July 23rd, 2020 Edition

St. LouiS AmericAn

‘The conscience of the Congress’

Civil rights icon U.S. Rep John

Lewis passes at 80

By Kenya Vaughn Of The St. Louis American

U.S. Representative John R. Lewis spent his youth putting his life on the line across the South in the name of equality for Black people. It was a fight he eventually carried into the halls of Congress, where he served for more than 30 years. After a life dedicated to racial equity and social justice, Lewis passed away from pancreatic cancer on Friday, July 17. He was 80 years old.

“He loved this country so much that he risked his life and his blood so that it might live up to its promise,” said President Barack Obama. “And through the decades, he not only gave all of himself to the cause of freedom and justice, but inspired generations that folSee LEWIS, A19

Gardner attacked for charging McCloskeys

By Chris King Of The St. Louis American

St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner – the first Black person to serve as the city’s chief prosecutor – has charged two wealthy white attorneys for flourishing weapons at peaceful protestors. Powerful Republicans – the president, the governor, a U.S. senator and the state attorney general – attacked her and defended the accused. And a Black congressman, two state representatives, and Missouri’s own wall of moms have risen in her defense.

All the while, Gardner is working under death threats while campaigning for office. In fact, every elected official caught up in this battle is on the August 4 ballot, which helps to explain the furor.

On Monday, July 20, Gardner charged both Mark and Patricia McCloskey with unlawful use of a weapon, which is a Class E felony. The charges stem from the McCloskeys confronting peaceful protestors with weapons when they passed in front of their home on a private street in the Central West End on June 28.

“It is illegal to wave weapons in a threatening manner at those participating in nonviolent protest, and while we are fortunate this situation did not escalate into deadly force, this type of conduct is unacceptable in St. Louis,” Gardner said. The McCloskeys’ attorney Joel J. Schwartz said they will

By Rebecca Rivas

Photo by Wiley Price

Photo: CNN

John Lewis revisited the scene of his most famous battle at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, two years after the March on Washington.

St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner

By Rebecca Rivas

Bordeaux,

Photo by Carolina Hidalgo/St. Louis Public Radio

Kim breaks her silence regarding Kanye

A week of bizarre behavior from Kanye West that kicked off with a presidential campaign rally where he broke down in tears after making comments about wife Kim Kardashian West and their alleged exploration of the option of terminating her pregnancy while carrying daughter North. West, who admitted he was diagnosed as bipolar, continued to make statements on Twitter regarding his marriage, his mother-in-law and children. He accused Kim of having an affair with Meek Mill (and said that he has been demanding a divorce. He also called mother-in-law Kris Jenner a white supremacist and claimed his life has been “like the movie ‘Get Out.’ Kim issued a statement on her social media asking for grace, compassion and privacy as Kanye’s mental health crisis. An excerpt from the statement reads as follows:

I’ve never spoken publicly about how this has affected us at home because I am very protective of our children and Kanye’s right to privacy when it comes to his health.

But today, I feel like I should comment on it because of the stigma and misconceptions about mental health. Those that understand mental illness or even compulsive behavior know that the family is powerless unless the member is a minor. People who are unaware or far removed from this experience can be judgmental and not understand that the individual themselves have to engage in the process of getting help no matter how hard family and friends try.

“As many of you know, Kanye has bi-polar disorder. Anyone who has this or has a loved one in their life who does, knows how incredibly complicated and painful it is to understand.

baby bump in a tiny bikini and she captioned the image “#preggers.”

Minaj – who is married to Kenneth “Zoo” Petty – first sparked speculation about her pregnancy in May after discussing her food cravings and feelings of “nausea.”

Minaj listed the bizarre food combinations she had been cooking up and said that whilst she had not been throwing up, but she felt sick.

Official investigation launched for Megan Thee Stallion shooting

I understand Kanye is subject to criticism because he is a public figure and his actions at times can cause strong opinions and emotions. He is a brilliant but complicated person who, on top of the pressures of being an artist and a Black man, who experienced the painful loss of his mother and has to deal with the pressure and isolation that is heightened by his bi-polar disorder. Those who are close with Kanye know his heart and understand his words sometimes do not align with his intentions.”

Nicki Minaj reveals baby bump via Instagram

Nicki Minaj is pregnant. The 37-yearold rapper took to Instagram to show off her

Canadian rapper Tory Lanez has been accused of shooting Houston rapper Megan The Stallion after a night out together in the Hollywood Hills last week.

According to TMZ, detectives have launched an official investigation.

“Tory hasn’t been named a suspect, but our law enforcement sources say cops are lasered in on him,” the celebrity news and gossip site said.

TMZ is also reporting that law enforcement is having a difficult time getting witnesses to cooperate.

Tamar moved to facility focusing on mental health after hospitalization

Tamar Braxton is “awake and communicating” after being hospitalized following being found unresponsive in a hotel over the weekend.

A source told E! News that the singer and reality television personality was transferred to a “new hospital specializing in mental health care.”

“Tamar is not out of the woods by any means. Doctors are still keeping a very close eye on her for her safety,” the insider told us. “Tamar has been committed to working on her mental health for some time, but she experienced some setbacks during the last year, finding quarantine to be particularly difficult.”

Meanwhile, Megan took to Twitter to voice her disgust with how social media is making light of the shooting.

“It might be funny to y’all on the internet and just another messy topic for you to talk about, but this is my life, Megan tweeted. “And I’m real life hurt and traumatized.”

The 43-year-old star’s health update comes a few days after she was found unconscious by her boyfriend, David Adefeso, who called 911.

A rep for the “Braxton Family Values” star issued a statement to celebrity legal news site “The Blast.”

“The outpouring of support that Tamar has received is a testament to the light that she brings to people,” the statement read. “Out of respect for Tamar’s privacy and that of her family, no additional information is available at this time.”

Sources: Instagram.com, TMZ.com, The Blast, Twitter.com, E! News

Tamar Braxton

Megan Thee Stallion

Pine Lawn breaks ground on park upgrade

‘We want kids to be able to be kids’

By Chris King Of The St. Louis American

When a Pine Lawn resident was offered a program for the groundbreaking ceremony, he asked for another one “for my neighbor.” It was just a piece of paper announcing improvements to a small municipal park, but this was important and good news for this small North County town of 3,275 people, 96.4% of whom were Black in the 2010 Census. The median household income is about $30,000.

Pelton Jackson Park — named for a former mayor, now deceased — is getting a playground, a walking path and exercise equipment. It’s located in the 4th Ward in the municipality’s northeast corner, between C&K Barbecue and I-70.

Mayor Terry Epps welcomed a group of local children to join him at the podium before the groundbreaking with goldembossed shovels on Friday, July 10. “Come on, babies, this is for you,” Epps said to the children. “This is for you all to have fun in a safe environment. It’s for you to have a healthy place to play.” Pine Lawn is adjacent to the highest-crime areas of the City of St. Louis identified by Police Chief John Hayden as “Hayden’s rectangle.” Pine Lawn, however, is policed by the North County Police Cooperative, which also patrols Wellston, Vinita Terrace, Vinita Park, Beverly Hills, Velda Village Hills and Charlack. Police Chief John Buchannan and a half-dozen uniformed officers attended the groundbreaking. Epps said of the officers, “We’re family.” Even in this moment of intense policecommunity strife, the officers certainly looked like family, sitting or standing comfortably among residents and officials and applauding along to the program. It takes a village to improve a small municipal park, it would seem. The State of Missouri and St. Louis County helped with grants. Victoria Schmitt Babb of Play 4 All

raised additional funds from the Lohr family and Royal Foods. The St. Louis Community Foundation helped to fund an earlier phase of the project, and four design or construction firms are working on it.

Rodney Robinson, consulting engineer on the project, said that Pine Lawn now has municipal parks in three of its four wards. The city’s aldermen attended the ceremony but humbly could not be persuaded to speak, and they were asked many times. Workers bees, they were heard saying after the ceremony that they would meet back at the city’s Public Works — that is, go back to work

improving their city.

“We want kids to be able to be kids, to play and enjoy themselves,” Robinson said. “We want families to come to the park and have barbecues. We’ll have a walking trail and exercise equipment out here. This is a big deal for us.”

Another resident crept up on the ceremony toward the end and was watching from a distance. He was already seeing future potential beyond this phase two of the park’s makeover. “That looks big enough for a ball field,” the man said. “I want to see some Little League in Pine Lawn.”

n “I am honored to share the personal stories of African Americans in our region grappling with this unprecedented, devastating pandemic.”

– Sylvester Brown Jr.

all coverage areas. He starts July 15.

“We must tell our own stories to survive this crisis,” said Rev. Dr. Starsky Wilson, president and CEO of the Deaconess Foundation. “If we forget the faces and names of those we’ve lost, we won’t sustain the focus for just recovery.” Brown is the author of the book When We Listen: Recognizing the Potential of Urban Youth, the former publisher of Take Five Magazine, former columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and among the most respected writers and journalists in the St. Louis region.

“I am honored to chosen as the Deaconess Fellow with The St. Louis American newspaper,” Brown said. “My goal is to use my 30-plus years of journalism and storytelling experience to share the personal stories of African Americans in our region grappling with this unprecedented, devastating pandemic.”

“A fellowship, as a relatively brief commitment, is often awarded to very young professional as a kind of exploratory gap year,” said Donald M. Suggs, publisher and executive editor of The St. Louis American. “But when Rev. Wilson reminded us of the importance of narrative, we reflected that a seasoned storyteller might be better equipped. Sylvester came to mind right away.”

Not only will Brown report on the pandemic across all coverage areas, he will tell stories in a range of media. Look for his work on stlamerican.com and The St. Louis American’s social media as well as in the print edition of the newspaper. Those who wish to suggest a story to Brown or add him to a distribution list, email or add him at sbrown@stlamerican.com.

Photo by Wiley Price

Pine Lawn Mayor Terry Epps spoke at a groundbreaking at Pelton Jackson Park on Friday, July 10 after being introduced by Rodney Robinson, consulting engineer on the project.

Editorial /CommEntary

The St. Louis American endorses …

Michelle Sherod for Missouri Senate

Jamilah Nasheed is term-limited in Missouri’s 5th Senatorial District and has endorsed Michelle Sherod to succeed her. While there are five other candidates on the ballot, only two others deserve serious consideration, and we believe both –Alderwoman Megan Ellyia Green and state Rep. Steve Roberts, who chairs the Missouri Legislative Black Caucus – have shown great public value in their present roles. We express solidarity with Nasheed, whose work for her constituents has been tireless and effective, and with other Black women running for office under a deluge of negative attacks, such as St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner and St. Louis Treasurer Tishaura O. Jones, whom we have previously endorsed. Sherod has the grit of the daughter of a widowed mother of seven who grew up cleaning houses and put herself through law school. She also has the deep experience of a political professional; she was the first AfricanAmerican deputy state auditor and ran U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill’s St. Louis regional office. Sherod has intimate practical experience with how laws are made and how constituents are served and has an even, measured temperament that would be productive in Republicandominated Jefferson City. Her background as a CPA also would be essential in a Legislature working with huge budget shortfalls caused by the pandemic. Sherod told us, “I am a prepared, ethical, pragmatic, strong leader, who has the personal skills to be effective even in this red state,” and we agree. We endorse MICHELLE SHEROD FOR MISSOURI SENATE

Wm. Lacy Clay for Congress

U.S. Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay (D-Missouri), who is currently serving his 10th term in Congress, faces a primary challenge from Cori Bush, a protest leader and pastor with strong progressive grassroots support; another candidate, Katherine (Kat) Bruckner, has not mounted any appreciable campaign. Clay versus Bush is a rematch of the 2018 Democratic primary, when the incumbent won by nearly 30,000 votes, 56.7% to 36.9%. While Bush’s presence on the streets and resonance in the community are compelling and appreciated, Clay remains the pragmatic choice. Clay has never made much pretense of being an on-the-ground community leader, but he has good political skills and a progressive voting record in the Congress; indeed, it would be difficult for even Bush to beat him for a progressive vote or quote in support of Black lives. More importantly for our community, his seniority and close relationships with leadership make him a serious powerbroker – particularly in a Democratic-led House where close working relationships with leadership are critical to effectiveness in bringing federal resources home to the district. We commend Bush for running for Congress and driving this legacy congressman to the left and towards the grassroots, but we believe Clay’s seniority, relationships with leadership, and legislative experience will be critical assets in the next two years. We endorse U.S. REP. WM. LACY CLAY FOR CONGRESS

Tommie Pierson Jr. for Missouri Senate

In the 13th Senate District, term-limited Gena Walsh has two strong Black candidates competing to succeed her (a third, Angela Walton Mosley, has few credentials other than hailing from a local political dynasty). In their respective primaries for state representative in 2018, Alan Green (District 67) garnered nearly twice as many votes as Tommie Pierson Jr. (District 66), and we believe that Green is a formidable opponent and would be an effective state senator. Pierson, however, who was first elected in 2016, rose quickly to the leadership position of assistant minority floor leader and has a brilliance and charisma that are in short supply in our political landscape. The son of a pastor (and state rep-

resentative) who started his own church rather than take over his father’s – and did so after earning a math degree at Washington University – Pierson has the makings of a rising political star in a fairly bright field. We hope state Senate is the next perch in his ascent. He has substantial labor endorsements, demonstrating his support from Walsh’s former base, as well as endorsements from Planned Parenthood Advocates and The Ecumenical Leadership Council. Pierson would join state Senator Brian Williams as young, polished Black professionals in the state Senate with the potential to provide skilled and principled political leadership of our community for decades to come. We strongly endorse TOMMIE PIERSON JR. FOR MISSOURI SENATE.

Darryl Gray for Missouri House of Representatives

Though a former state senator in Kansas, Darryl Gray burst onto the St. Louis scene as a protest leader during the Stockley verdict protests, and he remains on the streets as a leader in Expect Us protests against police brutality. A reverend who has the Ecumenical Leadership Council’s endorsement, he is righteous and fearless but also savvy in his attempts to leverage the power of protest in direct negotiation with power brokers, and we believe this skill set would be very valuable in the Missouri Legislature. Gray, who lost a bid for 18th Ward alderman in 2019, has an uphill battle against KimberlyAnn Collins, who garnered 2,847 votes in the 77th District in 2018, when she lost to Steve Roberts Jr. Though Collins’ continuing work to win votes must be overcome by Gray, who has spent so much of his time fighting for change on the streets, we believe he is the kind of fighter we need in Jefferson City. We strongly endorse DARRYL GRAY FOR MISSOURI HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Rasheen Aldridge Jr. for Missouri House of Representatives

Rasheen Aldridge Jr. was unopposed in the special election to succeed state Rep. Bruce Franks Jr. in House District 78 when Franks stepped down in mid-term last year, and he is unopposed in his first primary bid. It is not difficult to see why no one would want to oppose him. A youth organizer for the $15 minimum wage galvanized by the Ferguson Uprising who remains on the streets as an Expect Us organizer of police brutality protests, Aldridge is as widely trusted and beloved as Franks, which is really saying something. Aldridge has an unerring moral compass, bottomless courage, serious organizing skills, deep knowledge of the needs of his community, and a sharp intellect. We urge him to remain in the often-discouraging realm of politics, where he continues to lead other young people by example in a way that few can. We strongly endorse RASHEEN ALDRIDGE JR. FOR MISSOURI HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Jill Schupp for Congress

Jill Schupp has no primary opponent in her bid to unseat U.S. Representative Ann Wagner, which shows commendable discipline for a Missouri Democratic Party that senses a rare opportunity to flip a U.S. House seat. Schupp is a strong candidate to do so. She earned our respect in 2014 by (narrowly) beating a Republican opponent named John Ashcroft for state Senate after serving six years in the state House of Representatives (with prior stints on the Creve Coeur City Council and the Ladue School Board, including two terms as board president). With her record of fighting – and sometimes working expediently with – the Republican supermajority in Jefferson City, not to mention beating at the polls a Missouri Republican named Ashcroft, we believe Schupp would be a very effective voice for our community in Washington, D.C. We strongly endorse JILL SCHUPP FOR U.S. CONGRESS.

