ARCHER ALEXANDER

In 1876, Archer Alexander (1806-1880) became America’s embodiment of the word Emancipation. On the only memorial ever erected by the formerly enslaved to President Abraham Lincoln in Washington, D.C., he still rises on the Emancipation Memorial.  Though born in Virginia, he would become the last fugitive slave captured in Missouri, a border state under Martial Law during the Civil War. In 1863, he had overheard the area’s Confederates planning an attack on a nearby railroad bridge near the Union’s Fort Peruque and risked his life to report it. He saved hundreds of lives, supplies, the payroll, and a vital link for the Union Army by so doing. Then he would lead sixteen men on a run for freedom at Howell’s Ferry on the Underground Railroad. He was granted freedom for his services to the military on September 24, 1863, and is the third great- grandfather of Muhammad Ali. Yet, he is buried in an unmarked grave in St. Louis.

Join us as we commemorate his day of Freedom, on the third Sunday in September, September 20, 2026, at 1:00 pm at the St. Peter’s United Church of Christ Cemetery at 2101 Lucas and Hunt Drive for the annual Memorial Service for Archer Alexander. Both the Howell’s Ferry Crossing and Archer Alexander’s burial are listed on the National Park Service’s National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom, which has over 800 listings across our country, with fourteen listings here in St. Louis.   The public is invited, and this is a program for all ages. Please bring lawn chairs.

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Dorris Keeven-Franke