on her terms as well.

- Yes, exactly.

She left on her terms.

(lofty music) - [Jim] Virginia Minor, who spent most of her life fighting for the right to vote is not one of the big names associated with the American women's suffrage movement.

At the end of her life, she had not achieved her goal, but in her will, she also left a thousand dollars to Susan B. Anthony to carry on the fight.

- You've heard of Bigfoot and of the Abominable Snowman, but did you know Missouri has its own mysterious, mythical creature?

I can't confirm nor deny if Momo was ever really out there, but the story is definitely alive and well.

- [Veronica] In the summer of 1971, strange things started happening in the small town of Louisiana, Missouri.

♪ One night on the hill at the edge of Louisiana, Missouri ♪ ♪ A family reported a huge monster ♪ ♪ Roaming around behind their house ♪ ♪ He was big, mean, and hairy, smelly, and ugly ♪ - [Veronica] This 1972 song sung by Bill Whyte describes the situation well.

♪ Within days, this monster, fictitious or real ♪ ♪ Became a folk legend regionally ♪ ♪ And the stories have been reprinted world wide ♪ ♪ This monster was nicknamed Momo ♪ - [Veronica] But more on the song later.

Even though the legend of Momo the Monster started over 50 years ago, his story, real or not, hasn't been forgotten, especially by those in Pike County, Missouri.

- Well, Momo is kind of a Bigfoot-like creature, maybe just a little bit smaller, maybe more hairy, but has the same foul odor, has the same sounds.

- [Veronica] Brent Engel is the president of the Louisiana Area Historical Museum Board of Directors.

He's essentially the expert on Momo the Monster.

- Just about all of the big searches were here on Star Hill.

- [Veronica] Engel says the first encounter with Momo in Pike County occurred in July, 1971.

- Two women from St. Louis were on their way back from a trip along Highway 79 northwest of town, stopped for a picnic at one of the scenic overlooks and noticed a foul smell, and they couldn't figure out what it was.

And they looked over to the edge of the woods and there was a creature standing there, gurgling and growling.

(Momo growling) And of course, they were scared.

They ran and jumped back in their car.

- [Veronica] The creature ate their food.

But luckily, the women escaped.

And the monster began appearing elsewhere.

The most famous Momo sighting occurred the next year.

- July, 1972, a 15-year-old girl was inside her house cleaning a bathroom.

She looked out the window, she heard her brother screaming, her younger brother screaming.

And she went out and saw that there was this large, hairy, stinky creature standing there holding what appeared to be a dead dog and growling.

And she took her brothers back inside, called her father, and that's where things kind of escalated.

- [Veronica] Linda Beer, the treasurer of the Museum Board, grew up in Louisiana, but was living in Quincy, Illinois when the Momo encounters happened.

At first, Beer says she was worried about her family.

- Because he was spotted on Star Hill.

And that's where I had family living.

But I don't think they were ever in great fear.

I think that they kind of went along with the story that just all in good fun.

- [Veronica] And the strange occurrences didn't stop.

A week after the famous Momo sighting on Star Hill, some residents reported seeing fireballs shoot across the sky in Louisiana.

- [Brent] There were up to five sightings during 1972 that were probably legitimate.

There were others that weren't.

- [Veronica] The story was picked up by media across the nation.

- The major television networks were here.

The "New York Times," other big newspapers were here, trying to track down this creature that a teenager and her two younger brothers had said they saw up on Star Hill.

- [Veronica] Momo even became the subject of a song.

A young man named Bill Whyte was working at a radio station in Bowling Green, Missouri when two of his coworkers approached him with a poem called "Mo Mo 'The Missouri Monster.'"

- They knew I was a musician and played a little guitar and asked if I couldn't make a song out of it.

And I did.

I sat down and put some music to it and tweaked the words a little bit.

And shortly after, a friend took me to Nashville for the first time, and we recorded that song, "Mo Mo 'The Missouri Monster.'"

And then we started playing it and radio stations all across Missouri asked for copies of it.

And it just became what we would now say is a viral hit.

- [Veronica] Today, Whyte is a songwriter based in Nashville, Tennessee, and over 50 years later, people still remember his song about a Missouri bigfoot.

♪ Momo, the Missouri monster - I gotta sing it now.