Closing The Workhouse is only the beginning

By Mike Milton For The St. Louis American

Author Robin D.G Kelley once said: “Without new visions, we don’t know what to build, only what to knock down.” Two years ago, in the spring of 2018, a group of organizers came together to envision St. Louis without The Workhouse and create an organizing strategy to get us there. We wanted to build on the dreams of leaders and advocates who originally called for its closure in 2016. We wanted to build a city where our children would never have to see the inside of those cells. As the bill to close the Workhouse approaches a final vote, that dream is closer than ever. Historically, The Workhouse was an inevitable stop in Black communities. It was known for its horrible conditions, violence, and consistent overcrowding. We knew it tore apart Black families and caused joblessness and housing instability—weakening our community and leading to additional trauma and violence. We knew that people would plead guilty to crimes they didn’t commit just to avoid being incarcerated there, burdening them with criminal records for the rest of their lives. We knew that the defense of Black lives meant we had to close this jail and cast a new vision for St. Louis. When the campaign to Close the Workhouse launched two years ago, over 98% of those detained at the jail were held pretrial, mostly because of cash bail. A full 86% of the jail population was Black, even though our community makes up less than 50% of St. Louis’ population. Since 2018, The Bail Project, a core member of the campaign, has provided free bail assistance for over 1,300 individuals in the Workhouse alone and more than 3,000 across the St. Louis region. Due to our bailouts efforts, civil litigation filed by ArchCity Defenders, grassroots organizing by Action St. Louis and Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner’s work to

We

decrease mass incarceration, the Workhouse now holds less than 100 individuals and the reasons for closing it—from the human cost to the financial burden on taxpayers—could not be more evident. But closing The Workhouse is only the beginning. This infamous jail is a symptom of systemic racism and our city’s failure to invest meaningfully in marginalized communities. Its imminent closure is a concrete victory to celebrate, but beyond the walls and steel, the systemic issues of poverty, institutional racism, and public health inequities, which drive so many of our community members into the criminal legal system, remain and must be addressed.

The campaign to close the Workhouse was never just a demand that our city stop criminalizing poverty and race and stop pouring millions of taxpayer dollars into a jail. It was and remains a call for investment in education, health, affordable housing, and employment opportunities for St. Louis’s most marginalized. Our detailed plan for how to reallocate funds provides a roadmap map for our city government to actually serve the needs of our community. The proposed bill takes a similar approach and includes provisions that would redistribute funds from the jail to hire social workers to help people with mental health needs and create resources in neighborhoods with high crime rates through a participatory budgeting process.

These are significant steps in the right direction, but to ensure their success we must also say never again to another jail. Not in our name. Not when we know that the real crime is our poverty rates, segregation, and relegating those most vulner-

able to the margins of society.

The Bail Project’s clients in St. Louis provide a snapshot of the larger issues we are facing as a community: Nearly one-third of our clients shared they had a mental health diagnosis. Over one-third said they struggled with drug addiction. Over two-thirds of our clients in St. Louis are Black, many struggling with unstable housing, and lack of employment opportunities.

Policy changes are necessary to address these systemic issues but they will not be enough on their own. We must also come together and work to address inter-community harm. Community-led initiatives have the potential to truly demonstrate what is possible outside a carceral system. Initiatives like Cure Violence St Louis are designed to interrupt intercommunity violence by helping de-escalate conflict and soon Faith For Justice, a faith-based advocacy group, will launch a Community Healing Fund to support survivors of violence and families with emergency financial resources to help them stay safe. We must keep envisioning new approaches that tap into our collective wisdom and solidarity, rather than the desire for retribution.

Closing the Workhouse could mark the beginning of a new kind of justice. Not the type that breaks individuals and communities through incarceration and over-policing, but a justice that restores the strength of our communities and builds mutual understanding, power, and resources to break cycles of trauma, violence, and poverty—a justice that is restorative and centered in transformation.

With The Workhouse era quickly coming to an end, we can begin casting this new vision, certain of what we must build in place of the systems we knock down.

Mike Milton is The Bail Project’s Statewide Policy and Advocacy manager for Missouri, director of Development for Faith for Justice and a long-time community organizer.

can’t risk children’s lives by reopening schools

By Marc H. Morial For The St. Louis American

“Common sense and intelligence can still determine what we do, even in this crazy environment,” said New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. “We’re not going to use our children as guinea pigs.”

Of the many questions the deadly coronavirus pandemic has forced the nation to confront, the question of whether to reopen schools is one of the toughest.

Experts agree that the shutdown is widening the racial achievement gap. Black parents are far more likely to work in jobs that can’t be done from home, so they’re less available to supervise at-home learning. More than one-third of low-income households with school-age children don’t have high-speed internet access, compared to just 6% of affluent households. One in four teenagers in a low-income household don’t have access to a computer.

Getting students safely back in school should be a top priority. But the Trump administration keeps ignoring the “safely” part. It’s true that children seem less susceptible to infection, but scientists aren’t sure why. Children under 19 represent 22 percent of the population, but only 5 percent of coronavirus cases. And 90 percent of children who con-

tracted the virus experienced mild or non-existent symptoms. But children with underlying conditions such as diabetes, congenital heart disease, seizures and obesity are at higher risk for serious symptoms. And far too little is known about a rare but serious complication of the virus known as multisymptom inflammatory disease, or the role children might play in spreading the virus to adults. Rather than devise a comprehensive plan do deal with the risks, the Trump administration wants to ignore them.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued guidelines for schools, but both President Trump and Vice President Pence have urged school districts not to follow them and have even pressured the CDC to change them. The National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, an influential committee of scientists and educators, this week issued a report that stressed the urgency for younger children to attend school in person. But the committee recommended safety guidelines even more stringent than the CDC’s, experts went

Marc H. Morial is president and CEO of the National Urban League. Commentary

further than guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, calling for surgical masks to be worn by all teachers and staff members during school hours, and for cloth face coverings to be worn by all students, including those in elementary school. According to an alarming report by the Washington Post, “White House officials hope Americans will grow numb to the escalating death toll and learn to accept tens of thousands of new cases a day.” Simply put: we will not. President Trump himself has pointed toward the experiences of countries like Germany, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, where reopened schools have not led to major outbreaks. But the virus is under far better control in Europe than it is in the United States. The U.S. has set new records for daily infections seven times in the span of 11 days. In the past two weeks, more than 692,000 new cases were reported in the U.S. The European Union, with one-third more residents, reported about one-twelfth as many cases. We desperately need to send children back to school. And we desperately need to reopen our economy. But we can’t do either until we bring the virus under control.

Guest Columnist Marc H. Morial

Guest Columnist Mike Milton

Snacking in peace

Jakayah Nelson, 2, enjoyed an afternoon snack while listening to speakers during the East St. Louis NAACP Peace March “A Call for Change” on July 9, in the Public Square of the St. Clair County Courthouse in Belleville, Ill.

League of Women Voters offering free notary services

The League of Women Voters of Metro St. Louis is fighting to make sure voters can cast their ballots safely and at no cost in the 2020 elections. While state law blocks notaries from charging a fee to notarize an absentee ballot, they can charge to notarize the new mail-in ballot legislators approved for voters concerned about COVID-19.

The new law waives the notary requirement for absentee ballots requested by voters over 65, living in a long-term care facility, or with one of the health issues the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says puts a person at higher risk of COVID-19. Starting on July 23, those voters can vote in person at the St. Louis City Board of Elections at 300 North Tucker or one of St. Louis County’s satellite voting sites (Recreational Complex on Redman Road in North County, St. Louis

County Library Mid-County Branch at 7821 Maryland Ave. in Clayton, 71 Clarkson Wilson Center, or Keller Plaza on South Lemay Ferry Road).

New mail-in ballots authorized in 2020 must be notarized and can only be returned by U.S. mail. Election officials say voters should allow up to 10 business days for mail service, which means mailing them by July 20 to arrive by 7 p.m. on Election Day.

The League is offering free notary services in its office at 8706 Manchester Rd. in Brentwood. Hours are from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. on Saturday. Several libraries are also offering notary services: Weber Road, Natural Bridge, Lewis & Clark, and Headquarters in St. Louis County; Baden, Barr, Carpenter, Central, Divall, Julia Davis, and Walnut Park in St. Louis City.

Roger Stone and Lamar Johnson

By Jamala Rogers For The St. Louis American

The man in the White House masquerading as a president flaunted his blatant disrespect of the law when he pardoned another one of his felon friends. At the same time, people like Lamar Johnson have been rotting for 25 years in a Missouri cage for a crime he didn’t commit. That’s why folks are still in the streets in righteous protests. It’s why St. Louis voters must re-elect Kimberly Gardner as circuit attorney on August 4.

Roger Stone was about to see how his fake gangsterism was going to hold up in federal prison until Trump came to his rescue. Stone was convicted of seven felonies including witness tampering, lying to federal investigations and obstruction of justice. Stone was stone-cold guilty of all the charges. Now, we’ll have to watch him strut around in the public square touting his victory. Stone is the sixth Trump crony to be convicted or who pled guilty of charges coming out of the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller. However, at least 14 of Trump’s aides and allies have been indicted or sent to prison – all busted doing the dirty work of the president. These were the ones who got caught. The biggest crook of them all is still in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. For now.

The case of Lamar Johnson is tragic because of the corruption by St. Louis prosecutors who framed an innocent man and sent him away from his family and community 25 years ago. A double tragedy is occurring because there’s no reason for Johnson to still be incarcerated other than he’s a Black man and a Black, female prosecutor is trying to right the wrong.

Johnson’s case was taken up by the Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU) set up by Circuit Attorney Gardner when she was elected. These offices are set up to investigate claims of innocence. Cases are reviewed for troubling legal issues at the time of conviction and the emergence of new evidence. Gardner’s office did a thorough investigation and found several unjust atrocities committed by police and prosecutors.

Gardner’s conclusion led her to file for a new trial on behalf of Johnson, but last year Circuit Judge Elizabeth Hogan ruled that such a motion should’ve been filed with 15 days of Johnson’s conviction. Yes, Hogan basically said Gardner’s motion was 24 years too late. News of the ruling went national, and prosecutors around the country urged Hogan not to use a procedure to block justice. It fell on deaf ears.

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt echoed that Gardner did not follow the proper process. Never mind that neither police nor prosecutors followed their respective processes in 1994. In fact, they broke the law. They have conspired to do this in many cases over many years.

The National Registry of Exonerations reports that there have been 2,644 exonerations since 1989 when it started tracking the injustices. There are thousands more people languishing in U.S. prisons while trying to prove their innocence. That’s a total of 23,500 years lost by victims and their families due to a racist, unjust system. The time and the life experiences can never be recovered.

Lamar Johnson and others whose cases have made their way to the CIU office sit in limbo as white folks in power try to keep the first AfricanAmerican prosecutor in St. Louis in her place. It’s reminiscent of the Dred Scott decision – that Black people have no rights that white people have to respect, whether you’re a prosecutor or the prosecuted.

Voters will go to the polls on August 4 to vote for circuit attorney. If motivation is what we need, I encourage you to have a visual in your head of a white, pompous criminal walking the streets a free man while a poor, Black innocent man sits in prison.

Photo by Wiley Price

Jamala Rogers

justice, equity and reimagining what public safety can look like,” said Kayla Reed, one of the leaders of the Close the Workhouse campaign that began two years ago.

Board Bill 92 was based on the Close the Workhouse campaign’s plan and included most of advocates’ suggested amendments. The bill will also create two funds of $7.6 million to address neighborhood safety and re-entry programs, which Reed said was just as important as closing the facility.

“If we use this money in a more effective and efficient manner, I think we will see a safer and better city,” said President of the Board of Aldermen Lewis Reed, who sponsored the bill. “And I think we’ll see the people who have formerly been detained coming out and leading productive lives.”

Many of the aldermen, including Lewis Reed, acknowledged the long journey that activists have endured to get this done. Alderman Dan Guenther recognized 9th Ward resident Inez Bordeaux for taking her first-hand experience at the Workhouse and becoming a powerful force for the Close the Workhouse campaign.

“She took her lived experience and made a campaign that has overwhelmed this city,” Guenther said during the Friday board meeting held on Zoom, “and has been able to get us to this point to where we can finally say in 2020 that we will close the Workhouse. To Inez, we love you and can’t say enough about the work you’ve done.” When Bordeaux first walked into the Workhouse in 2017, she said she could feel the “hopelessness.” It was festering like the black mold on the walls and rats running under the cell doors. Bordeaux, a mother of four, was working as a nurse at the time.

Bordeaux was arrested while driving for failing to report to a probation officer — an officer who had actually never been assigned to her, she said. She landed in the Workhouse with a bond set at $25,000. Because she earned less than $1,000 per month, she wasn’t able to pay even 10 percent of the bond and ended up spending 30 days in

the Workhouse awaiting a probation violation hearing. She ultimately lost her job and her nursing license.

“We’ve long held the belief that jails, prisons and police do not keep us safe — investment in people and communities does,” said Bordeaux, now manager of Community Collaborations at ArchCity Defenders and lead organizer with Close the Workhouse.

“While today is a win for the people who have survived the Workhouse and a big step for the entire campaign, we adamantly hold the belief that the Workhouse is irredeemable and should not be repurposed.”

The Close the Workhouse campaign is primarily led by three organizations: Action St. Louis, ArchCity Defenders, and Bail Project St. Louis. The campaign decries the city’s “unlawful cash bail system,” according to ArchCity Defenders.

“The Workhouse has disproportionately caged Black people who are legally presumed innocent but could not afford

Continued from A1

Government Center Keller Plaza (4554 Lemay Ferry Rd) and West County Government Center (74 Clarkson Wilson Centre). Locations and hours for these locations can be found at www.stlouisco.com/ elections. Voters should bring a driver’s license, a voter ID card

to make a monetary payment to buy their freedom,” ArchCity Defenders stated.

As of July 17, there were 86 inmates at the Workhouse. Since the start of the campaign, the population in the Workhouse has decreased by 84 percent, down from 516 people in April 2018, the campaign noted.

Jocelyn Garner is a mother and grandmother who spent five “terrifying months” in the Workhouse. Every day she worries about the people who are still in the jail, particularly during the pandemic.

munity, not to lock up its members. That’s what investing in public safety looks like.”

In the past two years, the campaign has canvassed local neighborhoods, held monthly meetings, organized phone banks and rallies, published two reports, and mobilized thousands of residents to build social momentum and political will for elected officials to close the jail, according to the campaign.

n “We’ll remain vigilant to ensure another jail is not built in its place. It is time to do right by St. Louis and reinvest in communities.”

– Inez Bordeaux

“The [$8] million that keeps it open every year should go to meeting people’s needs during this pandemic,” Garner said. “It should go towards job resources, investing in schools, mental health care, and housing. It should be used to help the com-

or utility bill, officials said. Many voters said they’ve been confused about whether they qualify for absentee voting under the new COVID-19 guidelines. The new reason Option 7, states that a voter

The campaign builds upon work started a decade previously by the ACLU of Missouri. In 2009, the ACLU published the report “Suffering in Silence: Human Rights Abuses in St. Louis Corrections Centers.”

One correction officer told the ACLU that “the concept of ‘care and custody doesn’t exist’ inside the Medium Security Institution. ‘It’s just control.’

is at high-risk for contracting COVID-19, including being over 65, immunocompromised, have diabetes, asthma, liver disease and other such conditions. Option 2 is that voters are “incapacity or confinement

That sentiment was echoed by every CO interviewed for this report.”

Lead author Redditt Hudson was assisted in his reporting by St. Louis American staff, though the newspaper declined taking credit to give the report a better chance of favorable coverage by other local media.

Just ‘a symbolic gesture’?

The bill directs the Commissioner of Corrections Dale Glass to begin the process of closing the jail. It also calls for housing space for detainees at the City Justice Center to be evaluated.

What it doesn’t do is ensure that the Workhouse can’t be used as a jail in the future.

The campaign tried to get this amendment passed, but the majority of Public Safety Committee members said they would not have passed the bill out of committee on July 7 with the amendment included.

Comptroller Darlene Green also tried to introduce the amendment during the Board

due to illness or physical disability, including a person who is primarily responsible for the physical care of a person who is incapacitated or confined due to illness or disability.”

However, in layman’s terms,

by

of Estimate & Apportionment’s July 15 meeting. Green warned that the current board bill “does not compel or ensure the closure of” the Workhouse and urged that do more than just make “a symbolic gesture.”

Neither Lewis Reed nor Mayor Lyda Krewson (who make up the other two members of the board) seconded the amendment to vote on it.

Lewis Reed still must introduce a bill outlining the participatory budget process, which details how communities will be able to spend the neighborhood fund, and the campaign is excited about this process, the campaign said.

Kayla Reed said the campaign will be “watching closely” as Glass and the public safety department draft a plan to close the facility.

“We’ll remain vigilant to ensure another jail is not built in its place,” Bordeaux said. “It is time to do right by St. Louis and reinvest in communities that have been harmed by failed, racist systems like the Workhouse.”

