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ST. LOUIS — The life of a St. Louis baseball player and musician who prospered after being born into slavery was commemorated Monday by more than a dozen of his descendants at Calvary Cemetery.

Sylvester Chauvin I’s grave had been left unmarked since his death in 1919, but on Monday, it got a brand new headstone. The marker, said descendant Robin Proudie, ensures he will never be forgotten.

“They owned the bones, but not our soul. They owned the savagery, but not our humanity. They owned the degradation, but we are the hopes and dreams of those enslaved,� said Proudie.

Proudie has worked over the past year to form the Descendants of the St. Louis University Enslaved, after learning more about her ancestry through the university’s . The school’s project informing descendants of their ancestry is part of a national effort from the Jesuit and Catholic communities to acknowledge a troubled history as one of the largest slave-holding institutions in the country.

Monday’s headstone dedication was funded by the , founded about 20 years ago by Illinois anesthesiologist Jeremy Krock, who also attended the ceremony.

“It’s a handsome marker. I like the polished gray granite and the deep chiseled letters, but it’s an uncomfortable marker to look at. It contains unforgivable and unforgettable history,� said Krock.

Krock’s organization, relying heavily on research from historian , has laid about 50 headstones on the unmarked graves of Black baseball players across the country.

Chauvin caught the organization’s attention when members learned he fielded ground balls and caught fly balls as a third baseman and right fielder for the St. Louis Black Stockings, one of the country’s early Black baseball clubs. He also played the trumpet, trombone and clarinet with ragtime bands in the St. Louis area, although his brother, Louis Chauvin, was the more well-known musician in the family. Sylvester Chauvin died at the age of 58.

“The hurt and the hate. We can never get to the healing with the hurt and the hate,� said  Safiyah Chauvin, who said she is a descendant of Sylvester Chauvin. “As that (truth) comes out, only then can America and the rest of the world who had enslaved people, heal.�

Monday’s ceremony was orchestrated by local media icon Bernie Hayes, who read a proclamation from the mayor’s office at the ceremony.

The Chauvin ancestors were some of the enslaved people brought to Missouri from Maryland in the 1820s and 1830s. Through profits earned from a farm here, the Jesuits established St. Louis University and St. Stanislaus Seminary in Florissant.

Since 2019, the Jesuit community, through , has identified descendants of people enslaved by the Jesuits.

Proudie said she hopes her organization will help educate, preserve history, bring families together and commemorate their ancestors.

“We also have to tell our stories from our own perspective,� she said.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Safiyah Chauvin's name.