ST. LOUIS • By early October 1963, the demonstrations at Jefferson Bank & Trust Co. had gone on almost daily for more than a month. Civil rights groups demanded that the bank, which had only two black employees, hire four more for office jobs. Bank executives said they wouldn't be threatened.
It all began on Aug. 30, when protesters sat inside the lobby and sang, "We shall not be moved." Nine leaders were arrested, charged with violating a court order restricting the protests. On other occasions, police made arrests for entering the bank, blocking doors and sitting in front of police vehicles.
It was a year of civil rights actions across the country. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his riveting "Dream" speech in Washington on Aug. 28. In St. Louis, leaders of the Committee (later Congress) of Racial Equality, known as CORE, chose Jefferson Bank, just west of downtown at 2600 Washington Avenue, as a glaring example of widespread discrimination in hiring.
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Robert B. Curtis, local CORE chairman, said of area employers, "They need to be forced into doing the right thing."
About 75 demonstrators went to the bank Oct. 7 to seek change in a literal form - coins for bills. Tellers responded with 25-cent charges for transactions. Police made 23 more arrests.
On Oct. 11, leaders of CORE and the NAACP met for almost two hours with Mayor Raymond R. Tucker, who wanted to defuse the tension. Alderman William L. Clay returned to the bank after the meeting and was arrested again for sitting on the bumper of a police truck filled with protesters.
The next day, Tucker met for less than 30 minutes with Jefferson Bank executives. Afterward, bank executive vice president Joseph H. McConnell said, "When aldermen and ministers and physicians picket your bank and block police vehicles, we wonder what our society is coming to."
Tucker proposed a two-week cooling-off period. But after 19 leaders were sent back to jail on Oct. 24-25, action moved to City Jail, where protesters held regular and noisy vigils. Sentences ranged from 60 days to one year.
On March 2, 1964 - 55 days after the sentencings - the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed the 19 to post bond. By then, Jefferson Bank had hired six more blacks.
The protests endure as the most significant area event of the modern civil rights era. From its ranks rose many political leaders, including Clay, who went to Congress; and Raymond Howard and Louis Ford, who became Missouri legislators. And it led to better jobs for blacks in St. Louis.
Photos: Jefferson Bank protests were a major part of the Civil Rights story in St. Louis
Taylor Jones, an activist from East St. Louis, talks with demonstrators after picketing the Jefferson Bank on Oct. 9, 1963. Kneeling at right is Eugene Tournour, regional representative of CORE. Jones and Tournour later went to jail for violating the court order. Photo by Robert LaRouche, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
October 7, 1963 -- Demonstrators sing hymns as they block the departure of a police cruiser from Jefferson Bank and Trust. Four teens were in the cruiser, arrested for allegedly disrupting business at the bank. Photo by Robert LaRouche, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The Jefferson Bank & Trust protests moved to the Scruggs-Vandervoort-Barney department store downtown on Dec. 5, 1963, when marchers walked through the store urging people to boycott. Police arrested 25 people. Photo by Robert LaRouche, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Alderman William L. "Bill" Clay (right), a Democrat who represented the 26th Ward, was among several leaders of a civil rights demonstration against Jefferson Bank & Trust Co. who appeared in court in September 1963. In the foreground at left is Joseph H. McConnell, executive vice president of Jefferson Bank & Trust Co. Sitting with Clay are protest figures Herman Thompson and Marian Oldham. Post-Dispatch file photo
Arrested demonstrators sing in a police truck outside Jefferson Bank & Trust on Oct. 11, 1963, during a major protest there. Second from left is Eugene Tournour, regional representative of the Committee of Racial Equality, which had organized the lengthy series of protests to win more clerical jobs for blacks at the major banks in St. Louis. (Post-Dispatch)
Marian Oldham of St. Louis in 1963. She and her husband, Charles, were leaders of the civil-rights protests at Jefferson Bank & Trust. (Post-Dispatch)
St. Louis police Maj. Walter Eitzman calls for backup as pickets block a truck filled with protesters arrested at Jefferson Bank & Trust on Oct. 12, 1963. Among those sitting on the bumper are city aldermen Lawrence Woodson (left, wearing hat) and William Clay (center). Post-Dispatch file photo
Demonstrators at Jefferson Bank & Trust march between Mrs. Ben Goldman of University City and the bank's drive-up window on Oct. 11, 1963. Photo by Bob Holt of the Post-Dispatch
Members of the Committee of Racial Equality sit down in the lobby of Jefferson Bank & Trust Co., 2600 Washington Avenue, on Aug. 30, 1963. The event launched months of protests, arrests and court hearings in a battle by civil-rights activists to win more jobs for blacks in the city's banks. St. Louis Mercantile Library photo
Four protesters who had been arrested at Jefferson Bank & Trust leave City Jail on Sept. 3, 1963, for a hearing on contempt charges against them. They are (front left) Robert Curtis and Charles Oldham, and (back row left) Lucien Richards and Norman Seay. Post-Dispatch file photo
Dr. Jerome Williams, director of outpatient care at Homer G. Phillips Hospital, leads a gathering of professionals in a march outside Jefferson Bank & Trust on Oct. 10, 1963. The bank sign warned protesters against trespassing. Post-Dispatch file photo
Demonstrators chant outside the City Jail on 14th Street on Oct. 28, 1963, to support leaders who had begun serving sentences for contempt of court in the protests at Jefferson Bank & Trust. The event was one of several outside the jail after their incarcerations. Photo by Lloyd Spainhower of the Post-Dispatch
Demonstrators displaying placards in the second-floor hallway outside the office of City Treasurer John J. Dwyer at City Hall on Oct. 28, 1963. The action was a new move by the St. Louis Committee of Racial Equality against the Jefferson Bank & Trust Co. They were demanding that the city remove deposits from Jefferson Bank & Trust Co. Post-Dispatch file photo
Protesters demonstrate against job discrimination at Jefferson Bank and Trust Co. at Jefferson Avenue and Washington Boulevard on Oct. 10, 1963. That day's demonstration by physicians and business professionals was peaceful and brief, lasting about 40 minutes. The protests at Jefferson Bank persuaded many companies to hire and promote more African-Americans.
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