The Four Hundred Club
The Four Hundred Club of St. Louis appears to have taken its name from Ward McAllister, self-appointed arbiter of New York society from the 1860s to the early 1890s. According to him, Four Hundred was the number of people in New York who really mattered; the people who felt at ease in the ballrooms of high society.
The Bill Curtis Saloon was the headquarters for the Four Hundred Club. The club strongly supported the city’s Democratic Party.
J.C. Covington, financial secretary of the Four Hundred Club, wrote a letter to the St. Louis Star Sayings printed on 29 December, 1895 (four ays after the shooting).
The Four Hundred Club was organized December 6, 1895, for the moral and physical culture of young colored men. We contemplate no acts of violence, and as law-abiding citizens and voters we stand ready and willing to protect the laws of our city, State and the United States. Our order was organized with Mr. Will Richmond as president, Robert Lee as secretary and Mr. Lee [Lee Shelton] as captain.
A St. Louis newspaper later printed a letter to the editor from members of the Four Hundred Club, stating that “Mr. Lee was our captain. We deeply regret the situation into which our unfortunate … brother has fallen.”