page_title: History of St. Louis
section_title: World War II
hierarchical_section_title: History of St. Louis / Decline of the inner city and urban renewal: 1905–1980 / World War II
caption_attribution_description: English: Lieutenant Commander Edward "Butch" O'Hare (Air Group Six Commander/USS Enterprise CV-6) in the cockpit of a Grumman F6F-3 "Hellcat" in 1943.
context_page_description: The history of St. Louis, Missouri began with the settlement of the St. Louis area by Native American mound builders who lived as part of the Mississippian culture from the 9th century to the 15th century, followed by other migrating tribal groups. Starting in the late 17th century, French explorers arrived. Spain took over in 1763 and a trading company led by Pierre Laclede and Auguste Chouteau established the settlement of St. Louis in February 1764. It attracted French settlers leaving Illinois after their defeat in the Seven Years' War. The city grew in population due to its location as a trading post on the Mississippi River, as the western fur trade was lucrative. The city played a small role in the American Revolutionary War and became part of the U.S. through the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.
  With its connection through the Ohio River to the east, the Mississippi to the south and north, and the Missouri to the west, St. Louis was ideally located to become the main base of interregional trade. In the 1840s, it became a destination for massive immigration by Irish and Germans. Some native-born Americans reacted with fear to the newcomers, adopting nativist sentiments.
context_section_description: During World War II, St. Louis was the location of a large ammunition factory and the Curtiss-Wright aircraft factory. Area factories also produced uniforms and footwear, K-rations, and chemicals and medicines. The uranium used in the Manhattan Project was refined in St. Louis by Mallinckrodt Chemical Company starting in 1942, and several atomic bomb scientists had ties to St. Louis, including Arthur Compton. At the start of the war, many German, Italian, and Japanese St. Louisans were interrogated or arrested, while the FBI investigated charges of sedition in the area. Residents engaged in civil defense drills and supported the war effort with scrap drives and war bond purchases. St. Louis produced several notable soldiers in the war, including Edward O'Hare, who grew up in St. Louis and won the Medal of Honor for combat in the Pacific. St. Louis also was home to Wendell O. Pruitt, an African-American pilot who shot down three enemy aircraft and destroyed multiple ground targets in June 1944.
  At the outbreak of war, African-American workers gained greater acceptance in industry than previously, but discrimination remained a problem for many black workers. During the war, city officials passed the first municipal integration ordinance, allowing African Americans to eat at city-owned (but not private) lunch counters. In May 1944, when a black sailor in uniform was refused service at a privately owned lunch counter, the action prompted peaceful sit-in protests at several downtown diners. No changes in Jim Crow segregation policies at lunch counters resulted, but Saint Louis University admitted its first black students starting in August 1944.
  More than 5,400 St. Louisans became casualties of the war, listed as either missing or killed in action. The end of the war led to the closure of many St. Louis factories, with major layoffs beginning in May and continuing through August 1945. By late 1945, returning soldiers encountered a chronic housing and job shortage in the city. The GI Bill allowed many St. Louis veterans to purchase homes and pursue higher education, which encouraged sub-urbanization that after the war reduced the city's population.
caption: Edward "Butch" O'Hare was a well-known St. Louis flying ace in World War II.
exif: {}