We Are St. Louis aspires to meaningfully collaborate with local historians, storytellers, and organizations. The Community Storytellers Initiative, launched in 2022, was designed to invite, compensate, and support community members in bringing their lived experiences, expertise, and place-based narratives and research into a central place on We Are St. Louis. The work of all the Community Storytellers can be accessed on this page, each taking their own approach to their digital projects. We encourage you to dig in, learn, share, and participate in their work.
The We Are St. Louis Community Storytellers initiative has been supported by grants from Taylor Geospatial Institute (2023); UMSL Office of Research, Economic, and Community Development (2022-23); UMSL College of Arts and Sciences Community Engagement Grant (2023-24); UMSL Creating Whole Communities (2024-25); and the Missouri Humanities Council (2025-26).
2025-2026 Community Storytellers
Jamala Rogers and the Organization for Black Struggle
OBS celebrated its 45th anniversary in 2025. Its legacy is a testament to its influence on the political, cultural, and social life of St. Louis. Thousands have been touched by their organizing work in classrooms, work-places, union halls, board rooms, and the streets. It respects the historic Black, radical traditions laid down by past freedom fighters. The story of how OBS formed and grew is presented in an online exhibit, The Building of a Black, Radical, Grassroots Organization.
The purpose of this exhibit is to introduce the many layers of the organization for the public to understand the manifestations of OBS’s vision, mission, and theory of change. The exhibit gives a glimpse into OBS as a political home to many activists and organizers over the years, as well as the organizational culture it strived to build to affirm and nourish them for the difficult struggles to build power. It takes the viewer through the internal and external discussions, planning and implementation of the protests, teach-in, campaigns, and other tactics designed to achieve the organization’s strategic objectives. The exhibit was created in collaboration with OBS, We Are St. Louis, and the State Historical Society of Missouri in St. Louis.
2024-2025 Community Storytellers
Commemorating St. Louis in the Long Civil Rights Movement
This multifaceted, collaborative project was created by Dr. Roz Norman of Gateway GIS and Clyde C. Miller Career Academy Students Erica Warren, Fernando Lopez, Brian Mann, and Shiara Jones. It engages neighborhood organizations, community members, students, educators, and various stakeholders in a process to share and discuss local “homegrown unsung heroes” who have contributed to St. Louis’ Long Civil Right Movement.
This project first focuses on the North St. Louis historic communities of JeffVanderLou, St. Louis Place, and The Ville.
As a first step in this project, Dr. Roz Norman and students from Clyde C. Miller Career Academy created selection criteria that can be used for members of the public to submit brief biographies and artifacts or media of their own homegrown unsung heroes.
When you use this form to submit your local Long Civil Rights Movement Hero, the information and media you share will become part of the online We Are St. Louis digital collection, where the broader public can learn more about these unsung heroes.
The framework offered here for selecting homegrown unsung heroes can help identify individuals whose contributions might otherwise remain in the shadow. Yet, they deserve acknowledgment and celebration.
Click here to submit your own Unsung Homegrown Hero of St. Louis’ Long Civil Rights Movement!
2023 Community Storytellers
The inaugural Community Storytellers was a powerful group who worked together to learn about digital tools and storytelling approaches to more widely share their research with public audiences. Each storyteller, in different forms and media, compellingly documents and narrativizes diverse identities, communities, histories and relationships.
Select a storyteller below to view their digital exhibit.
Robin Proudie
Beyond the 1870 Brick Wall
This project traces the movements of her enslaved ancestors beginning in 1823 when the first six were forced to migrate from the Jesuits’ White Marsh plantation in Maryland to Missouri, and in 1829, when sixteen ancestors were made to traverse on that same journey, to further expand the Jesuits’ presence in the Midwest.
Bobby Norfolk
Growing Up in The Ville
This project outlines the origin of “The Ville,” a historically prominent North St. Louis neighborhood, which began with Irish and German immigration, and how the influx of “upwardly mobile” African Americans added to its vibrancy. It traces practices of racial segregation that shaped the Ville throughout the 20th century, and into the present day and future.
Dail Chambers
Migration Stories
Dail Chambers’ digital work focuses on the shared stories of individuals with native ancestry in St. Louis and those who have migrated from the American South to St. Louis.
Vivian Gibson
Women of a Certain Age
Vivian Gibson’s project merges oral histories with digital mapping. The dialogue format is accomplished in casual tones and settings, letting the women discuss their paths, passions, ponderings, and perils at various stages of their lives, drawing connections to St. Louis, Missouri along the way.