Option 2 means that if the voter is sick — even with a common cold — or anyone in their household is sick, then they should check Option 2.

“I would certainly encourage folks to choose that option,” Fey said, regarding the voter or someone in the voter’s household having coldlike symptoms. In some conversations on social media, people say they’re afraid that they could be slapped with a felony if their reason for voting absentee is challenged. Fey said that’s highly unlikely.

n “I have never heard of someone being investigated for being out of town on election day or that they were sick.”

– Eric Fey, Democratic director of elections for St. Louis

“If they feel like they qualify, then that’s the reason they should use,” Fey said.

“Here at the election office, we take a person’s application at face value. We don’t know if they are going to be out of town. We have no way to investigate. We have no way to check on them to see if they actually left. If information is brought to us that someone lied on an absentee ballot form, then we have the duty to tell the county prosecutor. In all my years of experience, I have never heard of someone being investigated for being out of town on election day or that they were sick.” For more information on absentee voting in the city, call 314-622-3230. For the county, call 314-615-1800.

Fast food workers rallied as part of 25-city protest from coast to coast demanding corporations, government take action to confront systemic racism and low wages among people of color in front of the McDonald’s Mon. July 20, 2020.

Photo

Wiley Price

McCloskeys

Continued from A1 plead not guilty.

“I, along with my clients, support the First Amendment right of every citizen to have their voice and opinion heard,” Schwartz said. “This right, however, must be balanced with the Second Amendment and Missouri law, which entitle each of us to protect our home and family from potential threats.”

Though the McCloskeys’ claims on national TV that they were threatened seemed to reach and persuade the president of the United States and Missouri governor, abundant video evidence of the incident shows no one approaching the McCloskeys or their home.

The St. Louis police probable cause statement makes no reference to a reasonable need for self-defense.

State Rep. Rasheen Aldridge personally attended the protests on June 28. “Not one protestor set foot on their property or said or did anything that would have given them the impression that we wanted to harm them,” Aldridge said.

Aldridge went directly after one of the McCloskeys’ powerful Republican apologists who have taken to national television in their defense: the governor.

“Contrary to what Gov. Mike Parson said Monday, July 20 on The Hannity Show, we were not some bloodthirsty, rampaging mob,” Aldridge said. “We practiced peaceful civil disobedience and had the threat of violence imposed upon us. Parson’s dishonest hypocrisy about the events of that night shows he has no interest in actual justice, only in exploiting this situation to mobilize his base.”

Parson has no serious primary challenger on August 4, though a recent Saint Louis University/YouGov poll shows him in a statistical tie with state Auditor Nicole Galloway, a Democrat running for governor with no serious primary challenger. Parson went so far as to say – without reviewing the evidence or allowing the legal process to proceed according to the U.S. Constitution and state law – that he would pardon the McCloskeys if they are convicted.

In response, the Missouri chapter of Moms Demand Action – the nation’s largest grassroots volunteer network working to end gun violence –rose up like a Missouri version of the wall of moms protecting protestors in Portland from unmarked federal agents. They accused Parson of directly condoning “threatening acts of violence towards Black Missourians and all those exercising their constitutional rights to protest.”

The accusation was made by Karen Rogers, a volunteer with the Missouri Chapter of Moms Demand Action.

“Just days after the governor urged lawmakers to create harsher punishments for violent crimes, these comments seemed to suggest this dangerous behavior should be singled out for special, lenient treatment,” Rogers said.

“If the governor were serious about saving lives in Missouri, he’d add common-sense gun violence prevention measures to his agenda for next week’s special session and condemn this couple’s dangerous behavior.” Moms Demand Action (www.momsdemandaction.org)

is part of Everytown for Gun Safety, an organization with nearly six million supporters and more than 375,000 donors.

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt also grandstanded in defense of the McCloskeys and at the expense of St. Louis’ elected prosecutor. Less than 24 hours after the charges were filed, Schmitt released a passionate statement asserting that, as Missouri’s chief law enforcement officer, he would immediately enter into this case and seek a dismissal.

As Michael A. Wolff, a former chief justice of the Missouri Supreme Court pointed out to Schmitt in social media, the state attorney general has no standing in this case. It was an empty political gesture – like Schmitt previously filing suit against the Chinese Communist Party.

“The Attorney General’s Office did not investigate

the incident involving the McCloskeys, and Schmitt’s actions are based on nothing more than a blind judgment on the merits,” said state Rep. Steve Roberts, an attorney and former prosecutor in the office Gardner now leads.

“Gov. Parson has already spoken about pardoning the McCloskeys, which makes Schmitt’s actions even more baffling. A pardon would only take place if – after a presentation of the evidence – a jury found Mr. or Mrs. McCloskey guilty. Schmitt is attempting to circumvent the prosecution of the case altogether – without knowing the facts or with indif-

ference to them. He is making it clear that his office does not care whether a crime was committed or not.”

Parson and Schmitt were not alone on the Republican political grandstand against Gardner.

U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) also called for a Department of Justice investigation of her while her investigation was underway before she filed charges. This was after President Trump called her investigation “disgraceful” despite expressing no knowledge of the facts of the case.

U.S. Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay (D-Missouri), lit into Hawley, Trump and U.S. Attorney

General William Barr.

“I am appalled that Missouri’s junior U.S. senator would attempt to interfere with an ongoing criminal investigation in the City of St. Louis by asking our racist, incompetent president and his failed attorney general — who has long since surrendered any allegiance to the rule of law — to misuse the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division by intervening in this case,” Clay said.

“The Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice was created to investigate and defend the rights of African Americans and other

Patricia McCloskey was charged with unlawful use of a weapon, a Class E felony, for confronting peaceful protestors with a gun when they passed in front of her home on a private street in the Central West End on June 28. Her husband Mark McCloskey also was charged.

U.S. Constitution and should never be subject to the threat of deadly force, whether by individuals or by the police,” Clay said. “The young Americans who are on the streets in St. Louis and across the nation deserve constitutional policing and a government that is as good as they are. I stand with them.”

Both Gardner and Clay are on the August 4 primary ballot with primary challengers. As for the merits of the actual case – which does not appear to matter to Trump, Hawley, Parson or Schmitt –the McCloskey have claimed that the privacy of their street, which was posted at the gate that protestors entered to pass by them, should exempt them from being charged. They also have claimed that Patricia McCloskeys’ handgun was inoperable. Clearly, those claims did not persuade Gardner.

Gardner said she will recommend the office’s diversion program for the McCloskeys. Their attorney declined further comment.

“The people of St. Louis have elected me to pursue equal justice under the law fairly and impartially,” Gardner said, “and that is what I intend to do.”

minorities who have been subjected to generations of racially-fueled violence, police misconduct, and voter suppression. It was not created to harass and interfere with local law enforcement. And it was not created to allow federal elected officials to interfere with local law enforcement by inflaming racial divisions to advance their own political agendas.”

Clay said that Hawley is simply enabling the McCloskeys in their attempt to intimidate peaceful protests of police abuses.

“The rights of non-violent protestors are guaranteed by the

Aldridge – the only political officeholder weighing in on this case who witnessed the actual events of June 28 – is alarmed to see due process disregarded for a political circus based on an attack on a Black woman prosecutor trying to do her job under threat of death.

“The eagerness with which the governor and attorney general attacked Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner for standing up for her constituents’ First Amendment rights is alarming,” Aldridge said.

“Her decision to charge the McCloskeys with the unlawful use of a weapon is warranted given what I saw that evening, and a jury should determine whether or not they’re guilty of that crime. The governor and attorney general’s decision to get involved does nothing more than transform our state’s legal process into political sideshow.”

Photo by Lawrence Bryant

The

Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, Inc. held its 15th weekly Covid-19 emergency relief drive

The Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, Inc. held its 15th weekly Covid-19 emergency relief effort July 18, 2020 on the campus of East Side High School in East St. Louis, IL. Olympian Jackie Joyner-Kersee was our special guest and spent the day on the line serving more than 3,000 families and offering encouragement to the more than 100 volunteers supporting the event.

“I understand the importance of giving back to the community; people are in need. To have the Urban League, under the direction of Michael McMillian, out here in my community means a lot. We are grateful for the support the League is providing and I didn’t hesitate to come out to support this amazing event,” Joyner-Kersee said. Families were provided with over $250,000 in food, fresh produce, milk, eggs, household sanitation supplies, and personal protective equipment on a first-come first, served basis. There is no charge ever to the families thanks to the generosity of more than 50 sponsors and partners. The Urban League has distributed over $2.5 million in emergency relief supplies to more than 46,500 families over the past 15 weeks. The distributions will continue through the end of August, 2020.

“We are seeing an uptick in the number of Covid-19 cases so we know this virus is not going away any time soon,” said Michael P. McMillan, Urban League President and CEO. “We are grateful for the support we have had, however we need the continued support of our community and our partners to help families cope with the stress of job loss and food insecurity due to this devastating pandemic.”

The Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis (BAMSL) and the St. Louis legal community donated $100,000 to the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis to help fund its continued COVID-19 emergency relief efforts. The donation was made on Saturday, July 11 at the former Jamestown Mall, where the Urban League and its community partners served the community with free food and necessities.

BAMSL, firms give $100K to Urban League

To fund continued COVID-19 relief efforts

By Chris King Of The St. Louis American

The Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis (BAMSL) and the St. Louis legal community donated $100,000 to the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis to help fund its continued COVID-19 emergency relief efforts.

The donation was made on Saturday, July 11 at the former Jamestown Mall, where the Urban League and its community partners served the community with free food and necessities. Michael P. McMillan, president and CEO of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, estimates more than 3,500 families are being served at the event. There is no cost to families.

n “We have served more than 38,000 families with more than $2 million in food and emergency relief supplies.”

– Michael P. McMillan, Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis

“The impact of this virus is so far-reaching and devastating,” McMillan said. “We have served more than 38,000 families with more than $2 million in food and emergency relief supplies and with each distribution, we are seeing more and more middle-class families across the region in need of support.”

The donation was suggested by Sonette Magnus, a partner at Lewis Rice and a member of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis’s Board of Directors, working with Rick Walsh, firm vice chairman and litigation department chair at Lewis Rice LLC.

Law firms that contributed include Armstrong Teasdale; Brown & James, P.C.; Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner; Capes Sokol; Dowd Bennett LLP; Evans & Dixon, LLC; Greensfelder, Hemker & Gale, P.C.; Husch Blackwell LLP; Lashly & Baer, P.C.; Lathrop GPM LLP; Lewis Rice LLC; Mickes O’Toole, LLC; Paladin Energy Strategies; Polsinelli LLP; Sandberg Phoenix & von Gontard P.C.; The Simon Law Firm, P.C. and Thompson Coburn LLP.

“One of the core values of BAMSL is finding ways to improve the community in which we live and work,” BAMSL Executive Director Zoe Linza said.

“BAMSL members are always looking for ways to provide assistance to those in need with their volunteer efforts and generous financial support. Our legal community is proud to partner with the Urban League to provide much-needed food and supplies to those who are most in need during these challenging times.”

BAMSL contributed a team of volunteers to support the distribution. Additionally, volunteers from the BAMSL Young Lawyers Division Committee Advancing Racial Equity in St. Louis, co-chaired by Alexus Williams and Lace Cline, distributed applications for mail-in or absentee balloting for the August 4 Missouri Primary Election.

Support the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis at https://www. ulstl.com.

David Steward leading $50M campaign to expand Concordance

Non-profit works to reduce reincarceration rates

By Chris King Of The St. Louis American

n “The biggest corporations in the world see this huge challenge and are beginning to nod their heads – especially with this movement in the country.”

– David Steward

David Steward, chairman and founder of World Wide Technology, is leading St. Louis-based Concordance Academy’s First Chance capital campaign to raise $50 million to scale its model for reducing reincarceration rates nationally and to expand its programs to 11 other cities by 2025. Chicago will be the next city after St. Louis, Danny Ludeman, CEO and president of Concordance Academy, told The American. He said they are now in the process of taking a “thorough, measured look” to determine the other 10 cities “with the greatest needs, where we will have the greatest impact.”

David Steward

As chairman and founder of one of the largest minority-owned enterprises in the world, with nearly $12 billion in annual revenues, Steward would be on the short list to lead any high-dollar fundraising effort. How did Ludeman get him? In one word: God.

“There is a faith-based piece that sometimes goes unnoticed, but we are very vocal about it,” Steward told The American. He referred to Concordance, not as Ludeman’s project or non-profit, but as his “call.” Steward has been Ludeman’s confidant on Concordance since the idea phase, when Ludeman was still CEO of Wells Fargo Advisers, and Steward was one of its first investors. “I remember sitting with Danny when he was getting ready to retire,” Steward said, “and he said, ‘God put it in my heart to do this.’” That was six years ago. Concordance Academy then spent two years devising and studying its model with the Brown School at Washington University. They then spent four years implementing what Ludeman calls “the only program of its kind focused 100% on helping people not return to prison with a holistic, integrated, evidence-driven model

A10

Adrienne Davis to receive WUSTL award

Adrienne Davis will receive one of Washington University in St. Louis’ 2020 faculty achievement awards. Davis, vice provost, the William M. Van Cleve Professor of Law and inaugural director of the university’s Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity & Equity, will receive the Arthur Holly Compton Faculty Achievement Award.

As vice provost for faculty advancement and institutional diversity, Davis has given special attention to faculty diversity and professional development, consulting with deans, department chairs and hiring chairs to support their efforts to increase the percentage of Black and Hispanic/ Latinx tenured and tenure-track faculty. She also oversees a suite of academic mentoring, leadership development and academic pipeline programs and has chaired or co-chaired key searches for senior leaders. From 2015-17, she was chair of the university’s Commission on Diversity and Inclusion, which was charged with designing a university-wide plan for diversity.

Davis has written extensively on the gendered and private law dimensions of American slavery; the legal regulation of intimacy; and how law and culture converge to distribute justice. She has edited two volumes and published articles in the Stanford Law Review, the Columbia Law Review and the California Law Review, as well as numerous other articles and book chapters.

Nakia Douglas is the new principal for Normandy High School.

Previously she served as the deputy superintendent and chief academic officer at MGT/Gary Community Schools, an emergency service management contractor in the Gary, Indiana public schools.

She also served as the national special education director with the Phalen Leadership Academies in Indiana and Michigan and as an assistant principal in the Indianapolis Public Schools. “Her experience in urban education in leadership and as a classroom teacher will be invaluable to the important work we have to do to improve student achievement,” said Marcus C. Robinson, Normandy Superintendent of Schools. The Normandy Schools Collaborative is governed by a Joint Executive Governing Board with members appointed by the State Board of Education. It was created by the State Board of Education with the same boundary as the Normandy School District in 2014. It is provisionally accredited.

Douglas earned her master’s degree in School Leadership from the University of Indianapolis, and an Education Specialist degree from Ball State University. Douglas is currently completing coursework toward her doctorate degree in Education Leadership from Ball State University in Indiana. Douglas is Normandy

Photo by Wiley Price

Adrienne Davis

Nakia Douglas

Algebra 2, good jobs and the vicious cycle of racism in Missouri

By Edward L. Monser

American

Louis

For The St.

Our political leaders here is Missouri will tell you that creating good jobs for the people of Missouri is a top priority. That is because good jobs solve many of the issues in our society.

A good job that raises the income for our families is the foundation for support for our community. Unfortunately, here in Missouri our actions take us in a different direction.

n We need to raise the standard for accreditation and address the real problem: the property tax basis of funding for public education.

My learning comes after working many years to support Ranken Technical College in St. Louis. There we were consistently trying to grow the enrollment so that all our young people in the region can learn the skills needed to

get good paying jobs. What I learned after digging deeper and deeper into the road blocks we ran into were often institutional racism. Laws, rules, and regulations that, intentionally or unintentionally, favor the privileged in our state and held down the underprivileged – or, more bluntly, a system that works for the white citizens of Missouri while working against the Black citizens of our state. One example comes from a very difficult situation here where many of our school districts were unaccredited by the State of Missouri. This was a chronic issue that lasted many years. Many people worked hard on it, but the school districts in our largest cities and

Spire offering assistance for limitedincome customers

Starting Saturday, July 18, Spire customers with household incomes up to 185 percent of the federal poverty level are eligible for the new assistance to pay their natural gas bills. Spire is now accepting applications at SpireEnergy. com/relief.

Customers with household incomes from 0-135% were previously able to access assistance through other government programs, such as the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP. However, that funding expired May 31. Spire will award funds until the funds are exhausted. For more information and to apply, visit SpireEnergy.com/relief.

in many small communities across the state remained unaccredited.

