Arthur Brown reflects on the evolution of his community through segregation, integration and codification, and now, expansion.
Growing up, Arthur Brown’s father ran a restaurant just down the road from their home on Miller Street. A short walk along Miller led to Lafayette Street, the heart of the Foot – a historically Black neighborhood in Jefferson City. The Booker T. Hotel once welcomed famous Black entertainers to the city on the same block where the Tops Restaurant served renowned local barbeque – so renowned that a Missouri governor was often driven by a chauffeur to its rear door. Today, a highway cuts between Miller and Lafayette. The heart of the Foot is now home only to a tennis court and a plaque recognizing what once stood there.
“We had our own restaurants, hotels, laundromats, grocery stores and elementary school. Everybody knew everybody,” Arthur Brown said of the community. “Lincoln University students called it that because it was at the bottom of the hill, and they called that the Foot… It’s all gone now. It’s decimated.”
Urban renewal projects in the late 1950s and early 1960s divided and demolished communities across the country. When plans to expand U.S. Highway 50 reached Jefferson City, Arthur Brown recalled how the community began to disperse. Landlords sold quickly, and his father’s business, the Tops Restaurant, was taken through eminent domain.
“Urban renewal was implemented down there when they built the new high school at the end of Lafayette Street,” Arthur Brown said. “Those kids that got out of school — where would they have to come through? They didn’t want that. They did not want that,” he said, referring to Lafayette.
Still, the Foot’s legacy lived on, in large part due to the efforts of Arthur Brown’s brother, Glover Brown, whom he described as both an entrepreneur and entertainer. Their work to preserve the district’s history began in 2014, when the brothers organized against a proposal by Lincoln University to rename Lafayette Street to University Avenue. Arthur Brown recalled rallying the community at a local church, encouraging them to at least vote on the name. When it was revealed the decision would be based on popular vote rather than land ownership, the proposal was dropped.
Soon after, Glover Brown pursued official recognition for the Foot as a legacy district. An application was submitted in September 2022, but the Browns were told it would not qualify due to a lack of surviving historic structures. Glover Brown proposed a new path forward. Partnering with leaders from Tulsa’s Historic Greenwood District – a community similarly devastated by systemic erasure – they developed a new framework for recognizing such neighborhoods.
Archaeological digs in the Foot unearthed bricks from original buildings, as well as pottery and utensils left in the ground the district once thrived on. These findings became the basis for seeking legacy district status.
“Now the rest of the United States that experienced this same thing can use that archaeological classification to be recognized in the National Registry,” Arthur Brown said. “There is a guideline for it now.”
When Glover Brown died in June 2023, Arthur Brown took to finishing what his brother had started: the expansion of the Foot and its community. Most importantly, he hopes to incorporate the nearby Black neighborhood into the legacy district – a process now being expedited by the city.
“All I want to do is recognize the residential part of the archaeological district. That was Glover’s last thing – to incorporate the neighborhood,” Arthur Brown said. “We’ve identified the area they’re going to notify. I’ve got a group of young people who can go knock on these 30 doors, and they either sign it or they don’t. If the majority of them sign, then it goes to the council.”
He also hopes to revive the spirit of the Booker T. Hotel through a project first envisioned by Glover: construction of a three-story building at the corner of Lafayette and East McCarty Street. The proposed “Booker T. Building” would include shops, offices and apartments within walking distance of Lincoln University. However, the project was shelved when the site was instead reserved for a convention center – one that was never built.
Despite the setback, Arthur Brown continues to advocate for the revival and recognition of the community he has called home since his childhood.
“I was born right over a block away. I never left,” he said.