The Mary Jean Price Walls Historical Marker was unveiled on the MSU campus

A new marker for the Springfield-Greene County African-American Heritage Trail was dedicated Wednesday on the campus of Missouri State University.

The marker recognizes Mary Jean Price Walls. Walls was the first registered black resident to apply for admission to what was then SMS University in 1950. Her application was denied. As the marker explains, Walls was never formally notified of her denial, and her family could not afford to send her for an education at Lincoln University, the state college in Jefferson City.

Walls remained in Springfield, cleaning houses and working as a janitor until she retired in 2009. She raised eight children, one of whom, Amin Walls, eventually became a student at MSU and started to research his mother’s history. He said his aunt Shirley used to tell him family stories, but he never knew if they were true. “When they come to campus,” Walls explained, he decided to go for it. He said, “Anne Baker, who was the archivist at the Meyer Library, helped me in this investigation, in this search.”

The research turned up letters between various college and public university presidents referencing her application, minutes of a special meeting where it was ultimately denied, and Walls’ admissions letter explaining her situation and lamenting that, if they refused her admission, she would have to “give up” her ambition. .”

Mary Jean Price Walls eventually received an honorary degree from MSU in 2010. The Multicultural Resource Center Annex on campus was named in her honor in 2016. She passed in 2020.

Dr. Lyle Foster opened the ceremony by telling the history of the Springfield-Greene County African-American Heritage Trail, which he says plans a total of at least 20 markers noting significant people, places and events in the area’s history. Dr. Foster noted that the markers are largely funded by private donations, adding that most of the funding for the Walls marker came from MSU President Emeritus Clif Smart and his wife Gail, who were both in attendance.

The first marker was set at Silver Springs Park in Springfield in 2018. Wednesday’s marker is the eighth. Trail committee member Wes Pratt spoke at the event, he said the Trail is about making sure our everyday history isn’t forgotten and that the people of today and tomorrow have a chance to see themselves in it.

“It’s very emotional personally,” Pratt said, “because I knew some of these people, but I didn’t know their story. I did not know their journey. And our children, our children’s children and wax eloquently, the beautiful ones yet unborn, need to know the story of everyone in Springfield and this region who has made a contribution just by living, learning and earning here.”

The marker is just southeast of the Plaster Student Union on campus, across from Siceluff Hall. More information about the trail can be found at africanamericanheritagetrailsgf.org.