After years of frustration, this took an interesting turn when a clever state legislator put into an unrelated bill a section that gave every student from an unaccredited school district the right to attend an accredited school. That meant if you were going to an unaccredited city school, you could go an accredited suburban school and demand your right to enroll. Over the course of a few years, this turned into a bigger and bigger issue for both the accredited schools and the unaccredited school districts.

go with the student while attending the unaccredited city school and then go to the accredited school after they transfer. After transferring, the unaccredited schools lost the funding. The accredited school would receive the $6,000 funding for that student. Unfortunately, what the accredited school needed to support the student was more like the $17,000 per student it was used to receiving in the suburban school district.

If you were a student in a city district that was provided $6,000 per student, that is the amount of money that would

Clem Smith is acting chair of Missouri Democratic Party

Clem Smith

Clem Smith assumed the role of acting chair of the Missouri Democratic Party. He was the party’s vice chair. He replaces Chair Jean Peters Baker, who stepped back from the role in light of unspecified “recent developments” in her position as Jackson County prosecutor. A renewed Black Lives Matter movement has questioned her handling of police brutality cases and protested her. Smith is a member of the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) and the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU). Previously he served as a member of the Missouri House of Representatives, representing the 85th District, and served as Deputy Minority Whip. He is from St. Louis and graduated from Clayton High School.

As people across the state became more uncomfortable with the transfer system, more and more pressure was put on the state. So, again, clever legislators and administrators came up with a solution: lower the state standard for accreditation so that all schools could be accredited, and then students

would no longer have the right to transfer from their formally unaccredited school, because they are now accredited! Many things were changed to do this, but the thing most hurtful from my view, with the goal of preparing students to get a good job, was the dropping of Algebra 2 from the requirements. Why is Algebra 2 important? You need Algebra 2 skills to pass the entrance exam for trade unions and trade schools. By dropping Algebra 2 as a requirement, you are guaranteeing that students graduating from many of our schools no longer will have a chance to have the skills to pass the entrance exam for a good-paying job. School districts in our most-challenged areas are severely short of money required for even the most basic of learning, so if Algebra 2 is not required it is

not going to get any funding. By lowering the standard for accreditation, the State of Missouri has guaranteed that many of our schools – unfortunately, many attended by Black and other minority students – will be locked out of the economic success provided by good jobs. The only jobs available to that student will be the lowest-paying jobs in our state. As a region, we need more and more skilled workers as well as the strength that comes from a diverse workforce. The current system guarantees Missouri will get neither. We need to raise the standard for accreditation and address the real problem: the property tax basis of funding for public education.

This vicious cycle continues – and it guarantees, by race, an ever-widening economic divide here in Missouri.

Edward L. Monser is the retired COO and president of Emerson.

HUD designates BFL an EnVision Center

Better Family Life has been designated as a HUD EnVision Center by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). A national initiative, HUD’s EnVision Centers coordinate with federal partners and local organizations to provide resources. There is no funding commitment.

According to a release, the St. Louis HUD Field office was instrumental in linking Better Family Life to a $15,000 grant from the Deaconess Foundation COVID-19 Equitable Relief and Recovery fund.

“For thirty seven years, it has been through our five pillars of care, Youth, Family and Clinical Services, Housing, Cultural Arts, Workforce Development and Community Outreach that we have provided comprehensive and holistic support to the residents of the St. Louis community at large and now, the more than 24,000 HUD clients in the St. Louis area in particular,” said Darryl Grimes, interim CEO of Better Family Life.

There are currently 45 EnVision Centers in the United States. Better Family Life is one of three St. Louis nonprofit organizations to receive the designation, joining Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church and the Flance Early Learning Center.

The Better Family Life Envision Center is located at 5415 Page Blvd. Go to www. betterfamilylife.org for more information.

Steward

Continued from A9

providing 12 services under one roof.”

Nationally, Ludeman said, 77% of people released from prison recommit a crime and go back to prison. He said Concordance Academy has been able to reduce that rate by 38% to 39%.

The fundraising campaign that Steward leads is called First Chance, because most people who commit crime and are sentenced to prison were never provided an equitable chance to succeed in the first place.

“Hundreds of years of racial bias has led to racial inequity in wealth, employment, health, education, housing, which has led to extreme poverty, home-

lessness, crime and childhood trauma,” Ludeman said.

“This trauma that millions of people have experienced as a result of racial inequity is the core issue of why people go to prison, and they go back because they haven’t been healed. They need services for mental health and substance abuse. It’s all about healing individuals first, then providing good-paying jobs and very good, stable affordable housing.”

With the imprisonment rate of Black males at nearly six times that of white males, Ludeman said, incarceration disproportionately impacts the Black community, devastating communities and keeping families in generational poverty.

More than 10 million children have experienced parental incarceration in their lives, and children with an incarcerated

parent are at least six times more likely to go to prison themselves.

The opportunity to fund a program that breaks this damaging cycle is the pitch that Steward is taking to potential funders. Of course, if you are David Steward, major funders also come to you – in particular when there is a national movement for racial equity and saving Black lives.

“Many people across the country are calling me, asking, ‘What can I do?’” Steward said. “The biggest corporations in the world see this huge challenge and are beginning to nod their heads – especially with this movement in the country. People are looking for answers, and we think we have some answers.”

That is one way to describe the program: “answers.” A man of God might also speak a different language. “Concordance is responsible for miracles,” Steward said, “that we experience each day as people go on this healing journey who needed a first chance.”

Steward hears another, even more personal call as he starts to raise $50 million for Concordance. He lost his mother, Dr. Dorothy Elizabeth Massingale Steward, on June 20 at age 92. She was interested in the First Chance campaign.

“She knew about this,” her son said. “She was so proud whenever we talked that I was engaged in the community. This was one she was excited about. Every day, I think about her and I think that I have to be worthy of her sacrifices, and those of my father, who put me in a position to do this.” For more information and to contribute, visit www.concordanceacademy.org.

Edward L. Monser

U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley endorses Tishaura O. Jones for STL treasurer

‘Tishaura has been a bold advocate for progressive change’

By Chris King Of The St. Louis American

U.S. Rep. Ayanna

Pressley

– the first Black woman elected to Congress in Massachusetts

– endorsed Tishaura O. Jones for re-election as St. Louis treasurer.

“In this moment, the American people deserve –and are demanding – elected officials who see them, who represent them, and who have the vision and courage to lead them. Tishaura Jones has embodied those ideals throughout her career as a public servant. That’s why, today, I am thrilled to join leaders from across the City of St. Louis and around the country to offer my endorsement of Tishaura in her bid for re-election as St. Louis treasurer,” Pressley stated in a 314-word open letter on Tuesday, July 21.

“During her time as treasurer, Tishaura has been a bold advocate for progressive change. She made the decision to pay her staff a minimum wage of at least $15 an hour – leading the city and county to follow suit. Following the death of Michael Brown and the release of the Ferguson Commission report, Tishaura led the implementation of a number of the Calls to Action laid out in the report. And Tishaura spearheaded the College Kids Program, which provides kindergarten students in public and charter schools in the City with savings accounts stocked with $50; the program has served as a national model as an innovative way to get

U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Massachusetts) and St. Louis Treasurer Tishaura O. Jones

children to think about college or trade school early and often.”

Pressley continued,

“Tishaura has brought the St. Louis Treasurer’s office into the 21st Century and elevated its mission to put Saint Louisans on solid economic footing and provide opportunities now and in the future. I am proud to call Tishaura my friend, my sister-in-service, and I am proud of what she has accomplished. We need to re-elect Tishaura and make sure she has the opportunity to continue fighting for all of us. I hope that you head to the polls on August 4 and vote for Treasurer Tishaura Jones.”

Pressley is one of the selfstyled “Squad” of young minority female members of Congress elected in 2018; the group also includes Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan). Jones told The American that she met Pressley through their mutual affiliation with Higher Heights, an organization dedicated to empowering

Black female elected officials.

They were both speakers at a Higher Heights event at the Congressional Black Caucus’ 2016 Legislative Conference. Jones, the incumbent, has been re-elected once. She ran for re-election unopposed in the 2016 primary. She won that general election with more than 96,000 (76.4%) votes. She faces one challenger in the August 4 primary, Jeffrey L. Boyd, an alderman. Boyd also recently announced an endorsement by a member of Congress, U.S. Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay (D-Missouri). Unfortunately for Boyd’s credibility, Clay denied making the endorsement. Absentee voting is underway for the August 4 primary. Contact the election board at https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/ elections/. Call 314-622-3230 for absentee voting or 314-6224336 for information.

Wellston rots while Alderman Boyd’s storefront gets facelift with federal funds

The EYE rarely focuses on Alderman Jeffrey Boyd in any citywide election because he’s more bluff or stalking horse than actual candidate.

In the 2017 mayoral election, The American didn’t consider him among the main contenders, and indeed he only received 2.67% of the vote. That was just about two percent more than perennial candidate William Haas — and that was 28% less than his then-mayoral opponent, St. Louis Treasurer Tishaura O. Jones Now Boyd is challenging Jones, the incumbent, in the Democratic primary for St. Louis treasurer on August 4. However, by ignoring Boyd as a nuisance candidate, we’ve been ignoring some valid concerns from his own community. So, this EYE is dedicated to those concerns.

“All you have to do is look around,” said Karen Buckley, project manager at the Wellston Loop Community Development Corporation.

She was talking about the historic JC Penney building at 5930 Dr. Martin Luther King Dr. Owner Fred Lewis has been begging for support from Boyd to renovate and preserve the property for 20 years, but has received none.

She was talking about the historic Wellston Loop Bus Stop building that still sits in shambles at the corner of Hodiamont Avenue and Dr. Martin Luther King Drive. In 2006, Wellston Loop CDC was in negotiations with Bi-State Development and others to renovate the building using transportation grant money, but Boyd put a stop to it.

“Now we are looking at, 11 years later, a completely dilapidated building,” said Don De Vivo, executive director of the Wellston Loop CDC, who is running for treasurer on the Green Party ticket.

While Boyd has had an active hand in letting these buildings sit and rot, he managed to secure $40,000 in federal money to give his own storefronts a facelift in June 2017 through SLDC’s Neighborhood Commercial District Improvement Program This program is funded through Community Development Block Grants SLDC awarded him facade improvement money for his (fairly new at the time) business, Best Place Banquet Hall, and the car lot at 5736-42 Dr. Martin Luther King Dr., which Boyd owns through his company, WEUSI Enterprises.

the opposite direction of their support.

For Alderwoman Sharon Tyus (D-Ward 1), the police association’s endorsement of Jeffrey Boyd for St. Louis Treasurer “speaks volumes as who you should not be voting for in the treasurer’s race,” she wrote on Facebook on July 2. Jones ran unopposed in the 2016 Democratic primary election for treasurer. However, Jones and Boyd both ran for mayor in the March 2017 municipal Democratic primary election. Jones captured 30.4% of the vote, just 888 votes behind now Mayor Lyda Krewson. Boyd only received 2.67% of the vote in that race, which had seven candidates. Tyus’ Facebook post is accompanied by a photo of six Boyd campaign signs in front of the police union’s headquarters at 3710 Hampton Ave.

“Just to be transparent, I did the bulk of the work to put Jeffrey Boyd in office in 2003,” Tyus wrote. “The worst political mistake of my life. I vetted him. I got so many other people he did not have access to to support him. I raised his money. He has broken every promise he made to me and others.”

Boyd did not respond to The American’s request for comment about Tyus’ comments or the police union’s endorsement. In the City of St. Louis, there are two police associations that represent the police, Tyus wrote.

In April 2016, De Vivo wrote a letter to the Community Development Administration about Boyd’s conflict of interest in applying for these grants. One of the biggest points of contention was that Boyd was the chair of the aldermanic Neighborhood Development Committee at the time, and he didn’t recuse himself from voting on the allocation of these funds. Boyd voted “present,” but his presence alone is influential in a room of his peers, De Vivo said.

“Members of our community have attempted to apply for the same program with no support from local government,” De Vivo wrote. “Now we seem to

be in direct competition with a sitting elected official who uses his connections through his public office to push his projects through.”

De Vivo also stated that the public had no real way to voice opposition to the situation. Boyd’s conflict-of-interest public disclosure notice was released in the St. Louis Daily Record — a newspaper for sale only at the publisher Missouri Lawyers Media’s two offices, the World News store in Clayton, or by paid digital subscription.

“The public disclosure meeting on February 22, 2016, conducted by Alderman Boyd, allowed for no community

input other than raising hands; when participants asked to speak, they were denied the opportunity,” De Vivo wrote.

“Those that opposed were intimidated, told their opinion didn’t matter, and personally attacked.”

Unsurprisingly, the city counselor’s office essentially sided with Boyd, though they wrote, “A potential conflict may exist due to his ability to have possibly gained inside information with regard to such activities.”

The EYE reached out to Boyd for comment but did not receive a response by press time. However, in past emails to the Wellston Loop CDC, Boyd has contended that they claim he obstructs other projects and activities in his ward for petty reasons or for personal gain.

“Why would I want to sabotage something that is benefiting the community?” Boyd wrote. “That is not my style. I can choose to support or not support whatever I want to.”

Just to be clear of the timeline, Boyd first applied for SLDC’s commercial district improvement money in 2015. Yet, he wasn’t approved until just months after he essentially served as a stalking horse in the 2017 mayoral campaign, which Jones lost by 888 votes (Boyd got 1,439 votes). Boyd received the $40,000 check in his hand in March 2018.

Endorsement from racist police union

For those who want to rid the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department of racism, endorsements from the St. Louis Police Officers Association sway votes — in

“One, the St. Louis Police Association (SLPOA) is composed of mostly white officers and is headed by the very controversial Jeff Roorda,” Tyus said, talking about the association’s business manager who is known for spewing hateful, divisive rhetoric

The other is the Ethical Society of Police (ESOP), which is composed of mostly Black officers. The SLPOA and Roorda have never stood with the ESOP or their own African-American members, said Heather Taylor, president of ESOP.

“It would be a powerful move if we ever heard the police union come out and state that protestors, activists, Milton Green, Luther Hall (Black officers who have been harmed by white officers) and some of the issues that AfricanAmerican officers face are valid and they’re accurate,” Taylor told The American in January.

Instead, the SLPOA puts out “racist” and “homophobic” memes, along with “vile statements about women,” she said. ESOP does not plan on endorsing in any race in the August 4 election.

“In 29 years in political office, I have never known the St. Louis Police Officers Association to ever endorse or support a black candidate that in any way supported and looked out for the interest of Blacks or the Black community,” Tyus said. “Furthermore, they do not support and have attacked white moderate to progressive candidates. When someone shows you who they are, believe them.” Political EYE is a political column by The St. Louis American’s editorial board. Rebecca Rivas reported this column.

Alderman Jeffrey Boyd’s business Best Place Banquet Hall got a facelift thanks to $40,000 in federal money awarded through the city’s Neighborhood Commercial District Improvement Program

July9-15,2020

St. Louis County Executive Dr. Sam Page and St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell loaded boxes of food and necessities into cars during the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis’ food distribution event at St. Louis Community College — Florissant Valley

“I’m

Photo by Wiley Price

5th District state Senate candidates

state their case for our endorsement

The St. Louis American asked three impressive Democratic candidates for the 5th District Missouri Senate seat to state their case for the editorial board’s endorsement in 500 words. Their unedited responses are presented in alphabetical order.

Megan Ellyia Green

U.S. Representative John Lewis often reminded us that we need to be willing to get into “good trouble” — the type of trouble that is necessary to challenge and change unjust systems. Similarly, Dr. King bemoaned the white moderate who prefers order to justice. I push myself, although not always perfectly, to NOT be the white moderate that Dr. King admonished, and rather to use my privilege to prefer justice to order. In this pursuit, I have found myself in plenty of “good trouble.”

Whether it’s fighting to close the Workhouse, getting arrested with our janitors striking for a fair contract (which they won), questioning tax-incentive abuse,

supporting #DefundThePolice before it became a hashtag, standing with our community in protest of police violence since the murder of Mike Brown, or even suing our City for its use of chemical agents, I have fearlessly stood on the side of justice, worked to change the narrative, and, as a result, created the space for us to get public policy wins. We need elected officials who are accountable to, and will work hand-in-hand with, social movements, to carry their demands within the halls of power, and pressure our political systems to change.

The Workhouse is closing and efforts to privatize our airport are stalled in large part because of progressives like me who have the acumen for building coalitions to move power and set agendas from a minority bargaining position. This is a sorely needed skill set in the Missouri General Assembly.

