A social studies teacher at Washington Middle School in the Mehlville School District had his students reenact the Dred Scott case that was tried in downtown St. Louis, which was then part of St. Louis County, in 1847. Students played the various roles in the case, and the jury had the opportunity to deliberate and come to their own verdict whether to free Scott, a slave. Like the 1850 jury in Scott’s retrial, they chose to free him. But in 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court overruled that jury and refused to free Scott.
