Editing History of Missouri (section)

==Moderate growth and change: 1946–present==

===Politics after the war===
[[File:Forrest Smith.jpg|right|thumb|upright|[[Forrest Smith]], elected Governor of Missouri in 1948, was the first governor chosen under the 1945 state Constitution.]]
After the war Republicans gained strength in the state, although Missourians voted for Democratic politicians on a state and national level with relative frequency.<ref name="meyer 1982 709">Meyer (1982), 709.</ref> On a national level, Missouri voted with the winner of the presidential election for most of the 20th century except for 1956;<ref name="meyer 1982 709"/> this gained the state its status as the [[Missouri bellwether]]. Despite its [[swing state]] status nationally, Democrats controlled both houses of the legislature after World War II, and only one Republican governor served the state from 1945 until the [[Reagan Revolution]] of the 1980s.<ref name="meyer 1982 709"/>

In 1948 the first statewide elections after the adoption of the 1945 Missouri Constitution were held; [[Forrest Smith]], former state auditor, won the Democratic primary and the governor's office with the support of labor unions and city political machines.<ref name="meyer 1982 709"/> Both the sheriff of St. Louis, Thomas Callanan, and the organized crime boss [[Charles Binaggio]] of Kansas City were ardent Smith supporters in the elections.<ref name="meyer 1982 710">Meyer (1982), 710.</ref> Despite support from organized crime, Smith's administration was relatively honest and efficient, and he made significant contributions to the growth of the Missouri transportation system.<ref name="meyer 1982 710"/> Under Smith, the state gasoline tax was increased, and the state embarked on a ten-year highway building program in 1952 to provide state highway access to within two miles of 95% of the state population.<ref name="meyer 1982 710"/> Smith retired at the end of his term, allowing Phil Donnelly to campaign for and win a second term as governor in 1952.<ref name="meyer 1982 712">Meyer (1982), 712.</ref> Although Donnelly had supported an anti-strike law during his first term (and alienated organized labor), he won the state with relative ease in 1952.<ref name="meyer 1982 712"/>

During his second term Donnelly alienated the other base of Democratic politics, the teachers and schools of Missouri, when he vetoed an appropriations bill for the schools as illegal.<ref name="meyer 1982 713">Meyer (1982), 713.</ref> However, despite his independent streak, he left a lasting impact on a variety of areas of life in Missouri.<ref name="meyer 1982 713"/> Under Donnelly, the state reorganized its government and created a state parks division in the [[Missouri Department of Natural Resources]]; the state also adopted a 2 cents per pack tax on cigarettes in 1955 with money earmarked for schools, and in 1956, the state passed a $75&nbsp;million bond issue to build new facilities at state universities and prisons.<ref name="meyer 1982 713"/>

On a national level the state population grew more slowly during the 1940s; as a consequence, after the [[1950 United States census]], the state lost two seats in the House of Representatives.<ref name="meyer 1982 711">Meyer (1982), 711.</ref> Democratic candidate [[Thomas C. Hennings]] defeated incumbent Republican [[Forrest C. Donnell]] for the U.S. Senate in 1950, and in 1952, Republican Senator [[James P. Kem]] was defeated by Democrat [[Stuart Symington]], beginning more than twenty years of fully Democratic representation from Missouri in the U.S. Senate.<ref name="meyer 1982 712"/><ref name="meyer 1982 711"/>

In 1956, as with his gubernatorial predecessor Forrest Smith, Donnelly retired at the end of his term; fellow Democrat [[James T. Blair Jr.]], the son of a Missouri Supreme Court justice, won election easily.<ref name="meyer 1982 714">Meyer (1982), 714.</ref> Blair, a former mayor of Jefferson City and decorated World War II veteran, initially refused to move into the Missouri Governor's Mansion until several improvements were made to it.<ref name="meyer 1982 714"/> The state budgets under Blair expanded dramatically, and Blair led an expansion of the state mental health programs.<ref name="meyer 1982 715">Meyer (1982), 715.</ref> Blair also led a more substantial reorganization of state government in 1959, and in 1960, when Senator Hennings died in office, Blair named Lieutenant Governor [[Edward V. Long]] as his replacement.<ref name="meyer 1982 715"/> Blair retired from politics in 1961 after serving one term.<ref name="meyer 1982 715"/>

