[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 81 (Wednesday, June 4, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1125]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




IN HONOR OF MELVINA CONLEY, PRESERVER OF THE ``FREEDOM SUITS'' ARCHIVE, 
                   ST. LOUIS CIRCUIT COURT 1978-2001

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. WM. LACY CLAY

                              of missouri

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 4, 2003

  Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to Ms. Melvina Conley, a 
former employee of the St. Louis Circuit Court, Clerk's Office, who 
realized the value of old lawsuits filed by slaves seeking their 
freedom, and worked diligently for many years to protect and preserve 
the documents, now known as the ``Freedom Suits.''
  A collection of lawsuits filed in St. Louis by slaves of African 
descent, who were seeking their freedom, have become the focus of a 
restoration project by the clerk of the St. Louis Circuit Court. 
Working with the Court in the state of Missouri and Washington 
University. This is a great find for St. Louis, a treasure within our 
own midst. I'm excited that we have a national gift, a part of our 
history, to share with the world.
  So far, at least 281 lawsuits, along with the historic Dred Scott 
lawsuit (which figured prominently in the start of the Civil War), have 
been selected for preservation and placed on display on the web site 
maintained by Washington University at www.stlcourtrecords.wustl.edu.
 Called the St. Louis Circuit Court Historical Records Project, the 
site includes details of the lawsuits--who filed, against whom, when 
and where--and a copy of the actual handwritten document. Lawsuits also 
included allegations of trespass, assault and battery, false 
imprisonment, as well as petition affirming status as a free man.
  Found among approximately four million pages of aging court records 
dating back to 1782, the nearly 300 ``freedom suits'' (filed between 
1806 and 1865) were found covered with coal dust, in the labyrinth of 
the St. Louis Circuit Court system.
  As early as 1807, under Missouri territorial statutes, persons held 
in wrongful servitude could sue for freedom if they had evidence of 
wrongful enslavement. The territorial statute was codified in Missouri 
State law in 1824 and remained in effect until after the Civil War.
  Most people using this law to obtain their freedom were enslaved 
Africans. Since their cases were all brought for the same reason, to 
obtain the basic right to freedom, collectively, historians refer to 
the cases as ``freedom suits.''
  In an effort to protect the ``freedom suits'' and the hundreds of 
thousands of other old cases from decay, rats and other plagues, 
courthouse officials began removing them from vulnerable ``off-site'' 
storerooms to a more secure archive in the main Courthouse and the Old 
Globe-Democrat Building on Tucker Boulevard. In September 1999, St. 
Louis Circuit Court Clerk Mariano V. Favazza invited the Missouri State 
Archives, a division of Missouri's Office of Secretary of State, to 
initiate a project to preserve and make accessible the historical 
records. So extensive were the files, a cut-off date of before 1875 was 
used for the project. The court was founded in 1804.
  The freedom suits brought by Dred Scott and his wife, Harriet, in 
1846, became the first cases to go online in January 2001, attracting 
nearly a million information requests from visitors from around the 
world in their first year on the web. That fall, the American Culture 
Studies Program in Arts & Sciences agreed to expand this initiative by 
digitizing additional cases and creating a web-based search tool.
  While I thank everyone involved with the project for finding the 
documents and preserving them, Mr. Speaker, I especially want to make a 
special tribute to Ms. Melvina Conley, as Preserver of the ``Freedom 
Suits.''
  A 33-year employee of the St. Louis Circuit Clerk's Office--from 1969 
to 2001--Ms. Conley spent many years working as a data entry clerk.
  In 1978, she began working in a second-floor office in the old and 
dusty archive section of the courthouse, where she commenced a search 
for the legendary ``Freedom Suits'' or ``Slave Cases.''
  Because of her interest in history, Mrs. Conley was willing to do a 
job that others did not want to do. Sifting through the old files was 
literally a dirty business that few wanted.
  At the time, the famous Dred Scott case was protected in a vault in 
the courthouse and she knew Dred Scott was not the first case filed and 
that there were probably many others. In 1979 she commenced a search of 
the archive's 444 drawers for suits. The first suit she found was of a 
mother and her two sons, ages 5 and 2. The mother had filed suit--and 
lost--to keep her young sons from being ``hired out.'' ``I thought I 
had died and gone to heaven,'' Ms. Conley says now, describing how she 
felt at the time of the find.
  Preserving the ``Freedom Suits'' in boxes, Ms. Conley became an 
unofficial historian, archivist and preserver of history in her duties 
as a data entry clerk. In 1999 when Circuit Clerk Favazza joined forces 
with city, state and federal agencies to preserve the files, Ms. Conley 
became a key instrument in helping to make that transition, as well, 
having helped to carefully preserve the Dred Scott suit and hundreds of 
other ``Freedom Suits'' for posterity in her adopted home.
  Born in Charleston, Mo., Ms. Conley attended Cote Brilliante Grade 
School, and graduated from Sumner High School in 1957.
  After high school she married John Conley who became a politician and 
served St. Louis and Missouri as a committeeman and a state 
representative. They have five children, four stepchildren, 16 
grandchildren and one great grandchild. In 2001 Ms. Conley retired from 
her job as an Accountant 1, Supervisor, in the St. Louis Circuit Court.
  Joining me in recognizing Melvina Conley's dedication to the 
nurturing of the ``Freedom Suits'' and the continued nurturing and care 
of the files by the St. Louis Circuit Court, is U.S. Representative 
Maxine Waters, of California and a St. Louis native.
  Recently, the Honorable Ms. Waters and I visited the archive located 
in the old Globe-Democrat Building, in the 700 block of N. Tucker 
Blvd., to meet with city, state and university officials. During our 
visit we were welcomed enthusiastically by Mr. Michael Everman, CA and 
Field Archivist, Local Records Program with the Missouri State 
Archives; and State Archivist Dr. Kenneth Winn. Ms. Waters said she 
first learned about the project from a Los Angeles Times article and 
made arrangements to visit the archive. Both she and I were told by 
Favazza that ``HBO and Hollywood producers'' have made inquiries to his 
office about the lawsuits.
  ``The connection for me between St. Louis and Hollywood is just 
absolute,'' Ms. Waters said. Honorable Speaker, I want to find the 
funds needed to ensure permanent protection for the documents and to 
keep them safe for future generations. This is just the beginning. I 
know I can count on my colleague, Maxine Waters, to help get national 
exposure. It is the history of our country, which originated in St. 
Louis. It makes you proud of their actions--if you can find a silver 
lining in slavery. You have to preserve your history or you will be 
doomed to repeat it.

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