While some say the problem with activism is a lack of willingness to compromise, I would instead offer that the problem is a willingness to compromise one’s values in order to just “get things done.”

The compromises that should be made are ones that advance us toward our ultimate goals and serve the best interests of our residents. For example, I was instrumental in the passage of our minimum wage ordinance. I wanted $15/hour, but voted for $11/hour knowing that without elected officials like me working within the system to echo the demands of the Fight for $15, we would not have even gotten to $11.

We need voices on the political left that will counter-

balance conservatives working for rich donors rather than the people. As conservatives push to close our last remaining abortion clinic – located in the 5th Senate District – or roll back non-discrimination protections, or cut $150 million from our already underfunded education system as Governor Parson is proposing, there is no further room to compromise.

This moment of mass mobilization through an unstoppable multi-racial coalition demands that we elect a State Senator who knows how to challenge the status quo, and work in partnership with grassroots organizations to get things done.

Just know that even if you cannot be with me in this race, I will always be with you, and I’m asking for the opportunity to make “good trouble” in the State Senate.

As the number one African-American newspaper in the nation, The St. Louis American provides a

platform for voices that might otherwise go unheard – the voices of the underrepresented and all-too-often ignored. As the state senator for Missouri’s 5th District, I will continue the legacy of The American, working to address the concerns of the most vulnerable citizens of our city and state.

As a St. Louis city prosecutor, I saw firsthand how the system can adversely impact those who come into contact with it, especially low-income offenders and people of color. It was in this role that I learned the absolute need for police and criminal justice reform and decided to run for the 77th District state representative seat. As chairman of the Missouri Legislative Black Caucus, I shaped the caucus’s agenda on criminal justice reform, voter empowerment, and women’s rights. For the 2018 and 2019 legislative sessions, I was ranked the most effective Democrat at amending legislation on the House Floor. Last year, I amended more legislation than any other Democrat and most Republicans.

I have helped pass legislation that would lower costs of utility rates, save Missourians money on prescription medications, and increase job opportunities. During my time as a state representative, several important criminal justice reform measures have made it to the House Floor for debate –a few made it to the Governor’s Office. We were able to raise the minimum age to prevent minors from continuing to be charged as adults. I filed the Money Bail Reform Act,

legislation aimed at preventing nonviolent and low-level offenders from being unnecessarily confined while awaiting trial; I authored legislation to incentivize employers to provide full-time employment to felons seeking a second chance; and I co-sponsored legislation that lead to the opening of an adult high school in downtown St. Louis. Additional criminal justice reform can be made, but we need the right leaders, with firsthand experience and credibility, who can garner support for these measures. With over 60 children shot in St. Louis this year, I will continue to push for legislation to allow cities to pass their own common-sense gun laws. As chairman of the Black Caucus, I drafted comprehensive police reform measures to ban chokeholds, mandate de-escalation training, and address qualified immunity so police can be held accountable for their actions. Additional criminal justice reform can be made, but we need a state senator who has successfully navigated a Republican controlled legislature.

I am asking for The American’s endorsement because we share the same priorities and ideals. My priority has always been advocating for our state’s most underserved and neglected citizens. I am the candidate with the right experience to champion those priorities in the state senate. I offer the proven leadership needed to make criminal justice reform, voter empowerment, economic and social justice, legislative priorities. I am the candidate for the 5th District Senate seat most capable of raising my voice in the tradition of The American – and refusing to be ignored.

My education, career, experience, and ability to be effective make me the best candidate in this race. Our district needs a leader with experience and vision who understands what it takes to help individuals, families and businesses thrive.

I was raised by a widowed mother of seven. I watched in awe as my mother worked three jobs to keep us all together. At the age of 12, I began working alongside her cleaning houses and catering. I learned the value of hard work, compassion, and commitment. I con-

tinued to work to put myself through college and Saint Louis University law school. My three decades of experience include working as a certified public accountant for big 8 accounting firms, running the State of Missouri Auditor’s office as the first AfricanAmerican deputy state auditor, running U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill’s St. Louis regional office, listening to constituents, finding solutions and connecting them to resources. I am a licensed attorney, own a small business and I am a not-for-profit leader, serving as the president of the JJK Foundation, where I’ve seen firsthand how we can change lives for the better when we invest in our kids and families. Our extremely diverse community has areas that are stable, prospering, and growing. But far too many of the district’s communities are afflicted with the effects of poverty including crime, lack of access to quality healthcare or meaningful employment opportunities, little access to goods and services or transportation, poor housing, and a challenged education system. COVID-19 shined a glaring light on these disparities. The Black Lives Matter movement is demanding changes to address systemic racism and police brutality. I understand these challenges and the impact an unjust criminal justice system, and the cycle of incarceration has had on our community. We cannot continue to do what we have always done and expect different results.

Every Missourian deserves the chance to achieve the American dream and the dignity that comes from a good paying job, equal treatment under the law and access to quality affordable healthcare. By lifting every St. Louisan to their full potential, we can make our state work for everyone. Our state is faced with significant budgetary shortfalls caused by COVID-19. As a CPA who understand budgets and numbers, and the needs of working families, small businesses, corporate CEOs and not for profits, my experience will be invaluable in working on our state budgetary process. I am ready to make the difficult decisions on how to spend our tax dollars responsibly and equitably while creating economic and educational opportunities and keeping our families and our streets safe. As our State Senator, I will be laser focused on the budget and how we prioritize our spending and address the disparities in our community.

I am a prepared, ethical, pragmatic, strong leader, who has the personal skills to be effective even in this red state. I will work tirelessly and advocate endlessly on behalf of our 5th district. I ask for your endorsement. Absentee voting is underway for the August 4 primary election.

Steve Roberts

Michelle Sherod

Inaction is not an option.

The power to change your community is in your hands. We can help inform funding every year for the next ten years for public services like healthcare, childcare programs, public transportation, schools, and job assistance. And our responses determine how many seats each state has in the U.S. House of Representatives. But time is running out, so complete the census today online, by phone, or by mail.

“TakingCareofYou”

loaded boxes of food into cars

Saturday, June 27 at St. Louis Community College – Florissant Valley. Those who cannot get out to the Urban League’s weekly distributions – seniors, disabled and individuals that do not have transportation – can call the Urban League at 314-615-3600 for home delivery.

STL County distributes $28K for COVID relfief

By Sandra Jordan Of The St. Louis American

St. Louis County Executive Dr. Sam Page announced $28 million in new distributions from the county’s $173.5 million in federal stimulus grant funding for COVID19 relief at a press briefing at the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis’ Ferguson Empowerment Center on Friday, July 17. Page said the pandemic is a public health, humanitarian and economic crisis. Humanitarian assistance for seniors, children, housing stabilization and technology are the focus of the latest distri-

butions.

“For the humanitarian program, we are focusing on senior and homebound programs. This includes providing meals, cleaning supplies, protective equipment and medical transportation services,” Page said. Humanitarian grants are also focusing on housing stabilization, including rent and utility assistance, and legal services for foreclosure proceedings and domestic violence law.

Regarding technology, Page said, “These funds will focus on communications and communications access needs for accessing

New rise in COVID-19 cases linked to athletes and spectators congregating

By Sandra Jordan

Of The St. Louis American

The rising number of positive COVID-19 cases among young people, particularly those involved in youth sporting events, prompted St. Louis County to enact new public health guidelines that went into effect July 20. No competitive play with other teams is allowed – that means no games, no scrimmages, showcases, tournaments or any other competitive event. Youth teams can practice only among themselves. There can be no more than 10 individuals participating in athletic activities in a single space, including coaches and all participants, who must remain at least six feet apart. No spectators are allowed. No congregating shall be allowed by parents, guardians and would-be spectators at the fields or outside of their individual modes of transpor-

n Any coach or school that learns that a student athlete has tested positive for COVID-19 must report it to the St. Louis County Department of Public Health.

tation. All workout machines and equipment must be wiped down with disinfectant after each use. Water bottles may not be shared. An individual athlete may use their own water bottle, which should be clearly marked See SPORTS, A17

health care, social services, emotional and support networks, including providing prepaid cell phones, tablets, Wi-Fi and hotspots.”

To address the social and emotional needs of children, Page said, the county will fund “in-home childcare providers and any other needs for social and emotional needs for our children, youth in St. Louis County related to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

He added they are in the process of sending out $19 million in grants to small businesses that applied for the relief and are in

See COVID, A17

By Andrew D. Martin and Fred P. Pestello For The St. Louis American

As the leaders of two of this region’s major research universities, we cannot sit idly by as the August 4 election draws near and not speak to a critical opportunity in front of us. It is time to act and expand Medicaid. This is among the issues we will soon be called to vote on, identified on the ballot as Amendment 2. We are seeing the disproportionate ways COVID-19 impacts vulnerable members of our community. Those who have limited or no access to health care are at an even greater risk. In St. Louis, this includes a devastating number of our Black colleagues, neighbors and friends. Too many in our community have to choose between funding their health care needs or day care –– medical care to improve their quality of life, or feeding their family. During this pandemic, these disadvantages are magnified. Our two universities wholeheartedly supported the report and the work of Forward Through Ferguson, whose 2015 report identifies Medicaid expansion among the key steps our region and state must take to address health disparities. Over the past month, both Washington University and Saint Louis University have released statements expressing our shared concern for the inequities that plague every part of our society. Condemning systemic problems is not enough. We must take steps to fix the systems. Addressing the disparate access to health care for people of color ––particularly Black members of our commu-

This routine moment in the November 16 football game between St. Mary’s High School and McCluer High School violates a number of St. Louis County’s new public health rules for youth sports: more than 10 youths are participating, they are not observing social distance of 6 feet, and they are competing against another team.

St. Louis County Councilwoman Rochelle Walton Gray and County Prosecutor Wesley Bell

during the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis’ food distribution event on

Andrew D. Martin

Photo by Wiley Price

Fred P. Pestello

Photo by Wiley Price

“TakingCareofYou”

‘Drivers are scared of this disease’

Metro operators ask for more protection from city, agency and public

By Rebecca Rivas

Of The St. Louis American

Metro bus driver Sherry Lemon will never forget what happened on May 30.

A well-dressed young man in his early 20s boarded the bus without a mask. Lemon told him that he could only ride the bus with a face covering on.

“He was very calm,” Lemon told St. Louis aldermen at the July 7 Public Safety Committee meeting. “He didn’t use profanity, and he wasn’t belligerent. He said, ‘Okay.’ He proceeded to walk to the front of the bus. He shot at the bus intending to shoot me.”

According to the police report, the man fired a 9 mm pistol at Lemon, she said. Luckily, the polycarbonate shields — that St. Louis Metro Transit installed by the drivers’ seats in all buses as part of the COVID-19 response — prevented the bullet from hitting her.

n “There’s no reason to put the people at harm for $1,” said Catrina Wilson, vice president of ATU.

“This has truly changed my life,” she said, “all because I’m trying to keep the passengers, as well as myself, safe from this silent disease which can also turn deadly.”

And while the shields protected her, Lemon and several other union bus drivers told aldermen that leaders at Metro Transit and Bi-State Development need to do more to protect their drivers. From March 21 to May 30, passengers boarded the bus from the back of the bus and fares were waived — in order to minimize contact between passengers and bus drivers.

But on June 1, passengers once again began boarding at the front of the bus and now must pay a $1 fare. Lemon and others said fare transaction increases exposure for both drivers and passengers, and it has increased conflicts as well.

“There’s no reason to put the people at harm for $1,” said Catrina Wilson, vice president of ATU (Amalgamated Transit Union) Local 788. “If the customer doesn’t give the fare, we should still allow them to ride.”

Taulby Roach, president and CEO of Bi-State Development, said that the $1 fare was meant to simplify the fare transaction and that the revenue is nec-

COVID

Continued from A16

the process of distributing $2.5 million to federal qualified healthcare centers that partner with the county for COVID-19 testing. The county has also $7 million for access to healthcare in the county’s most vulnerable zip codes and allocated $5.9 million for child care and child care services.

“As this pandemic continues, we will continue to work

Sports

Continued from A16

with their name. Cups used for water should be single-use and disposable. Whirlpools or cold/hot tubs should be avoided. If they are required in an emergency, follow best practices. Have a cold-water immersion tub on-site or within 5 minutes of the field.

essary. Bus revenue for April 2020 was down 50 percent compared to April 2019, and 60 percent for MetroLink.

“We are not in this to make money,” Roach told The

with our community to determine where the needs are and services that will support those needs,” Page said. He said they are working as fast as possible to get the funds out to the communities that need them the most. Additionally, 60 recipients received a portion of $9 million in grants designed to address needs of the county’s most vulnerable residents. The local Urban League is getting $350,000 to address housing needs for individuals in the county.

Athletes should not interact with anyone outside the area where their individual workout is located.

The use of locker rooms is not recommended. If they must be used, proper social distancing must apply within the locker room. Do not allow team huddles, handshakes, fist bumps, or other unnecessary physical contact. Remember, social distancing of at least 6 feet shall be maintained at all time.

American. “We are in this to deliver service. The money I don’t collect today is the service I don’t offer tomorrow.”

However, Wilson told The American that Metro’s budget

is not dependent on fares, as they make up about 13 percent of the agency’s revenue in normal times.

“It’s not worth the cost of lives,” Wilson said. “And

n “For the humanitarian program, we are focusing on senior and homebound programs.”

– St. Louis County Executive Dr. Sam Page

“We are going to focus on seniors and children – so mothers with children who are trying to keep them in their homes, keep them in their apartments,” said Urban League President and CEO Michael P. McMillan.

“As we know, so many

Any school that learns that a student athlete has tested positive for COVID-19 must report it to the St. Louis County Department of Public Health. Individuals who have had a significant exposure (defined as direct contact or prolonged exposure within 6 feet) to a positive COVID-19 individual must quarantine for a minimum of 14 days from the last date of exposure to the positive COVID-19 individual. If the exposed individual has a nega-

people have lost their jobs and they need food, they need housing, they need utility assistance, so we are working with our partners Heat Up/Cool Down St. Louis to provide resources so that the basic necessities that individuals need will be provided.”

tive SARS-Cov 2 test, they still must quarantine for 14 days. If the exposed individual develops symptoms during these 14 days, testing for SARS Cov-2 should occur.

The St. Louis Sports Medicine Task Force, chaired by Dr. Jason Newland, helped the county write and revise the order and issued its own separate order recommending the same steps.

The full public health order can be found at stlcorona.com.

until June 1, Roach told The

American that people with disabilities were not able to get on the bus if they couldn’t get up the steps. Instead, drivers had to leave them “by the side of the road,” he said, and now there are hundreds of complaints in his Equal Employment Opportunity office.

“I don’t want to say that there was never a case where a considerate driver saw someone and didn’t pull over,” Roach said. “I’m sure that could have happened. There are impacts to these decisions.”

However, Wilson said Roach’s assertion is completely false. Bus drivers never stopped picking up people with disabilities using the front of the bus.

“He has not a clue what’s going on,” Wilson said. “Never did that happen.”

Bus drivers have been reprimanded if they did comply with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements throughout the pandemic, Wilson said.

At the July 7 meeting, the union leaders asked the aldermen for support in getting the health commissioner to issue a health order in requiring that passengers board through the rear of the bus again. Alderman Joe Vaccaro (D-Ward 23) promised that he would go to the mayor about the issue. However, as of July 10, the health commissioner, Dr. Fredrick Echols, had not heard about the union’s request.

Aldermen also said they would ask Metro to pay her assault pay (the 20 percent that workman’s compensation doesn’t cover) for the incident, and she was notified soon after the meeting that she would receive it. Roach couldn’t speak about why Lemon hadn’t received the assault pay yet, but he said that all full-time drivers receive $200 a week in hazard pay. Roach claimed, “That is better than any other system in the whole United States.” Drivers also want more support in enforcing the mask requirement.

I don’t understand how he attempts to justify that.”

As far as passengers entering from the back of the bus, Roach said that it’s not fair to people with disabilities. Up

In large distribution events at Jamestown Mall and other locations in the area, the Urban League has distributed food, masks and sanitizer to 42,000 families, in part from a previous half-million-dollar grant from the county.