For the 1960 elections Missourians supported Kennedy by more than 10,000 votes over Nixon; Senator Long was elected in his own right, and Democratic nominee [[John M. Dalton]], the state attorney general since 1953, took the governor's office.<ref name="meyer 1982 715"/> At the outset of his term, Dalton oversaw redistricting of Missouri's congressional seats, as the state again had lagged behind in population growth and lost one seat in the House.<ref name="meyer 1982 717">Meyer (1982), 717.</ref> Dalton's term as governor was marked by tax increases to pay for increased state services: liquor taxes were increased by 50 percent, cigarette taxes from 2 to 4 cents per pack, and gasoline taxes from 3 to 5 cents per gallon; the state also established the withholding system for income tax collection, at the time a controversial measure.<ref name="meyer 1982 716">Meyer (1982), 716.</ref> Also under Dalton's tenure, the state legislature established a [[point system (driving)|point system]] for drivers' licenses and a commission to hear cases of employment discrimination in the state.<ref name="meyer 1982 716"/> In 1964, Dalton supported Lieutenant Governor [[Hilary A. Bush]] in Bush's unsuccessful campaign for the Democratic nomination for governor.<ref name="meyer 1982 717"/> Bush lost the 1964 primary to [[Warren E. Hearnes]], who was supported by the St. Louis party organization and who ultimately won the governor's office that year.<ref name="meyer 1982 717"/>

Hearnes overwhelmingly defeated Ethan Shepley, the Republican candidate, in his race for governor.<ref name="meyer 1982 718">Meyer (1982), 718.</ref> Democrats also won every statewide office, both houses of the state legislature, and heavily supported [[Lyndon Johnson]] over [[Barry Goldwater]] for president.<ref name="meyer 1982 718"/> The Democratic government passed several progressive measures in 1965, including a law banning racial discrimination in public accommodations, the creation of state hospitals for [[intellectual disability]], and the creation of [[Missouri Southern College]] and [[Missouri Western College]].<ref name="meyer 1982 718"/> In addition, the legislature passed a Missouri Constitutional amendment, ratified by the voters, that permitted governors to run for a second consecutive term.<ref name="meyer 1982 719">Meyer (1982), 719.</ref> The Democrats retained control of the state legislature in 1966, but Republicans made small and surprising gains in the state in the 1968 national and state elections.<ref name="meyer 1982 719"/>

Republican [[John Danforth]] won the office of attorney general in 1968, while the state's voters selected Republican [[Richard Nixon]] for president by a margin of 20,000 votes.<ref name="meyer 1982 719"/> Governor Hearnes, a Democrat, was reelected to the office and became the first governor to serve a consecutive four-year term since John Miller in 1828.<ref name="meyer 1982 719"/> Although Hearnes's agenda ran into opposition in the legislature, he successfully argued for the passage of increased welfare laws in the state.<ref name="meyer 1982 719"/> In 1970, Republicans gained further seats in the state legislature, and John Danforth nearly won election to the U.S. Senate against Stuart Symington.<ref name="meyer 1982 719"/> [[Kit Bond|Christopher Bond]], another Republican, won election as state auditor against Haskell Holman by more than 200,000 votes.<ref name="meyer 1982 719"/><ref name="larsen 2004 130">Larsen (2004), 130.</ref>

[[File:Kit Bond official portrait.jpg|left|thumb|upright|[[Kit Bond|Christopher Bond]] became the youngest person elected Governor of Missouri in 1972 and was part of the rise of the Republican Party in the state.]]
Two years after their gains in the legislature, Republicans continued their ascendance in Missouri politics: Christopher Bond, the Republican state auditor, became the youngest person elected governor in state history in 1972.<ref name="meyer 1982 719"/> Republicans would control the governor's mansion for sixteen of the next twenty years, and they implemented significant structural reforms in that period.<ref name="larsen 2004 127">Larsen (2004), 127.</ref> In the same election, Missouri voters approved a comprehensive reorganization of the executive branch of the state, bringing the state's employees under the control of directors who report to the governor.<ref name="meyer 1982 720">Meyer (1982), 720.</ref> The legislature under Bond took conservative measures, including eliminating property taxes on household goods and instituting [[mandatory sentencing]] for gun crimes.<ref name="meyer 1982 720"/> Despite Democrats retaining control of both houses of the legislature, the General Assembly did not pass the [[Equal Rights Amendment]].<ref name="meyer 1982 720"/>

