John A. Madison
Great Grandson of Dred Scott Passes
July 26, 2007
John A. Madison Jr., a longtime teacher in St. Louis and great-grandson of Dred and Harriet Scott, died of heart failure Thursday (July 26, 2007) at Garden View Care Center of Chesterfield. He first became ill on June 11 and passed peacefully in his sleep. He was 82.“My father leaves me with a sense of how important it is that we reconcile,” said his daughter Lynne M. Jackson of Florissant, who continues the family legacy with the Dred Scott Heritage Foundation.
Jackson said her father often lead family blessings with a scripture from Psalm 133: “How blessed it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.”
Madison grew up in the Ville neighborhood and was active in Antioch Baptist Church. He was senior class president at Sumner High School. He then graduated from the old Stowe Teachers College. He worked as a mail handler for the Postal Service while he earned his law degree from Lincoln University Law School in St. Louis. After graduating, he taught for 35 years in several elementary schools in the St. Louis Public Schools. He retired in 1990.
A longtime resident of the Chesterfield area, he taught Sunday school and was church historian at First Baptist Church of Chesterfield.
Madison spent many years researching the lives and landmark legal struggle of his great-grandparents as they fought for their freedom from slavery in the years before the Civil War. The Scotts initially petitioned for their freedom in 1846 at the Old Courthouse here and briefly won in a jury trial on Jan. 12, 1850.
The couple later lost appeals in the Missouri Supreme Court and federal courts.
On March 6, the 150th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision denying the Scotts their freedom, Madison attended a memorial service for his great-grandmother at Greenwood Cemetery in Hillsdale where she was buried. Another service was held in Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis, where Dred Scott is buried.
In 1957, Madison portrayed Dred Scott in a performance at the Old Courthouse marking the 100th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision. Photos of the performance were published that year in Ebony magazine.
She also said her parents were instrumental in helping her establish the Dred Scott Heritage Foundation. The foundation is raising money to erect a statue of Dred Scott near the courthouse.
On May 26 of this year - exactly 150 years after the Scotts got their freedom - Mr. Madison unveiled an honorary street sign on the east side of the Old Courthouse on Fourth Street. It renamed the block "Dred Scott Way."
Madison was a passionate lifelong member of Kappa Alpha Psi. The Kappas will honor his memory at their August 18 black tie dinner with fundraiser for the Dred Scott Heritage Foundation.
“My father would help anybody. Grown men called him ‘Dad.’ He was good with children. He was such an intelligent mind,” Jackson said.
Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. Thursday at First Baptist Church of Chesterfield, 17155 Wild Horse Creek Road.
In addition to his daughter, among survivors are his wife, Marcy, of the Chesterfield area; another daughter, Marcy Hart of Chesterfield; a son, Michael Madison of Kansas City; a sister, Alma Miller of Chicago; nine grandchildren; and one great-granddaughter. A son, John A. Madison III, preceded him in death.
Memorial contributions may be made to the:
The Dred Scott Heritage Foundation
211 N. Broadway,
Suite 3600
St. Louis, MO 63102