“For individuals that cannot get out to these distributions – seniors, disabled and individuals that do not have transportation – you can call the Urban League at 314615-3600 and we are making home deliveries,” McMillan said. “And, in addition to

Medicaid

Continued from A16

nity –– is a necessary and important step we must take. Voting yes on Amendment 2 brings federal dollars back to Missouri to serve the people who deserve them. Statewide, that means 230,000 hard-working

“With the numbers increasing as far as COVID and bringing the people up through the front, people are scared,” said Reginald Howard, president of ATU Local 788. “They are scared of this disease. We need some help to get the message out there, to where it will bounce back on us to make our people feel safer.”

that, we are now providing 50 different sets of these items to neighborhood churches in St. Louis County and St. Louis city in very poor areas, where individuals who do not have transportation can go to the neighborhood church.” McMillan said the Urban League is going to neighborhood churches to expand its Federation of Block Units program, “focusing on public safety, focusing on resources, focusing on having the neighborhood come together.”

people – including 36,000 Black Missourians – will have access to health care they currently cannot afford. We owe it to them to bridge this unethical gap by making sure our voices are heard. Andrew D. Martin is chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis, and Fred P. Pestello is president of Saint Louis University.

Metro bus drivers are less protected from COVID-19 now that the agency is forcing them to collect a fare at the front of the bus again.

Photo courtesy Metro

John Lewis was relentless in his fight for us

By U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters For The St. Louis American

John Lewis was a revered civil rights icon who dedicated his entire life to what became his signature mantra, making “good trouble.” Despite being one of the youngest leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, John Lewis galvanized and inspired hundreds of his peers to join in the fight for equal rights.

He was a founder and leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee; he organized and led countless marches and freedom rides across the Jim Crow South; and he worked alongside Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the struggle to secure the right to vote and end the demoralizing discrimination, unconscionable violence, and debilitating poverty facing African Americans. Very few people could have been harassed, arrested more than 40 times, beaten within inches of their lives, and still espouse Dr. King and Mahatma Gandhi’s teachings of nonviolence, peace, and love. However, these principles were core philosophies to John

Lewis, and our nation is forever indebted to him for his humble sacrifices.

It was John Lewis, clad in a trench coat and a backpack, who fearlessly led 600 people to march from Selma, Alabama across the Edmund Pettus Bridge to Montgomery, Alabama in support of voting rights. At the bridge John Lewis and the marchers were confronted by local police and Alabama State Troopers and ordered to turn around. When they refused, the police shot tear gas and began beating the nonviolent protesters. John Lewis’ skull was cracked open by a state trooper’s club, and this painful episode became known as “Bloody Sunday.” John Lewis’ sacrifices and bravery on the Edmund Pettus Bridge absolutely led to the passage of the Voting Rights of 1965 shortly thereafter, and I am so proud to have joined him in Selma numerous times over

the course of our careers to recognize his sacrifices on that bridge and the ongoing fight to protect the right to vote for African Americans and people of color.

John Lewis was first elected to Congress in 1986, and he served 17 terms. He distinguished himself as an effective policymaker and true progressive who was relentless in his fight on behalf of the least of these. As a result, he earned the respect of not only his colleagues on both sides of the aisle, but elected officials and leaders around the world.

It was the honor of my life to serve alongside such a kind, courageous, and persistent leader and public servant. I considered John and his late wife, Lillian, dear friends, and my heart is heavy with the magnitude of the loss of one of our nation’s most beloved sons. My sincere prayers and deepest sympathies are with his son, John Miles Lewis, family, friends, staff, and constituents during this difficult time.

U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters represents California’s 43rd Congressional District and chairs the House Financial Services Committee.

COVID-19 strikes ESL City Hall and mayor

By James T. Ingram

For The St. Louis American

I was very worried as I cruised the streets of East St. Louis during the July 4th holiday weekend and for good reason, given the coronavirus pandemic that plagues us.

The family and random gatherings that I witnessed gave me little comfort: BBQs with no social distancing or masks, filled with people sharing beverages, blunts, hugs, kisses and handshakes. Business as usual in the hood.

In my mind I thought, “This thing is going to blow up,” much like the omnipresent fireworks constantly exploding around me. Sadly, I was right.

According to reported COVID-19 data from the East Side Health District (which covers the East St. Louis area) between July 6-14, the number of cases spiked, from 731 to 844 at press time.

ESL City Hall has been hit particularly hard, with nine city employees testing positive for COVID-19, including Mayor Robert Eastern III, who confirmed his status. No further

names can be divulged, unless the infected employee chooses to disclose their status to the media. All city employees have been asked to be tested as soon as possible. Anyone who visited City Hall the week following the July 4th holiday also should be tested.

In the meantime, ESL City Hall has been closed indefinitely and has been sanitized. Chief Judge Andrew Gleeson has suspended the St. Clair County satellite court, which is also housed in ESL City Hall, for a period of two weeks.

Also, Denese’s Place, a popular ESL bar, has closed its doors out of an abundance of caution when the owner, Denese Drummond, revealed that she had contracted the coronavirus. She posted on Facebook that “Denese’s Place has been exposed to COVID-

n Anyone who visited East St. Louis City Hall the week following the July 4th holiday should be tested for COVID-19.

19. For the safety of our community, we will be closed until further notice…to deep clean and regroup.”

Drummond believes she became infected while attending small social gatherings and

hugging people, the antithesis of what should be done during a pandemic. For a small, closeknit community such as East Boogie, having such a major spike is a wake-up call. While I understand the legalities and privacy issues relative to the disclosure of the names of infected ESL city employees, it would be commendable if they would follow the lead of Mayor Eastern and disclose their health status. Citizens of ESL who have interacted with these unknown employees or elected officials may have become infected outside of the realm of City Hall by simply being in their company and need to know whether their health has been compromised. It’s understandable that folks wanted to party over the July 4th holiday weekend without considering that COVID-19 doesn’t take a holiday. I get it. I’ve been in The Rona prison too. But this setback should reinforce the need to socially distance, wear the damn masks and not congregate under any circumstances: holiday, birthday, anniversary, church service. Our motto should be “Six feet apart or six feet under.” Do it for yourself and your loved ones, people. I don’t want to play this same broken record following the Labor Day weekend festivities. Be safe. Email: jtingram_1960@ yahoo.com; Twitter@ JamesTIngram.

We all have a history. A story. We bring with us life experiences that shape who we are and make us better.

At Spire, we know our individual stories only make us stronger as a whole. That’s why we’re committed to an inclusive work environment where all that makes us unique is embraced, encouraged and valued.

Because it truly takes all of us—our backgrounds, our perspectives and our experiences—to move forward.

Columnist Maxine Waters

Columnist James Ingram

Lewis

Continued from A1

lowed to try to live up to his example.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called him “the conscience of the Congress.”

Lewis’ death came 12 hours after fellow civil rights icon Rev. C.T. Vivian passed at the age of 95.

“Congressman John Lewis has been called home to take his rightful place of eternal honor beside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcom X, Frederick Douglass, Nelson Mandela and all the brave souls who sacrificed so much for the cause of civil rights,” said U.S. Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay. “He believed in the promise of America, and that Black Americans would gain their full measure of freedom and take a seat at the table of power that guides our democracy.”

the Spring 2016 graduating class of Washington University in St. Louis, where he received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters.

“I used to take the little chickens and put ’em all together in a chicken yard,” Lewis said. “And my cousins and brothers and sisters would line the outside around the chicken yard, they would help make up the audience, or the congregation, and I became the minister. And I would preach to these chickens. Some of these chickens would bow their heads, some of these chickens would shake their heads – but they never quite said ‘Amen.’”

n “My greatest fear is that we will wake up one day and our democracy is gone.”

– John Lewis

‘The boy from Troy’

John Robert Lewis was born February 21, 1940, to Willie Mae and Eddie Lewis in Pike County, Alabama. They started off as sharecroppers, but his father scraped and saved $300 to purchase 110 acres of land in Troy, Alabama, where they farmed cotton.

His siblings took on his portion of the chores as he focused on education – sometimes hiding under the porch so he could run for the school bus before anyone could catch him and make him return to work the land.

“I could tell he thought the world was bigger than what we were doing,” Henry Lewis said about his brother in Dawn Porter’s film “John Lewis: Good Trouble.”

The one chore he would never evade was caring for the chickens. He spoke of the experience when he addressed

At age 17, Lewis wrote to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. asking for help with entering a college near his family farm, where he had been rejected because of his race. The young man left an impression on Dr. King, and a bond was forged. King endearingly referred to Lewis as “the boy from Troy” from that point forward, though Lewis was well into his twenties at the time of King’s assassination in 1968.

‘This great revolution’ Lewis went on to graduate from American Baptist Theological Seminary before earning a bachelor’s degree in Religion and Philosophy from Fisk University. Soon after he was elected chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Like his mentor Dr. King, he devoted his existence to fighting the laws of segregation in the Jim Crow South that had been an extension of the racial terror Black people experienced during slavery.

Lewis risked jail and death as an original Freedom Rider. He was also one of the organizers of the 1963 March on Washington.

“I appeal to all of you to get into this great revolution that is sweeping this nation. Get in

and stay in the streets of every city, every village and hamlet of this nation until true freedom comes, until the revolution of 1776 is complete,” a 23-yearold Lewis told the crowd of hundreds of thousands. “We must get in this revolution and complete the revolution.”

As a soldier of the Civil Rights movement participating in actions and demonstrations across the South, his most famous battle came in Selma, two years after the March on Washington.

“Fifty-five years ago, John Lewis marched across the

Edmund Pettus Bridge into American history,” Clay said.

“He was beaten, bloodied, but not broken; and his sacrifice propelled the passage of the Voting Rights Act.”

Lewis was beaten by state troopers and then trampled as the troopers made their way to assault other marchers. They were attacked before they could retreat and heed the dispersal order. “I thought I was going to die on that bridge,” Lewis said. He lived. And he continued to fight – until his last breath.

“And he never became bitter about the systemic racism he

was born into,” Clay said, “or the vicious racial violence that he stared down time after time with the power of his dignity and non-violent civil disobedience.”

‘Effective policymaker and true progressive’

He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, a Democrat representing Georgia’s 5th District, in 1987. It was a seat he would hold for the remainder of his life and use to hold the country accountable.

“He distinguished himself as an effective policymaker and true progressive who was relentless in his fight on behalf of the least of these,” said U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters. Lewis was presented with the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, for his service in Congress and the Civil Rights movement. The award was given to him by the nation’s first African-American president.

“When we award this medal to a Congressman John Lewis, it says that we aspire to be a more just, more equal, more perfect union,” Obama said during the ceremony on February 15, 2011.

“I accept this great honor on behalf of the countless individuals who decided to stand up, speak up, and speak out,” Lewis said. “For those who stood in unmovable lines trying to register to vote all across the South, for all of the Freedom Riders who were beaten and jailed, for all the participants of the modern-day Civil Rights Movement who helped transform America forever, and those who could not be here today.”

Much of his 17 terms in Congress was spent fighting for the “Beloved Community” his mentor Dr. King envisioned.

“My philosophy is very simple: when you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, say something,” Lewis said. “Get in trouble, good trouble, necessary trouble. That can save our country and save our democracy.”

In his twenties, he fought against voter restrictions faced by Blacks. In his seventies, he shed light on voter suppression.

“My greatest fear is that we will wake up one day and our democracy is gone,” Lewis said while stumping for Stacey Abrams during her 2018 Georgia gubernatorial campaign. “We cannot afford to let that happen – and as long as I have breath in my body, I will do what I can.”

Lewis is survived by his son John Miles Lewis. His wife Lillian Miles Lewis preceded him in death.

U.S. Representative John R. Lewis, shown here in 1982, dedicated his life to racial equity and social justice. Lewis served more than 30 years in the halls of Congress.

Photo by Wiley Price

Living It

‘Crown Jewels’ for the journey

STL

rap star

Chingy delves further into consciousness for latest studio album

By Kenya Vaughn Of The St. Louis American

For nearly two decades rap star Chingy has been a part of an exclusive fraternity of St. Louis rappers that represent the city’s hip-hop community on a global scale.

“You can see people like Nelly, Huey, Murph, J-Kwon – everybody who came out from St. Louis – they had their own thing,” Chingy said. “Nobody was trying to be like anybody else. We all understood that we had to be different to rise.”

Since the days when he was known as Howard Bailey Jr., Chingy decided that he would live life on stage like his biggest influence, Michael Jackson. He started performing at the tender age of 10. Thirty years later, the exchange that happens between him and an audience delivers the same indescribable feeling. Listening to Eazy-E helped him find his voice as a hip-hop artist. Several years later, he exploded on the scene under the mentorship of Atlanta rapper Ludacris in the early 2000s. Ludacris signed Chingy to his newly formed Disturbing Tha Peace label, which paid off for them both with the release of Chingy’s double-platinum debut album “Jackpot.” The record was spearheaded by the smash hit “Right Thurr.”

“It’s been a long ride and I appreciate everyone who has stuck with me through the ups and the downs,” Chingy said.

Next week he will be releasing his latest studio album “Crown Jewels,” and if his single “Invincible” is any indicator of what he will be bringing with his latest project – fans can ready themselves for a bop.

In the video for “Invincible,” Chingy is giving vintage LL Cool J vibes – both in the aesthetic and with his flow.

“I went back to a lot of the hip-hop from the early days,” Chingy said. He paid homage to LL in the cadence, and

the message in the song’s lyrical content pays further tribute to the birthplace of hip-hop.

For “Crown Jewels,” he looked to the likes of conscious rappers such as Poor Righteous Teachers, Africa Bambaataa and Boogie Down Productions for inspiration.

“A lot of those artists had music that was conscious, with messages about knowing yourself,” Chingy said. “This project has a lot to do with that. It’s called ‘Crown Jewels’ because of

The glamourous life

By Ashley Jones and Sophie Hurwitz

For The St. Louis American

Maxi Glamour – a non-binary community activist, national drag star and artist – has emerged as a leading voice in the latest wave of demonstrations in the name of social justice reform across the region. With them comes a signature style and commanding presence to protests against the killing of Black people at the hands of law enforcement.

Earlier this month, Glamour vogued in full drag in front of Mayor Lyda Krewson’s house as part of a protest calling for the mayor’s resignation after she doxed protestors during a Facebook Live COVID-19 update.

In fact, it was Glamour who started the petition for the mayor’s resignation, which has since gathered over 60,000 signatures and counting.

Always present and engaging during actions, Glamour admitted to being tired of demanding the basic liberties that should be a birthright. In the middle of a summer full of activism and struggle, Glamour says in the current movement are echoes those that came before.

“I’m kind of exhausted from trying to fight for things we shouldn’t [still have to] be fighting for,” Glamour said.

“I feel frustrated because we shouldn’t be having these conversations in 2020. I feel that some of the conversations that we’re having are recurring conversations that have direct correlations from the 1800s or the 1980s or the 1950s.”

But as an artist, Glamour remains resourceful

– and continues to use art to fuel the movement.

On July 9, for example, Glamour brought a flute (the first of five instruments) to the City Hall occupation protest and was seen creating elaborate chalk murals. Glamour has music available to stream on all platforms.

“I think that art helps cope with the tumultuousness of reality,” Glamour said. “At the same time, you have to find peace and comfort to be able to make that art.”

Glamour’s Petition for the resignation of Mayor Krewson is 15,000 signatures away from meeting its goal of 75,000. They said the petition was created as a platform to build a coalition for progressive change and to push Lyda Krewson off of the political stage in St. Louis.

“You know, Lyda Krewson has been a problem before she was mayor,” Glamour said.

Black music matters

Malena Smith sang ‘America The Beautiful’ as part of The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s Songs of America video series.

SLSO virtual series highlights African American composers and performers

By Kenya Vaughn Of The St. Louis American

Singer/songwriter

Malena Smith admitted that she was initially conflicted about singing “America The Beautiful” when she was asked to perform the standard as her contribution to the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s Songs of America video project.

Rap star Chingy will release his latest studio album ‘Crown Jewels on Friday, July 31.

the pineal gland – what they call the third eye, and what I call the first eye – it’s the gland gave birth to these two physical eyes. They say it is like the seat of the soul and a spiritual guide.”

Attaining a certain level of consciousness has helped Chingy through the obstacle courses on his journey as a hip-hop star. From falsehoods

See Chingy, B3

n In its opening week, SLSO Songs of America segments reached 175,000 people through the orchestra’s digital channels, including slso.org, slsostories.org, YouTube, and social media.

“I didn’t know how I felt about being a black woman singing ‘America The Beautiful’ while black people are being killed in the streets,” Smith said. She expressed her concerns with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. They were open to the dialogue and supportive of whatever she decided. Because the purpose of the video series was to shed light on the depth and diversity of musical talent within American music through local talent against the backdrop of popular local landmarks, she agreed to sing the song.