In 1976 Bond was defeated for reelection by Democratic challenger [[Joseph P. Teasdale]], a Kansas City prosecutor.<ref name="meyer 1982 722">Meyer (1982), 722.</ref> Bond's defeat, which came by only 13,000 votes, was attributed to late campaign negative television advertising by Teasdale and to southwestern Republicans withholding votes from Bond.<ref name="larsen 2004 137">Larsen (2004), 137.</ref> Despite his loss, the Republican Party gained even more strength in 1976: John Danforth won the vacant U.S. Senate formerly occupied by Symington, William Phelps won reelection as lieutenant governor, and [[John Ashcroft]] won election as state attorney general.<ref name="larsen 2004 137"/> While in office, Teasdale was marred by political controversies, and his relationship with the Republican lieutenant governor was particularly poor.<ref name="meyer 1982 722"/><ref name="larsen 2004 137"/> Among the legislature passed during the late 1970s was an updated criminal code and a new death penalty law, an elimination of the state sales tax on prescription drugs and on inheritances, and a campaign contribution disclosure law.<ref name="meyer 1982 722"/> The General Assembly also refused to consider Teasdale's request to increase corporate tax rates, and the Equal Rights Amendment was again defeated annually.<ref name="meyer 1982 723">Meyer (1982), 723.</ref> Progressives and labor unions, however, mounted a successful effort to defeat a [[right-to-work law]].<ref name="meyer 1982 723"/>

In 1980 former governor Christopher Bond regained the office against Teasdale, who retired from politics and returned to law practice.<ref name="larsen 2004 140">Larsen (2004), 140.</ref> The 1980 elections in Missouri reflected the national rejection of incumbency: in addition to Teasdale's defeat, Missouri voters elected [[Ronald Reagan]] over [[Jimmy Carter]] for president and Williams Phelps lost reelection for lieutenant governor.<ref name="meyer 1982 725">Meyer (1982), 725.</ref> Republicans also gained in Missouri's Congressional delegation, winning four of the ten seats in the House; Democratic Senator Thomas Eagleton, however, was reelected by Missourians.<ref name="meyer 1982 725"/> Bond's second term was marked by a more conciliatory tone toward the legislature, and he focused on dramatically reducing state spending in a time of inflation and recession.<ref name="larsen 2004 140"/> At the end of his term, he nominated [[Margaret B. Kelly|Margaret Kelly]] to replace James Antonio as state auditor, in so doing making her the first woman to hold statewide office; Kelly would win election to the office in 1986 and serve until 1999.<ref name="larsen 2004 140"/> Bond retired from politics, albeit temporarily, at the end of his second term in office.<ref name="larsen 2004 141">Larsen (2004), 141.</ref>

Statewide elections in 1984 gave four of the five elected offices to Republicans, and, like most states, Missouri voted for Reagan in the presidential election.<ref name="larsen 2004 141"/> The only office held by Democrats was won by [[Harriett Woods]], who became lieutenant governor and the first woman elected to statewide office.<ref name="larsen 2004 141"/> John Ashcroft, who had been elected attorney general in 1976, won the governor's race.<ref name="larsen 2004 141"/> Ashcroft became known as a relatively prudish figure, refusing to serve alcohol at state receptions, and he took positions contradictory to his previous stances.<ref name="larsen 2004 144">Larsen (2004), 144.</ref> Ashcroft played a role in supporting large increases to the state education system during the late 1980s, a position helped by a better financial situation for the state.<ref name="larsen 2004 144"/> When he ran for reelection in 1988, Ashcroft's wide popularity allowed him to defeat Betty Hearnes by a 64 to 34 percent margin, a wider spread than that achieved by [[George H. W. Bush]], who Missourians selected for president that year.<ref name="larsen 2004 145">Larsen (2004), 145.</ref><ref name="hearnesnote">Betty Hearnes, for her part, was the first woman to be nominated by a major party for governor in Missouri. Larsen (2004), 145.</ref>

