Remembrance of 1836 Lynching of Francis McIntosh

In 1836 Francis McIntosh, a free Black man, was abducted by a white mob from the St. Louis jail (then at 6th & Chestnut), chained to a tree a block away at 7th & Chestnut, and burned alive. No one was held responsible. The burned tree was left as a monument to racial terror. WashU trustee and major benefactor John O'Fallon is said to have served as foreman of the grand jury that declined to bring an indictment against perpetrators of the lynching, as advised by the presiding Judge Luke Lawless. One of WashU’s early buildings, O’Fallon Polytechnic Institute, opened in 1867 at 7th and Chestnut, the very intersection where Francis McIntosh was burned alive by a mob three decades earlier. Ironically, WashU School of Law began in that building, at this historic St. Louis intersection marred by corruption of the rule of law. 

On April 30, 2022 the St. Louis Community Remembrance Project - an initiative led by the Reparative Justice Coalition of St. Louis (RJCSTL) - is commemorating the lynching of Francis McIntosh with a public Soil Collection Ceremony. All are welcome. For more about the lynching of Francis McIntosh, this event, and other coalition efforts, follow the button below to the coalition website (rjcstl.org). Several WashU faculty, staff, students and alumni volunteer with the Reparative Justice Coaltion and have supported the development of St. Louis' Community Remembrance Project.