As she practiced her rendition of the song arranged by Adam Maness, the region – and the country – was actively engaged in protest demand-

Drag star brings art to front lines of STL’s movement for Black lives See Glamour,

“When she was the alderperson of the 20th ward, she was a problem, helping fortify the divide of Delmar, helping focus all the attention on an essential corridor, creating a system that

was very whitewashed, very Eurocentric and straight oriented.”

When dressed in full drag at protests, Glamour may get a glare or two, but they know

that they are introducing a new culture to the protests that opens up the door for inclusivity.

See SLSO, B3

Drag star and activist Maxi Glamour has been on the front lines of regional participation in global protests in response to the killing of Black people by law enforcement.

Photo by Lawrence Bryant

NAACP Youth Council St. Louis County Branch 49AC

ing equity on all fronts for Black people that was sparked by the fatal arrest of George Floyd. The more she tuned to the lyrics and the message of the song rehearsal process, her thoughts on the song and its intention shifted.

Smith thought about the people of all races and backgrounds in the streets saying Black Lives Matter on her behalf. She thought about their constitutional right to protest – and even in an unbecoming moment – she saw the beauty in our nation. She felt the hope of the song and she felt honored to be the one to sing it.

“The language and the lyrics being used and listening to the melody and hearing the hope that we all need right now to get through this time,” Smith said. When the time came for her to sing it for the video recording, Smith’s emotional connection with the song she was tapped to sing was palpable. At one point as she closed her eyes and lifted her hands while performing at Martin Memorial Park in East St. Louis, it was as if her heart opened up as well to receive the encouragement and inspiration that she hoped the song would provide for

others. “I thought it through how the song would be felt by other people based on what is needed right now,” said Smith, who also works full time with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s administrative team as an IN UNISON Graduate Fellow and sings for the IN UNISON Churches initiative.

“To be the face of this creative response to the darkness that has been going on, it felt very powerful,” Smith said. Her recording was one of six videos that The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra premiered for Songs of America from June 29 through July 4. The SLSO small ensemble performances were recorded at the orchestra’s home at Powell Hall, filmed at notable locations throughout the St. Louis region, and released on SLSO digital. The videos also still available for viewing and are airing on the Nine Network of Public Media.

Installments feature SLSO Music Director Stéphane Denève on piano; St. Louis vocalists Kennedy Holmes, Brian Owens, and Malena Smith; crossover ensemble

The 442s; and SLSO musicians in works by Sam Cooke, W.C. Handy, Scott Joplin, George Walker, as well as new arrangements of traditional songs by St. Louis musician Adam Maness.

In its opening week, SLSO Songs of America segments

reached 175,000 people through the orchestra’s digital channels, including slso.org, slsostories.org, YouTube, and social media.

“The Symphony as an organization I feel like are true allies in this movement,” Smith said. “They are on the right side of history – and they are constantly working to be better and to be more of the people’s orchestra.”

Also among the selections are Brian Owens’ rendition of “A Change Is Gonna Come” and “The Voice” finalist Kennedy Holmes singing “Amazing Grace.”

“I’m grateful to the Symphony for amplifying Black voices in music and creating more opportunities for us,” Smith said. “By giving us the platform for Black artists and composers is basically saying that our music just as much music as Bach or Mozart.”

The performances became a beacon of hope as the citizens take to the streets demanding that America’s promises apply to all citizens.

“These are artistic responses that connect humans despite the differences in what we look like,” Smith said. “It is so powerful to be able to use music to offer light in the dark times.”

To view Smith’s performance, as well as the entire SLSO Songs of America, with program notes, on the orchestra’s digital magazine, SLSO Stories. Visit bit.ly/38yeAaM.

“Civil disobedience quite often is very monotonous, redundant, mundane action, and if it’s a repetition of the same chants and the same people, and everyone seems so solemn, while yes, these issues are very serious issues,” Glamour said, “at the same time, I want to make sure that people are engaged, that people feel happy, and people can see the joy.”

When it comes to the inclusion of women and the LGBTQIA community, Glamour insists that the names of Tony McDade, Kiwi Herring and other Black trans lives lost are mentioned at Black Lives Matter protests.

“When you look at this movement, a lot of times we are faced with contradicting arguments, stating that we don’t have to focus on those things,” Glamour said. “And so, I have been making sure that I am calling churches and asking them to stop saying that trans and queer humans are condemned to hell.”

A life of activism rooted in identity

Glamour has been fighting for queer rights since Glamour came out at 11 years old and began to fight for a gay-straight alliance club in Glamour’s school.

these spaces.”

Glamour was raised by a white Jewish mother and Black father and went to school in several districts –from Ferguson-Florissant, to Hazelwood, to Fort Zumwalt. At one point, Glamour was one of only 12 black kids at Glamour’s school.

“I was that Black punk kid that everybody knew because they’d never seen a Black punk person before,” Glamour said. By 14, Glamour was already going by Glamour’s chosen name and wearing “women’s” clothes to school. By 19, Glamour self-identified as trans. Glamour’s personal gender presentation is influenced by anti-capitalist aesthetics and the early 20th century Dada

n “I was that Black punk kid that everybody knew because they’d never seen a Black punk person before.”

- Maxi Glamour

Art Movement, which is an art movement formed during the First World War and is often satirical.

should be,” Glamour said. Glamour is well known for transcendent non-binary drag looks, which are designed to appear literally out of this world. Glamour said creating a look takes between one day and three months.

Glamour’s art emerged out of St. Louis and onto the global stage through participation in a Netflix show called “The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula,” becoming the first drag queen in St. Louis history to perform on an international television show.

“Being one of the most prolific drag queens in St. Louis history is crazy,” Glamour said. “Reality TV is no joke.”

In 2014, Glamour became one of the founders of Qu’art St. Louis, a quarterly art event that presents queer art and promotes queer creative culture on social media. Qu’art focuses on collaborative artistic projects, building visual work and community at the same time.

“I wanted to change the art scene in St. Louis and make it queerer and make it more wild and give people opportunities to grow,” Glamour said. It’s not just the transgressive aesthetics of drag that attract Glamour – it’s the radical community and activist platforms that can be built around drag performance, too.

about his personal life and unwarranted mass hateration from others within the industry, he has made rising above the drama others attempt to insert into his life look easy over the years.

“My response to all of that is what happens when know yourself on the inside,” Chingy said. “We are all writing this book of life. And somebody might be jotting you down in their book as a character that you don’t represent. You know that’s not you, so there’s really no reason to entertain that. While they are over there telling lies, just keep it moving.”

Part of it is par for the course for celebrities. He’s seen other successful people try to bring him down. He was a target of Charlamagne Tha God back when the media personality was a sidekick for Wendy Williams’ syndicated radio show.

“I’m human, so I will have my moments where stuff will affect me, but I don’t let that get me down,” Chingy said. “People need something to

talk about – they are going to keep your name in their mouth. But I know who I am. So, I’m not going to bicker back and forth with somebody who doesn’t’ know me, and is saying this, this and that. The truth eventually comes out. I don’t pay attention to ignorance. Ignorance to me is like a drug. I take the pathway of knowledge and wisdom.”

He can’t wait to share the wisdom of “Crown Jewels” and considers the opportunities that have come his way through music a blessing – especially the opportunity to show a generation that representing rap music and St. Louis in the mainstream was possible.

“I recall being from St. Louis and thinking that it wouldn’t happen for us, thinking ‘ain’t nobody checking for us here [in hip hop],” Chingy said. “But I kept on and kept grinding and eventually it happened. I’m living proof that dreams do come true.

I’m living proof that your goals can come true. I’m living proof that whatever it is in life you want to do, if you just work at it and strive for it that it can happen.”

Chingy’s “Crown Jewels” will be available on all music

platforms on Friday, July 31. He can be found on social media at @ChingyFulldekk on Twitter and https://www.facebook.com/ChingyFulldekk/ and @Chingy on Instagram.

“My whole entire life I have been an activist on some platform or another,” Glamour said. “After Ferguson I realized that I needed to make sure that I was that Black queer voice that was missing in some of

The artist Duchamp inspired Glamour to create Glamour’s own art form, called “Modernadada,” which is influenced by foreign cultures due to Glamour’s self-described “xenophilia.”

“I wanted to be super cognizant of the media that I was consuming and be able to identify different forms of beauty that combats this Eurocentric ideology that this is how art

“Drag performers are like the columns of queer culture,” Glamour said. “They are the champions that dictate and normalize structures of society. We are at the helm of queer political discourse, and we have the responsibility to navigate queer culture into a more equitable and more liberated place.”

For more information about Maxi Glamour, visit https:// maxiglamour.com.

MHS hosts ‘It’s Bigger Than Target” via Zoom on July 28

By Ellen Kunkelmann Missouri Historical Society

The Missouri Historical Society continues to add new programming to help St. Louisans make sense of their shared past. A highlight of MHS’s new series, “How Did We Get Here? Conversations about Race, Anti-Blackness, and Identity,” is an upcoming virtual program on Tuesday, July 28, from 6:30 to 8:00pm.

In “It’s Bigger Than Target: A History of STL Black Neighborhoods,” Dr. John Wright will explore the impact that white flight, racial segregation, zoning, and corporate development have had on disappearing Black neighborhoods throughout the region. Dr. Wright is the author of “St. Louis: Disappearing Black Communities,” “Discovering African American St. Louis: A Guide to Historic Sites” (available from MHS Press), and other books on regional and Black history.

“Immediately following George Floyd’s murder, the Target in a predominantly mixed neighborhood in Minneapolis became a topic of discussion. I could not help but draw parallels to our local Target in the Brentwood Promenade and how the once prosperous Black neighborhood of Evens-Howard Place was destroyed,” says Shakia Gullette, MHS director of African American history initiatives.

“The ‘How Did We Get Here?’ series will help our participants gain a greater understanding of race relations in this region and how race

and anti-Blackness keep the region divided. Building upon the work of Dr. Wright, this program allows us to root the conversations in fact and local history. Dr. Wright is a respected and accomplished historian whom we have worked with on numerous projects. We are honored to work with him again and are extremely excited to host this program.”

Other upcoming MHS programming:

Storytelling Friday mornings, 10:30–11:00am

The Missouri History Museum’s popular storytelling series, recommended for children ages 2 to 5, is now offered online via Zoom. On the second and fourth Fridays of the month, stay after Storytelling for a Spanish-language virtual storytelling program from 11:00 to 11:30am. Moving and Shaking: St. Louis and Music

July 27, 10:30–11:15am

Kids can explore St. Louis music and history with this interactive, movement-based class offered on Zoom, part of MHS’s Summer Family Fun Series. This class has been developed for children in grades two through six, but all ages are encouraged to participate.

Just Breathe STL

July 29 and August 5, 6:00–8:00pm

In this intergenerational summer wellness series, presented by the Missouri History Museum and The Collective STL, families can participate in a variety of wellness activities. A kids’ corner will offer yoga, arm painting, dancing, and arts and crafts. This event, part of MHS’s How Did We Get Here? series, takes place in person on the Museum’s North Lawn. This series complies with all

St. Louis Department of Health COVID-19 safety standards, and guests age 9 and older are required to wear masks. Register in advance online via The Collective STL’s free app. Urban Agriculture’s Impact on Local Food

July 30, 6:30–8:00pm

Urban agriculture is nothing new, but today it feels more relevant than ever. The self-reliant strategies that many people are employing during the COVID crisis harken back to the victory gardens of World War II. These days people are also helping to combat food deserts and providing communities with access to a nutritious diet. Gibron Jones of HOSCO Shift (Holistic Organic Sustainable Cooperatives) and James Forbes of Good Life Growing will discuss the importance of urban farming and share tips for growing your own food in this Zoom program, part of MHS’s STL History Live series.

A Conversation with Michelle Duster: Ida B. Wells and Today’s Street Journalism

August 4, 6:30–8:00pm

Information included in the mainstream media has historically been told through an overwhelmingly white male lens. Black journalist Ida B. Wells countered false narratives and chronicled the realities of lynchings and riots during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Writer, speaker, and educator Michelle Duster will discuss how Wells, her paternal great-grandmother, pioneered street journalism and how that tradition contributes to truth and justice. This Zoom program is part of MHS’s How Did We Get Here? series. For more information or to join any of these Zoom programs, visit mohistory.org/ events.

Ellen Kunkelmann is associate editor at the Missouri Historical Society.

By Barry Draper Of Explore St. Louis

Have you had to cancel your summer vacations? Now is the time to take a staycation right here in St. Louis with some of the region’s best outdoor activities. Although these are outdoor activities, many attractions require masks. Perfect for families and individuals alike, we invite you to re-explore St. Louis’ outdoor activities… responsibly.

GO! St. Louis. This summer join GO! St. Louis and Great Rivers Greenway to walk, run, bike, and re-explore paved, well-marked paths with great scenery. Looking for something off the beaten path? St. Louis and its surrounding areas feature hundreds of miles of hiking trails ideal for all ages and ability. A list of available trails open to the public can be found on Saint Louis County’s website under Parks and Recreation Trails.

Meramec Caverns. Go on a guided tour of this seven-level natural wonder, possibly the oldest stop along historic Route 66. Guided-walking tours depart every 20-30 minutes starting at 9 a.m. The Cavern Tour takes one hour and twenty minutes to complete, covering 1.25-mile round trip. On the tour, you will see both the rarest and largest cave formations

in the world.

Eckert’s Farm. As one of the best family-friendly attractions in St. Louis and the surrounding region, Eckert’s brings big-time amusement for the whole family. With five locations of farm-fresh fun – including their endlessly popular pick-your-own fruits and vegetables – Eckert’s has something for everyone. Don’t forget your mask! You’ll need it for check-in and the hayride to pick your own fruits and vegetables.

Walking Tours. See STL tours invite locals and tourists to see an entirely different side of St. Louis, hear new stories, and interact with St. Louis history in unexpected (and sometimes odd) ways. See the whole city or dive into the architecture and history of individual neighborhoods on foot. See STL walking tours are 2 hours in length.

Six Flags St. Louis. The Gateway to Thrills is now open! All guests are required to make reservations online in advance and wear masks. Social distancing is enforced on rides – either guests are separated by empty rows or seats. Additional protocols

include temperature checks, pre-parking, clear markers for social distancing and mobile food ordering. Missouri Botanical Garden. The Missouri Botanical Garden reopened in mid-June with additional protocols, including requiring e-tickets purchased in advance and limiting capacity. There are 79 acres of horticultural display in the garden including the Chinese Garden, English Woodland Garden, Ottoman Garden, Victorian District and one of the largest strolling Japanese Gardens in North America. You can also explore MOBOT’s other properties including Shaw Nature Reserve and the Sophia M. Sachs Butterfly House. St. Louis Zoo. Of course, any list of outdoor activities in St. Louis would not

Barry Draper

Sports

JULY 23 – 29, 2020

sports eye

Dak, ‘Zeek’ again starring in Dallas Cowboys soap opera drama

With all that is going on in America, including his personal bout with COVID, Ezekiel Elliott is upset about (of all things) several NFL media pundits saying last week that he has lost a step and is not among the NFL’s highest echelon of running backs.

“Check the stats,” he wrote during a Twitter storm.

“Since I entered this league, I have dominated year in, year out. Put some RESPECT on my name.”

Over a four-year period, that’s true. His first three seasons earned him a contract that made him the highest-paid running back in the NFL. But, following a holdout and missing most of the preseason, Elliott turned in his least productive season in 2019.

Elliott averaged a career-low 84.8 rushing yards per game and 111.1 scrimmage yards per game last season. His 22.2 touches per game were also the lowest of his career.

star needs to hush critics is more playoff wins.

“He’s with the Cowboys organization, he’s proved that he’s an elite running back. I think that they haven’t gone deep into the playoffs and won those games they need to win,” Frerotte told CBS Sports Radio.

“Until they do that, you’re always going to have that type of criticism.

“I feel like Zeke can break through. They need leadership from him and Dak. They’re going to have a new coach in Mike McCarthy, and I think Mike is going to try to solidify some of that stuff.”

It also doesn’t help his profile that the Cowboys woefully underachieved last year, ended the season at 8-8 and did not qualify for the playoffs.

Elliott did rush for 1,357 yards last season, which was fourth in the NFL. Carolina’s Christian McCaffrey was the lone running back to tally more yards from scrimmage (total of rushing and receiving yards) than Elliott.

In his four-year career, Elliott led the NFL in touches (1,169), rushing yards (5,405) and scrimmage yards (7,024) and ranks second to the L.A. Rams’ Todd Gurley in rushing touchdowns (48) and scrimmage touchdowns (60).