During his second term Ashcroft proposed several reforms to state government, some of which were not enacted.<ref name="larsen 2004 146">Larsen (2004), 146.</ref> Two of his failed proposals included a reduction in the size of the General Assembly and a lengthening of the school year; successful changes included a welfare reform bill that required workforce training for recipients.<ref name="larsen 2004 146"/> He also supported a failed tax increase to supply higher funding to higher education.<ref name="larsen 2004 146"/> Ashcroft made a mark promoting social issues, particularly with his stance against abortion; he appeared on national television to defend a restrictive Missouri abortion law passed under his administration.<ref name="larsen 2004 146"/> He also supported treating juvenile offenders as adults, and he nominated judges to the Missouri Supreme Court who supported his views.<ref name="larsen 2004 146"/> By the end of his second term, state spending had risen to more than $10&nbsp;billion, although he maintained that he supported greater fiscal discipline; when he left office in 1992, he began building campaign funds and, in 1994, ran for the seat held by Senator Danforth, who was retiring.<ref name="larsen 2004 146"/> Ashcroft won election by more than 400,000 votes against Democrat [[Alan Wheat]], a liberal African-American House representative from Kansas City.<ref name="larsen 2004 146"/>

[[File:MO Governors - 51 Melvin Carnahan (1993-2000) (52976484531).jpg|thumb|right|[[Mel Carnahan]] served as Governor of Missouri from 1993 until his death in a plane crash in 2000.]]
In 1992 [[Mel Carnahan]] won the gubernatorial election as a Democrat after a primary fight with [[St. Louis Mayor]] [[Vincent C. Schoemehl]]. Carnahan defeated then-state Attorney General [[William L. Webster]] in the general election. Carnahan won reelection in 1996 against State Auditor [[Margaret B. Kelly]]. Near the end of his second term, Carnahan announced his intention to challenge Ashcroft for the U.S. Senate seat that Ashcroft had won in 1994; during an intense campaign, Carnahan traveled frequently throughout the state.<ref name="larsen 2004 152">Larsen (2004), 152.</ref> On October 16, 2000, the plane in which he was traveling crashed near [[Goldman, Missouri]], killing the governor, his son (the pilot), and Chris Sifford, a campaign advisor.<ref name="larsen 2004 152"/> At his death, Lieutenant Governor [[Roger B. Wilson]] assumed the governorship; Mel Carnahan's widow, [[Jean Carnahan]], became the unofficial Democratic Party replacement against Ashcroft.<ref name="larsen 2004 152"/> Despite being deceased, Mel Carnahan ultimately defeated Ashcroft in the November election, and Jean Carnahan was appointed to the seat, becoming the first woman to serve Missouri in the U.S. Senate.<ref name="larsen 2004 152"/> Roger Wilson, who did not run for governor in 2000, was replaced by [[Bob Holden]], a Democrat who defeated [[Jim Talent]] of Chesterfield in the general election.<ref name="larsen 2004 153">Larsen (2004), 153.</ref>

===Social change and education===
Missouri generally made slow progress toward equal rights for African Americans during the postwar period.<ref name="larsen 117">Larsen (2004), 117.</ref> Due to World War II, Missouri's black population had increased and concentrated in the two urban areas of St. Louis and Kansas City.<ref name="greene 1980 160">Greene (1980), 160.</ref> In 1950 in Jackson County (including Kansas City), the black population was 57,000, representing 10.5 percent of the total; in St. Louis County and St. Louis City, the combined black population stood at 171,000, making up 13.6 percent of the total.<ref name="greene 1980 161">Greene (1980), 161.</ref> 154,500 blacks lived in the city of St. Louis alone, representing 18 percent of the city.<ref name="greene 1980 161"/> The black population that did not live in the urban areas lived in the Bootheel or along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers.<ref name="greene 1980 161"/> In the rural areas, blacks lived in extreme poverty; in the case of [[Cropperville, Missouri|Cropperville]], a remnant community of former sharecroppers, average wages were $50 a year, and many residents lived in tents.<ref name="greene 1980 161"/>