♪ Let me tell you 'bout Momo ♪ The Missouri monster - It gets into your head, you can't get it out.

- [Veronica] And though no physical evidence was ever found of Momo, his legacy lives on.

For many years, there was a Momo Burger at a restaurant in Louisiana.

And from 1973 to '94, a ride at Six Flag St. Louis was named after the monster.

Louisiana, Missouri hosted a Momo the Monster 50th Anniversary Concert in 2022.

And Bill Whyte performed the song.

- My Goodness, the place was full of friends and family that I had not seen, some who I did not recognize because it had been so many years.

And it was a wonderful gathering of people that way and a chance to sing the song.

And they had some guy dressed up in a Bigfoot outfit, came out dancing while I was singing the song, and.

- We knew it would be successful when people were lined up in the rain outside the museum to get tickets for the concert.

They wanted to make sure that they got in.

We had a packed house.

He was just treated like a rock star, which he is.

You would've thought he was the Beatles from the reception he got.

- [Veronica] Brent Engel says it's clear that interest in Momo remains.

- Yeah, it's been more than a half century since there's been a sighting in Louisiana.

But there are still books, there are movies, there are television shows, and there are songs that have been written about it.

I mean it's one of those legends that lives on because people are still interested in it.

It's still a mystery.

We haven't solved it yet.

And that's one thing that piques our interest.

- [Veronica] And though the monster's existence remains in question, many people appreciate the story for what it is.

Just plain fun.

Engel reads a letter that was sent by a Kansas City area woman to Louisiana officials in August of 1972.

- Quote, "The thing that seems strange to me is what became of monster Momo.

We no longer hear of him, and perhaps he was a figment of our imagination, or should I say the people of Louisiana.

But whatever it is, it was fun and exciting."

♪ Whoa, let me tell you 'bout ♪ Momo, the Missouri monster ♪ Momo, the Missouri monster (energetic music) (typewriter clacking) (serious music) - [Jim] This week 94 years ago, in May of 1931, 2,000 Safety Patrol boys marched along Lindell Boulevard with messages that we keep hearing today about St. Louis drivers.

"Obey traffic laws," "Jail the reckless," "It's your child, make 'em stop."

Traffic fatalities were a serious and growing problem.

In fact, the very existence of the Safety Patrol, boys helping fellow students cross streets on the way to and from school was started by the Automobile Club, a story that was told a few years back by Anne-Marie Berger.

(jaunty music) - [Anne-Marie] This afterschool responsibility began in Chicago in 1920, and at the time it was sponsored by the Chicago Motor Club.

In 1922, the AAA of Missouri launched their first program in North St. Louis at a school on the corner of Goodfellow and Dozier.

- The main motivator back then was the rash of traffic crashes associated with youngsters going to and from school.

That was sort of the burgeoning period where motor vehicles were becoming very popular and people didn't know how to interact with them.

So the School Safety Patrol was established back then.

- [Anne-Marie] And back then schools were located in the heart of a neighborhood and nearly all children walked to school.

What started out as a safety program quickly developed into a leadership program and kids found it an honor to wear the badge.

- Well, in many cases, this is their first introduction to having any kind of responsibility at all.

And it's certainly their introduction to public service.

And an awful lot of youngsters take this very, very seriously.

And I think as you'll talk to some of the retired Safety Patrol people, I think that they'll tell you just how important this was in their development as a youngster.

- [Jim] This was serious business.

After the safety march 94 years ago, the patrol boys crowded into the rotunda of City Hall where the acting mayor praised them for saving lives and being part of a program that was building future citizens of high caliber, boys like Vernon Brewer, chosen that day to represent the typical Safety Patrol boy Girls would later be added to the program.

And it was effective in reducing accidents involving kids on their way to and from school.

And those traffic safety messages, they still ring true today, just as they did where the Safety Patrol marched in the streets of St. Louis in May of 1931.

This week in St. Louis history.

(upbeat jazzy music) - And that's it for "Living St.

Louis."

You can watch all these stories and more on our YouTube channel or on the PBS app.

Don't forget to send us your comments and suggestions at NinePBS.org/LSL.

I'm Anne-Marie Berger, thanks for watching.

(upbeat jazzy music continues) - [Announcer] Living St. Louis is funded in part by the Betsy and Thomas Patterson Foundation and the members of Nine PBS.