For decades, St. Louis was a city shrouded in a perpetual twilight, its skies choked with thick, black smoke from the burning of soft, bituminous coal. The city’s residents, weary of the constant soot and the health problems it caused, waged a long and arduous battle for clean air. Their fight, fueled by public outcry and the relentless efforts of a citizen-led committee, ultimately transformed the city’s environment and set a precedent for urban pollution control in the United States.
The turning point in this protracted struggle came in the late 1930s, culminating in a series of events that would force the city’s leadership to take decisive action. A catastrophic smog event, which came to be known as “Black Tuesday,” galvanized public opinion and provided the final impetus for a comprehensive and effective smoke abatement program. This victory was not achieved overnight; it was the result of years of activism, scientific research, and a powerful media campaign that exposed the devastating consequences of unchecked industrial pollution.
A Century of Smoke
St. Louis’s smoke problem was not a new phenomenon in the 1930s; it had plagued the city for over a century. As early as the 1820s, with the depletion of nearby hardwood forests, the city turned to the readily available and cheap soft coal from Illinois mines. The consequences were immediate and dramatic. By 1823, the Missouri Republican reported that the smoke was so dense it was sometimes necessary to use candles at midday. The city’s first attempt at regulation came in 1867 with an ordinance requiring smokestacks to be at least 20 feet higher than adjacent buildings. However, this and subsequent laws proved to be largely ineffective.
In 1893, the City Council passed an ordinance prohibiting “thick grey smoke,” but it was difficult to enforce and was successfully challenged in court by major polluters. A series of ordinances in the early 1900s declared the emission of dense smoke a misdemeanor, but these were also met with limited success. The problem was so pervasive that in 1906, a postcard writer commented on a rare clear day in St. Louis, “It don’t look natural.” The city’s reliance on soft coal for heating homes, powering industries, and fueling transportation created a persistent and hazardous environment for its residents.
Black Tuesday: The Day the Sun Didn’t Shine
The crisis reached its peak on November 28, 1939, a day that would live in infamy as “Black Tuesday.” A temperature inversion trapped the coal smoke close to the ground, blanketing the city in a thick, noxious smog. Visibility was reduced to a few feet, forcing streetlights to remain on all day and motorists to use their headlights to navigate the treacherous streets. The air was thick with soot, causing burning throats, hacking coughs, and smarting eyes. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that the smog was so severe that it was “the day the sun didn’t shine.”
The “Black Tuesday” smog was not a fleeting event; it lingered for nine days in the following month, bringing the city to a virtual standstill. This dramatic and terrifying experience was a turning point in the fight against smoke pollution. It made the abstract problem of air quality a tangible and immediate threat to the health and well-being of every resident. The public’s patience had finally run out, and the demand for a real solution became a deafening roar that the city’s politicians could no longer ignore.
The Citizens’ Crusade for Clean Air
In the wake of “Black Tuesday,” the fight for clean air in St. Louis became a true citizens’ crusade. Mayor Bernard F. Dickmann, who had created a “citizen smoke committee” in 1933, was now under immense pressure to act decisively. He appointed his personal secretary, Raymond Tucker, to lead the city’s smoke abatement efforts. Tucker, a professor of mechanical engineering at Washington University, brought a scientific and systematic approach to the problem. He understood that public education and voluntary measures were not enough; a fundamental change in the city’s fuel source was necessary.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, under the leadership of publisher Joseph Pulitzer II, played a pivotal role in this citizens’ crusade. The newspaper launched a relentless campaign, assigning reporter Sam Shelton to the “smoke beat.” Shelton’s articles, along with powerful editorials and political cartoons, kept the issue at the forefront of public consciousness. The Post-Dispatch’s campaign was so effective that it was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for public service in 1941, the first time a major journalism award was given for an environmental story.
The Battle for a Ban on Soft Coal
The solution proposed by Tucker and the citizen’s committee was simple yet radical: ban the use of soft, high-sulfur coal within the city limits. This proposal was met with fierce opposition from the powerful coal industry. Coal dealers, operators, and miners organized protests, marching on City Hall with banners and coal stoves spewing black smoke. They argued that the ban would lead to economic hardship and that cleaner-burning, low-sulfur coal was too expensive for the average resident.
Despite the protests, the tide of public opinion had turned. The citizens of St. Louis, having endured decades of pollution and the terrifying experience of “Black Tuesday,” were no longer willing to compromise their health for the sake of cheap, dirty fuel. In a dramatic showdown at City Hall, the Board of Aldermen passed the smoke control ordinance by a vote of 28-1. The new law mandated the use of cleaner-burning fuels, such as semi-anthracite coal, which was quickly secured from Arkansas.
A City’s Face is Washed
The impact of the new ordinance was immediate and profound. Within a year, the air in St. Louis was noticeably cleaner. The number of hours of thick smoke recorded by the U.S. Weather Service plummeted from 599 in the winter of 1939-40 to just 127 by 1942-43. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch celebrated the victory with a special report headlined, “A great city has washed its face.” Sam Shelton wrote, “St. Louis is no longer the grimy old man of American municipalities.”
The success of the St. Louis smoke abatement campaign had a ripple effect across the country. Other industrial cities, long plagued by similar pollution problems, looked to St. Louis as a model for reform. Raymond Tucker became a nationally recognized expert on smoke control, consulting with cities like Pittsburgh to help them adopt similar ordinances. The story of St. Louis’s fight for clean air serves as a powerful reminder of the transformative power of citizen activism and the critical role of a free press in holding leaders accountable and driving social change.