After the war black workers were paid less than white workers and tended to be employed in menial positions.<ref name="greene 1980 161"/> In 1950, of the 109,000 black workers in the state, more than 100,000 were employed in service, menial labor, or unskilled industry.<ref name="greene 1980 161"/> Blacks often could not obtain white collar jobs or promotions, and they were frequently fired first in layoffs.<ref name="greene 1980 161"/> In 1950, wages for St. Louis blacks were 58 percent of average wages for whites, while unemployment for blacks in St. Louis was 15 percent in 1954, 2.5 times higher than rates for whites.<ref name="greene 1980 161"/>

[[File:George-washington-carver-nmon-2.jpg|right|thumb|The [[George Washington Carver National Monument]] near [[Diamond, Missouri]] was the first [[U.S. National Monument]] dedicated to a non-President and the first for an African-American.]]
Several black Missourians made some progress in social status during the postwar period.<ref name="greene 1980 169"/> The National Park Service dedicated the birthplace of [[George Washington Carver]] as a national monument in 1943, making it the first national monument dedicated in honor of a black person.<ref name="greene 1980 169"/> In 1945, Oscar Ficklin, a St. Louis chemist, became the first black named foreman of a jury.<ref name="greene 1980 169"/> Also in 1945, St. Louis elected J.C. Castron, the first black man on the Board of Aldermen.<ref name="greene 1980 170">Greene (1980), 170.</ref> The next year, the city elected William A. Massingale to the General Assembly, and in 1948, Kansas City elected J. McKinley Neal, the second black person from that area to the legislature.<ref name="greene 1980 170"/> President Dwight Eisenhower named St. Louisan [[J. Ernest Wilkins, Sr.]] to be U.S. Assistant Secretary of Labor in 1954.<ref name="greene 1980 170"/> Black scholars working in Missouri also began to achieve greater fame during the 1940s and 1950s, including [[Lorenzo Greene]] and [[Oliver Cox]].<ref name="greene 1980 171">Greene (1980), 171.</ref>

The employment discrimination of the postwar period continued well into the 1950s and 1960s.<ref name="greene 1993 178">Greene (1993), 178.</ref>

[[File:Shelley house lg.jpg|left|thumb|upright|The [[Shelley House (St. Louis, Missouri)|Shelley House]] in St. Louis was the focus of a 1948 U.S. Supreme Court case that prohibited [[restrictive covenant]]s in housing.]]
Housing discrimination also affected the black population of Missouri after the war.<ref name="greene 1980 162">Greene (1980), 162.</ref> Blacks found it difficult to obtain loans for housing, and real estate agents colluded to prevent blacks from purchasing homes in predominantly white neighborhoods.<ref name="greene 1980 162"/> In St. Louis, a landmark civil rights case related to housing discrimination emerged from a lawsuit filed in the late 1940s.<ref name="greene 1980 163"/> In August 1945, the black Shelley family bought a house at 4600 Labadie in St. Louis, despite a restrictive covenant prohibiting its purchase by blacks.<ref name="greene 1980 163"/> A neighbor family filed suit to prevent the sale; an initial court ruling refused to evict the Shelleys, followed by a Missouri Supreme Court ruling that called for the enforcement of the covenant.<ref name="greene 1980 164">Greene (1980), 164.</ref> Finally, in May 1948, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in ''[[Shelley v. Kraemer]]'' that restrictive covenants violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.<ref name="greene 1980 164"/> Despite this landmark ruling, Missouri continued to encourage restrictive covenants because of a state court ruling that allowed lawsuits for damages due to violation of the covenants (this practice continued until 1953).<ref name="greene 1980 164"/> Even after the end of lawsuits for damages, informal discrimination in housing continued well into the 1950s because of a practice among realtor groups of expelling members who sold homes to blacks in white neighborhoods.<ref name="greene 1980 164"/> It would not be until the 1970s that Missouri passed a fair housing law that prohibited many of the discriminatory practices.<ref name="greene 1993 177">Greene (1993), 177.</ref>

