Editing Sikeston, Missouri (section)

===World Wars era===
During [[World War I]], an infantry company was organized in Sikeston on August 25, 1917, until the spring of 1919.  Company K became part of the 140th Infantry, 70th Brigade, [[35th Infantry Division (United States)|U.S. 35th Infantry Division]] and fought in the [[Meuse-Argonne Offensive]]. It also served as part of the occupation force of Europe.  In 1920, American Legion Post 114 was chartered for the community of Sikeston and named after Henry Meldrun, a Sikeston native who was killed in Europe during [[World War I]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sikestonamericanlegion.com/history.html|title=History of Sikeston American Legion Post 114|access-date=2010-01-23}}</ref>  Between the two world wars, Company K was reorganized. The company helped secure rail centers during the railroad workers' strike of 1922, helped out with the aftermath of the [[Poplar Bluff, Missouri|Poplar Bluff]] tornado of [[Tornado outbreak of May 1927|May 1927]], and worked on the [[Mississippi River]] levees during the [[Great Mississippi Flood of 1927|floods of 1927]] and 1937. In 1941, Company K was sent to [[Robinson Maneuver Training Center|Camp Joseph T. Robinson]], near [[Little Rock]], where they drilled for eight months.

The [[Sikeston Memorial Municipal Airport]]  was built in the 1930s, opening in July 1934. From 1940 until 1944, it was known as Harvey Parks Airport. Long barrack-style buildings were constructed to hold the Missouri Institute of Aeronautics, established after General [[Henry H. Arnold|Hap Arnold]] asked flight training operations to triple their enrollments.  The first U.S. Army Air Corps inspection officials arrived in July 1940 with the first flight cadet arriving that September.  In June 1940, a home at West Gladys and New Madrid streets was transformed into a district infirmary in coordination with the building of the new air barracks.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sikeston.net/150/HistoryYear.asp?HistoryYear=1940|title=Sikeston Sesquicentennial: 1940s|access-date=2013-07-25}}</ref>  World War II flying aces [[Robert S. Johnson]] and [[Harold E. Comstock]] trained at this location. The original gated entrance to Harvey Parks Airport now serves as the entrance to the city's Veterans Park.

During World War II, local National Guard unit Company K was assigned to the Western Defense Command in [[California]]. Sikeston-area students helped raise money to have three [[North American B-25 Mitchell|B-25 bombers]] named the ''Spirit of Sikeston'', ''The Sikeston Bulldog'', and one other. These three planes were supposedly used in the [[Doolittle Raid]], during which they went down and are at the bottom of the Pacific between Japan and China. The local [[International Shoe Company]] factory had a contract for a major shoe order for the US Army during the war.

==== Lynching of Cleo Wright ====
{{Main articles|Lynching of Cleo Wright}}
Sikeston was the site of the first [[Lynching in the United States|lynching]] to occur in the United States since the onset of World War II. In the early hours of Sunday, January 25, 1942, a Black man named Cleo Wright was arrested on charges of allegedly assaulting a white woman. Upon resisting arrest, Wright was shot several times by a city night marshal. The local General Hospital refused to admit Wright for treatment of his injuries due to his race. Police initially brought the ailing Wright to his home to die, but later returned him to the city jail, where a white mob abducted Wright in the early afternoon and burned him alive in front of two Black church congregations. The lynching spurred the first ever federal investigation into a civil rights matter, though no indictments were made.