Gregory Freeman: Sometimes, History Changes Course When A Gentle Man Takes A Stand. P-D 3/4/1997

Headline: SOMETIMES, HISTORY CHANGES COURSE WHEN A GENTLE MAN TAKES A STAND
Reporter: By Gregory Freeman

Publication: ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Last Printed: Tue., Mar. 4, 1997
Section: NEWS, Page: 2B, Edition: FIVE STAR LIFT

J.D. SHELLEY didn't want any trouble.
   In fact, he'd moved to St. Louis to get away from trouble. Shelley and his wife, Ethel, were born in Starkville, Miss. The two had five children. J.D. Shelley worked as a laborer, first in a sawmill and later on the highways. Ethel Shelley worked as a domestic, cleaning homes.
   By 1939, Ethel Shelley, a black woman, decided to quit work so that she could take better care of her children. She notified her white employer, a woman who asked if she could recommend someone else for the job.
   Shelley recommended a young black woman she knew, and she was hired.
   Unfortunately, while the young woman was working, a watch disappeared, and the employer accused her of taking it. A couple of days later the police went to the black quarter of the city and dragged the young woman out of her home, whipped her with a rubber hose and threw her into a ditch.
   The whipping took place on a Sunday, and people were going to and from church. Many saw the incident, but no one was willing to help the woman. Finally, the Shelleys went to the area where she was lying and rescued her.
   Two days after the beating, the watch was found behind a wash basin in the house.

That was enough for J.D. Shelley. He thought about what he'd seen and decided that Starkville wasn't the kind of place he wanted to raise his children. He decided to leave Mississippi and come to St. Louis, where he had relatives.
After finding a job here, Shelley sent for his family. They found cramped quarters in a racially segregated neighborhood.

Ethel Shelley went back to work and, between the two of them, they saved enough money to buy a house.
   Both Shelleys had only a sixth-grade education and knew nothing about buying a house. They went to an elder in their church, who helped them find a house at 4600 Labadie Avenue.
   It was an unimposing building, two stories of sand-colored brick on a narrow lot of neatly trimmed greenery. But for the Shelleys - modest people of modest means - it was a dream house.
   They bought the house in August 1945 and moved in in October.

A couple of days after moving in, the Shelleys got a summons. Louis and Fern Kraemer, who lived a block away, had sued to evict them from their home. The suit said that allowing the Shelleys to live in the home would cause the Kraemers to "suffer irreparable injury and irremediable damage to their property."
The Shelleys' house had a "restrictive agreement" attached to its deed. That barred any owners of the property from selling or renting to "people not wholly of the Caucasian race." And they could not otherwise transfer the property to "persons of the Negro or Mongolian race."
The use of the agreements was promoted by the real estate association of the day, which excluded blacks as members.

The Shelleys went back to the elder of their church, who contacted James T. Bush Sr., a real estate broker, who mobilized other black real estate agents to challenge the practice.
The case was dismissed in lower court. The Kraemers appealed to the Missouri Supreme Court, which ruled against the Shelleys and ordered them to give up their property.

Bush then led the drive to get the Shelleys' case before the U.S. Supreme Court and paid for the services of George Vaughn, the Shelleys' initial attorney in the case. Before the high court, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People brought in attorney Thurgood Marshall to argue their case. Marshall argued that the 14th Amendment guarantees all citizens equal protection under the law and that it was illegal for the courts - an extension of state government - to be used to promote housing discrimination.

On May 4, 1948, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that courts could not be used to enforce restriction agreements. Until the far-reaching decision, courts in 19 states and the District of Columbia had ruled that enforcement of restrictive covenants was legal. In St. Louis, the agreements had kept blacks from living in 417 blocks in the city and county.

The Shelleys proceeded to raise their children in their home, where they lived until 1959.
Ethel Shelley died in 1983. J.D. Shelley died Sunday, at age 91.

St. Louis lawyer Margaret Bush Wilson, the daughter of James T. Bush Sr., on Monday described J.D. Shelley as "a gentle, unassuming, wonderful man, who had a great dignity about him. He was always a soft-spoken man with a good sense of humor."
She said the case was one he never had anticipated. "But when he realized the significance of it, he was both proud and happy for his children, " she said.

A big contribution from a little guy who didn't want any trouble.

Daniel Schesch - Webweaver

back