Blacks also experienced widespread discrimination in public accommodations during the 1940s and 1950s in Missouri.<ref name="greene 1980 162"/> In some cases, separate facilities were provided for blacks, while in others, blacks were not permitted to use any facilities.<ref name="greene 1980 162"/> In 1947, Lincoln University rented the high school stadium of the Jefferson City Public Schools; when Jefferson City informed the university that its black students would not be permitted to use the showers or lockers for its homecoming game, the university was forced to forfeit its rental fee.<ref name="greene 1980 163">Greene (1980), 163.</ref> In 1950 and 1953, the public pools of St. Louis and Kansas City were desegregated due to court order.<ref name="greene 1980 165">Greene (1993), 165.</ref> Only in 1965, due to the threat of federal intervention, the General Assembly passed the Missouri Public Accommodation Act to prohibit discrimination in public places.<ref name="greene 1993 178"/>

====School integration====
In the early 1950s legal challenges led to the admission of black students to the University of Missouri, which had heretofore been a white-only institution.<ref name="greene 1980 167">Greene (1980), 167.</ref> From 1950 to 1954, no less than four attempts were made by black families to enroll their students in white schools in Kansas City, St. Louis County, and St. Louis City.<ref name="greene 1980 168">Green (1980), 168.</ref> In one case in St. Louis city, a black college student attempted to enroll at the whites-only Harris Teachers College (then owned by the St. Louis Public Schools); courts rejected the student's lawsuit on the grounds that the faculties, libraries, and laboratories of the Stowe Teachers College were substantially equal to those at Harris.<ref name="greene 1980 168"/> In another St. Louis case, the schools canceled a class rather than permit a black student to enroll, after a court ordered the district to allow black students to enroll in white schools when their own schools did not offer certain classes.<ref name="greene 1980 168"/> In Kansas City, 150 black students attempted to enroll at a white school; despite their schools not offering gymnasiums or auditoriums, their attempt was rejected.<ref name="greene 1980 168"/> Finally, in 1954, a black student attempted to enroll in Kirkwood School District (in suburban St. Louis); the decision was stayed by the U.S. Court of Appeals in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's expected ruling in five desegregation cases collectively known as ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]''.<ref name="greene 1980 169">Greene (1980), 169.</ref>

After the ruling in ''Brown v. Board of Education'' Missouri Attorney General [[John M. Dalton]] issued a recommendation that Missouri's school segregation laws were void.<ref name="greene 1980 174">Greene (1980), 174.</ref> Despite this, several Missouri districts refused to comply with the ruling; schools in [[Charleston, Missouri|Charleston]] avoided integration until the mid-1960s, along with several other Bootheel districts.<ref name="greene 1980 174"/> In many cases, black students were assigned to schools more than 30 miles from their homes, beyond white schools, and many libraries and parks remained off limits to black students.<ref name="greene 1980 174"/> In addition, many black teachers were laid off after integration.<ref name="greene 1980 174"/> In Moberly, eleven black teachers were laid off in 1955, and more than 125 teachers lost their jobs in mid-Missouri.<ref name="greene 1980 174"/> Desegregation in St. Louis and Kansas City took place in 1955, but it nonetheless was a slow process.<ref name="greene 1980 174"/>

During the 1980s and 1990s inner suburbs of Kansas City and St. Louis began to lose population, while outer suburban areas increased dramatically in size.<ref name="larsen 45">Larsen (2004), 45.</ref> Wealthy suburban cities such as [[Mission Hills, Kansas|Mission Hills]] of Kansas City and [[Ladue, Missouri|Ladue]] and [[Creve Coeur, Missouri|Creve Coeur]] of St. Louis continued to exert influence beyond their size during the late 20th century.<ref name="larsen 46">Larsen (2004), 46.</ref> Many suburban communities began to accumulate traits of traditional, comprehensive cities by luring business and annexing area.<ref name="larsen 46"/> Although the two cities of St. Louis and Kansas City continued to be the urban anchors of the state, five of the six other largest cities grew in population from 1960 to 2000.<ref name="larsen 47">Larsen (2004), 47.</ref>

===Agricultural and economic life===
From the end of World War II through the 1990s, Missouri agriculture underwent significant changes.<ref name="larsen 8">Larsen (2004), 8.</ref> In 1945, Missouri had more than 240,000 farms; by 1997, the number of farms decreased by 59 percent to less than 99,000.<ref name="larsen 8"/> A variety of technological innovations and advances caused the decline, which allowed fewer Missouri farmers to produce an equivalent amount of food.<ref name="larsen 9">Larsen (2004), 9.</ref> In tandem, rural Missouri counties lost population, and during the period of 1954 to 1997, the average size of Missouri farms increased from 170 to nearly 300 acres.<ref name="larsen 9"/> Despite these structural changes, crop yields were stable during the period, and the state continued to have a relatively diverse agricultural base.<ref name="larsen 9"/><ref name="larsen 10">Larsen (2004), 10.</ref>

Another area of economic change during the late 20th century was the decline of lumbering and milling.<ref name="larsen 11">Larsen (2004), 11.</ref> During the 1920s, as a result of overcutting, the [[Long-Bell Lumber Company]] moved most of its Missouri operations to other states, and much of Missouri's woodlands were depleted by the 1950s.<ref name="larsen 11"/> By the late 20th century, shortleaf pine forests had been largely replaced by smaller woods of hardwood trees.<ref name="larsen 11"/> Despite its decline from importance, in 2001, lumbering was a $3&nbsp;billion industry.<ref name="larsen 12">Larsen (2004), 12.</ref>

During the 1960s lead mining again became a significant industry in Missouri as a result of the 1948 discovery of the Viburnum Trend in the New Lead Belt region of the [[Southeast Missouri Lead District]].<ref name="larsen 12"/> The Old Lead Belt (also part of the Southeast Missouri Lead District) suffered a slow decline, however, and the last of the mines in that region closed by 1972.<ref name="larsen 12"/> Both iron and coal mining also expanded during the late 1960s; however, employment in mining declined overall during the late 20th century.<ref name="larsen 12"/>

Among the fastest growing segments of the economy was the accommodation and food services industry, but it was paired with a steep decline in manufacturing.<ref name="larsen 15">Larsen (2004), 15.</ref> Among the greatest declines was that of stockyards and meatpacking; in 1944, Kansas City was the second-largest meatpacking city in the United States, but by the 1990s, the city had neither packing plants nor stockyards.<ref name="larsen 15"/> In addition, garment manufacturing, which had previously employed thousands of workers in Kansas City prior to the 1950s, fell out of existence by the late 1990s.<ref name="larsen 15"/> Statewide, another industry that declined dramatically was shoemaking, which employed fewer than 3,000 Missourians in 2001.<ref name="larsen 20">Larsen (2004), 20.</ref>

Despite its decline, manufacturing continued to play a role in the state's economy. Kansas City maintained a manufacturing base in its eastern Leeds industrial district, including automotive plants and an atomic weapon components plant.<ref name="larsen 16">Larsen (2004), 16.</ref> St. Louis maintained an industrial base with Anheuser-Busch, Monsanto, Ralston Purina, and several automotive plants.<ref name="larsen 18">Larsen (2004), 18.</ref> In the other four urban areas of the state (Springfield, St. Joseph, Joplin, and Columbia), the largest economic sector was manufacturing, with a combined output of more than $10&nbsp;billion.<ref name="larsen 19">Larsen (2004), 19.</ref>

A relatively new sector of the Missouri economy developed in 1994 with the legalization of riverboat gambling in the state.<ref name="larsen 34">Larsen (2004), 34.</ref> The [[United States Army Corps of Engineers]] denied riverboat gambling cruises, which in practice led to permanently moored barges with extensive superstructures.<ref name="larsen 34"/> Missouri gambling also included a lottery, which had been in place for several years prior to the legalization of casino gaming.<ref name="larsen 34"/>