He borrowed a lyric from artist Yo Gotti when he wrote, “Women lie. Men lie.” He continued, “The stats don’t. Go do your homework.”

Elliott did support his fellow running backs by writing, “There are a lot of great backs in this league but I don’t understand why the media has to talk down on my game just to uplift other backs.”

“We all are talented football players and can ball.”

Gus Frerotte, a retired journeyman NFL quarterback who was Elliott’s coach at John Burroughs, said all his former

Which brings us to the quarterback in question.

A step Dak

Let’s be honest. If someone offered any of us about $34 million in annual salary with $100 million guaranteed to do a job we like and excel at, we’d run through a door to sign the deal.

But Prescott doesn’t want to sign a deal that is five years in length, and the Cowboys reported to offer to the QB insists on at least a five-year commitment.

It’s not the years, folks. It’s Jerry Jones, owner of the franchise.

If Prescott leads Dallas deep into the postseason, Jones will have to pay up AND shut up. Prescott will make $31.4 million this season playing under the “franchise player” tag. That escalates by 20 percent in 2021 if he and Cowboys can’t reach a deal during the offseason.

The Cowboys will not be able afford that without wrecking the salary cap scale – which would mean not being able to retain young players and/or sign top-level free agents.

Jones and Prescott know one thing for certain and another for sure; if the Cowboys falter is 2020, Prescott won’t be the team’s quarterback in 2021. Yet, just as he supported Jones when he threatened to fire any player that knelt during the national anthem in 2017, Prescott is publicly presenting a good-guy image.

“I’m a Cowboy and couldn’t be happier. ... I look forward to working along Coach

Last week, Ezekiel Elliott got upset about (of all things) several NFL media pundits saying that he has lost a step and is not among the NFL’s highest echelon of running backs.

McCarthy, the staff, and my teammates to be the best team we can be in pursuit to our goal of a Super Bowl,” he told USA TODAY.

I’m not alone in thinking choppy waters lie ahead for the Cowboys/Prescott relationship.

“This won’t be business as usual. There are cracks in the foundation,” wrote Cowboys longtime reporter David Moore.

“You can’t spend more than 16 months trying to reach a deal, fail, then have both sides claim there’s no emotional fallout. You can’t watch friends and teammates Ezekiel Elliott, Amari Cooper and DeMarcus Lawrence receive lucrative, long-term contracts and not feel left out.”

Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk must have had me in mind when he wrote, “Some think the Cowboys won’t tag Dak next year.”

“If they don’t, he’ll be able to pick his next team,

unfettered by the Cowboys. That could mean the Jets or the Patriots or the Steelers (if Ben Roethlisberger retires) or the Colts or the Jaguars or the Raiders or Washington or the Bears or the Lions or the Saints or the Panthers or the 49ers.

“And then the Cowboys would have to find someone else to play quarterback.”

Maybe that’s exactly what Jones wants to happen.

Time to talk

Speaking of Jones, all the NFL is waiting for him to speak about the possibility of players taking a knee during the national anthem and the robust Black Lives Matter movement.

Several Cowboys, who don’t have the respective last names of Elliott and Prescott, are hinting that the peaceful, lawful, respectful protests are

InsIde sports

With Earl Austin Jr.

going to happen.

Jones has until the beginning of next week to prepare his most-awaited statement. He always holds court on the official first day of training camp. If he passes this year, it will not be because he does not want to discuss Prescott’s future with the Cowboys.

He’ll either abandon his “toe on the line,” philosophy on anthem protests or drive the majority of his fan base by crazy by changing his stance.

Stay tuned for the next exciting chapter of “Days of Our Cowboys” or “The Cowboys and the Restless,” or “As the Cowboys Turn.”

HBCU blues

The Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) has joined the Mid-Eastern Atlantic Conference (MEAC) in announcing that all fall sports seasons are postponed – at least until spring.

The respective conferences are comprised of 23 respective Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and are following the path of the Ivy League and Patriot League in shutting down fall sports –including the money-making football programs.

“Obviously this is an arduous decision because everyone wants to have a fall season for student-athletes, fans and others,” MEAC Commissioner Dennis Thomas said.

Commissioner Charles McClelland and the SWAC issued a release that included, “The continued increase of COVID-19 cases across many portions of the league’s geographic footprint and Southern regions of the country played a significant role in the council’s decision.”

The decision was also based on “data that suggests African-American communities have been disproportionately affected by the COVID19 pandemic.”

Howard University

President Dr. Wayne A. I. Frederick, who also chairs the MEAC Council of Presidents and Chancellors, said, “Most certainly, we’re going to take some type of a financial hit.”

“(But) we think the health and safety of our athletes and the staff around them is the thing that’s most important for us, so we needed to make sure

that we took care of them.”

The Reid Roundup

The St. Louis MLS expansion franchise will not take the field until 2023 – which is probably a blessing in disguise financially. Its owners announced this week that it will unveil colors, crest and team name next month. How about the “Fighting McCloskeys?”… First-year manager Gabe Kapler and four players for the San Francisco Giants took a knee Monday night before the team’s exhibition game against the Oakland Athletics. Joining Kapler were Mike Yastrzemski, Austin Slater, Jaylin Davis and Antoan Richardson. Yastrzemski is the grandson of Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski. Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford put his hands on the shoulders of Davis and Richardson... Would someone please tell L.A. Lakers center Dwight Howard to quit complaining about wearing a mask in the NBA bubble in Orlando or just go home. The Lakers don’t need his sorry stuff anyway ... Zion Williamson left the New Orleans Pelicans because of a family medical emergency. The move comes as more detail comes to light about potential payoffs to family members in return for him attending Duke ... Texas has delayed football by a month at its large high schools. If that isn’t proof this COVID think isn’t a hoax, nothing is … Lewis Hamilton won the Hungarian Gran Prix last Sunday, his second win in three Formula 1 races this season, and when asked, promptly told reporters, “There is definitely not enough support for (Black Lives Matter.) It is like it has gone off the agenda. It is lacking leadership.”

Alvin A. Reid was honored as the 2017 “Best Sports Columnist – Weeklies” in the Missouri Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest and is a New York Times contributor. He is a panelist on the Nine Network program, Donnybrook, a weekly contributor to “The Charlie Tuna Show” on KFNS and appears monthly on “The Dave Glover Show” on 97.1 Talk.” His Twitter handle is @aareid1.

Top prep performers in last 25 years

As many of you know, I have been celebrating my 25 years of covering high school sports here at the St. Louis American. My current 25-year anniversary installment centers on some of the top individual performances by our high school stars during that time frame. There were so many of them. Here are a few on the list.

Jordan Barnett: The CBC basketball standout had one of the most impressive outings in the history of the state championship game in 2014 when he scored 43 points, grabbed 20 rebounds and blocked four shots to lead the Cadets to a 86-77 victory over Columbia Hickman in the Class 5 state title game.

Bradley Beal: The Chaminade College Prep AllAmerican had a coming out party as a sophomore in 2008 at the Pattonville Tournament when he scored 52 points to lead the Red Devils past rival CBC 92-85 in an overtime thriller. Beal sent the game into overtime with a half-court shot that sent the crowd into a complete frenzy. He also had seven rebounds, four steals and three blocks.

Napheesa Collier: The All-American girls’ superstar from Incarnate Word Academy closed her glorious career in high style by outscoring the opposing team by herself in the state championship game. Collier had 30 points and 19 rebounds to lead the Red Knights past MICDS 60-27 for

the Class 4 state championship. It was pure dominance.

Ezekiel Elliott: In the 2012 Class 3 Show-Me Bowl, the John Burroughs football star set a state record with 428 all-purpose yards in a loss to a powerhouse Maryville team. Elliott had 220 yards rushing, 75 yard receiving and 128 return yards to go along with three touchdowns.

touchdowns, grabbed two interceptions and had 11 tackles as he rallied the Flyers back from a 28-7 deficit.

Earl Austin Jr.

Terry Hawthorne: The East St. Louis football star led the Flyers to a tremendous comeback 35-28 victory over Chicago St. Rita in the Illinois Class 7A state quarterfinals in 2007. Hawthorne scored three

Larry Hughes: The All-American guard from CBC scored 40 points to lead the Cadets to a victory over Riverview Gardens in the Class 4A state quarterfinals at UMSL in 1997. After Riverview bolted to a 31-15 lead after the first quarter, Hughes then took over the game and put on a show for the ages.

Darrell Jackson: The Webster Groves quarterback was a one-man gang in leading the Statesmen to a 39-38 victory over McCluer North

in the Class 5 semifinals at North. Jackson amassed 490 yards and five touchdowns as he rushed for 147 yards and passed for 393 yards. He scored game-winning points on a two-point conversion in the second overtime.

Brandon Miller: The John Burroughs track star made history at the 2018 Class 3 state meet when he set a new state record in the 800-meter run with a time of 1 minute 49.55 seconds. Miller broke a 31-year state record, which set by Billy Rainey of Springfield Parkview in 1987.

McCluer South-Berkeley Girls: The quartet of Ashley Usery, Angel Williams, Kianna Ruff and Alisha Usery smashed the state record in the

4x400-meter relay with a time of 3 minutes 45.78 seconds at the 2007 Class 3 state meet in Jefferson City.

Justin Robinson: The Hazelwood West track star set a new world youth (Under18) record in the 400-meter dash when he turned in a time of 44.84 seconds at the 2018 Great Southwest Classic in New Mexico. Robinson also went on to compete and win medals at the Pan American Games as a teenager.

Torres Roundtree: The McCluer North basketball standout led the Stars to their first state championship in 2007 when he scored 38 points and grabbed 13 rebounds in a 69-57 victory over Rockhurst for the Class 5 state title.

With Alvin A. Reid

Alvin A. Reid

St. LouiS american Career Center

CASE MANAGER

FULL-TIME

The incumbent is responsible for providing goal-oriented support and individualized direct care and supervision of program youth. This position is focused on achieving individualized goals for the persons served by assessment, planning, advocacy, and coordination in a manner which reflects the mission, philosophy and policies of Covenant House Missouri.

To apply, visit our website at www.covenanthousemo.org

FULL-TIME POLICE

OFFICER/PUBLIC SAFETY OFFICER

The Des Peres Department of Public Safety is hiring a full-time Police Officer/Public Safety Officer. Starting salary is $57,240-$62,926 depending on qualifications and experience including an excellent fringe benefit package. Successful applicant may be cross-trained as a Firefighter and Emergency Medical Technician (EMT), and will be primarily assigned to patrol operations or the West County Center Detail (until fully trained). Applications are available at https://www.desperesmo. org/jobs.aspx and will be accepted until 5:00PM on Friday, August 21, 2020. All questions regarding this position should be forwarded to Lt. Vicki Severs at 314-835-6200.

SHIPPING / RECEVING CLERK

Full-time with benefits. Day shift, M-F. Visit www.globalsurgical.com for details. EOE

BIDS & NOTICES

CAROUSEL WOODEN ANIMAL RESTORATION RFP 2020

The Saint Louis Zoo seeks bids from qualified vendors for Carousel Wooden Animal Restoration RFP 2020. Bid documents are available as of July 22, 2020 on the Saint Louis Zoo website: stlzoo.org/vendor

METROPOLITAN ST. LOUIS SEWER DISTRICT

Notice is hereby given that the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is accepting proposals in the Purchasing Division, 2350 Market Street, St. Louis, Missouri 63103-2555 until 10:00 a.m. on August 20, 2020 to contract with a company for: 4WD DUAL REAR WHEEL PICKUP W/ SERVICE BODY Specifications and bid forms may be obtained from www.msdprojectclear.org, click on the “DOING BUSINESS WITH US” link, (View Non-Capital Bids (Goods & Services). The bid document will be identified as 10450 RFQ. If you do not have access to the internet, call 314.768.6314 to request a copy of this bid. Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Public Notice of Single Source Procurement

Notice is hereby given that the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is proposing to procure: PRIMARY BOARDS AND CHAIN: ENVIREX. EVOQUA. The District is proposing single source procurement for these partsbecause EVOQUA WATER TECHNOLOGIES LLC is the only knownavailable source for these parts. Any inquiries should be sent to gjamison@stlmsd.com

Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

METROPOLITAN ST. LOUIS

SEWER DISTRICT

Notice is hereby given that the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District Requests for Quotes, Bids and Proposals are posted online for public download. Please navigate to www.msdprojectclear.org > Doing Business With Us > View Non-Capital Bids (commodities and services) or >Visit Planroom (capital construction bids)

Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

BIDS

City of Crestwood, 1 Detjen Drive, Crestwood, MO 63126 is seeking bids for general works and demolition and abatement works bid packages at the Crestwood City Hall. Bids due 8/13/20 by 3:00 p.m. A pre-bid meeting will be held on 8/3/20 at 10:00 a.m. Project manuals, registration and questions through Katie Aholt (katie@ navigatebuildingsolutions.com or 636-359-8538).

METROPOLITAN ST. LOUIS

SEWER DISTRICT

Notice is hereby given that the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is accepting proposals in the Purchasing Division, 2350 Market Street, St. Louis, Missouri 63103-2555 until 10:00 a.m. on August 12, 2020 to contract with a company for: 13 COMPACT CARS AND 2 SUV’S Specifications and bid forms may be obtained from www.msdprojectclear.org, click on the “DOING BUSINESS WITH US” link, (View Non-Capital Bids (Goods & Services). The bid document will be identified as 10452 RFQ. If you do not have access to the internet, call 314.768.6314 to request a copy of this bid. Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Public Notice of Single Source Procurement

Notice is hereby given that the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is proposing to procure: CHAINS AND BEARINGS. The District is proposing single source procurement for these parts because EVOQUA WATER TECHNOLOGIES is the only known available source for these parts. Anyinquiries should be sent to gjamison@stlmsd.com.

Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Public Notice of Single Source Procurement

Notice is hereby given that the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is proposing to procure: VOGELSANG SLUDGE GRINDERS FOR SLUDGE PUMPS. The District is proposing single source procurement for these parts because VANDEVANTER ENGINEERING is the only known available source for these parts. Any inquiries should be sent to gjamison@stlmsd.com.

Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

INVITATION TO BID Ferguson-Florissant School District District Wide Fire Alarm Inspections (Annual)

Sealed bids for the above project are being requested from the Ferguson Florissant School District and will be received and publicly opened on Monday August 17, 2020 1:00 PM CST at the Facility Maintenance Department located at 8855 Dunn Road (REAR) Hazelwood, MO 63042. Bid specs must be obtained at: http://new.fergflor.K12.mo.us/ facilities-rfq. Contact Matt Furfaro at mfurfaro@fergflor.org for further information/questions.

Requests subcontractor and or material supplier quotations from Illinois Department of Transportation Certified subcontractors, suppliers and Disadvantaged Business Enterprises for the letting to be held July 31, 2020. Interested parties should contact Keller Construction at (618) 656-0033. All quotations must be submitted by 4:30 PM Thursday July 30, 2020. Keller Construction is an equal opportunity employer.

ST. LOUIS COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Responses for St. Louis Community College on B0003977 for Virtual Clinical Simulation Solution will be received until 3:00 P.M. (local time) on Thursday, August 7, 2020 at the Dept. of Purchasing, 3221 McKelvey Road; Bridgeton, MO 63044, and immediately thereafter opened and read. Bid documents can be accessed on our website at www.stlcc.edu/purchasing

Public Notice of Single Source Procurement

Notice is hereby given that the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is proposing to procure: LOOP CHAIN/ ENVIREX / EVOQUA. The District is proposing single source procurement for these parts because EVOQUA WATER TECHNOLOGIES LLC is the only known available source for these parts. Any inquiries should be sent to gjamison@stlmsd.com.

Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

WE PRINT EVERY THURSDAY CALL ANGELITA HOUSTON AT 314-289 5430 ahouston@ stlamerican. com

PUBLIC NOTICE SEEKING COMMENTS

The City of St Louis Department of Public Safety seeks comments concerning its FY2020 JAG grant application. Please submit comments or questions by email to ColeKi@StLouis-MO.gov no later than 5PM Friday, Aug. 14, 2020. A summary of the program narrative is available at https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/ government/departments/ public-safety/documents/ public-notice-regarding-fy-2020jag-grant.cfm

BID PROPOSAL

Great Rivers Greenway is requesting qualifications for Prequalification for Civic/ Community Engagement Services.Go to www.greatriversgreenway. org/jobs-bids/ and submit by August 7, 2020.

SEALED BIDS

Bids for Construct Expansion and Replace SeamStanding Roof at Festus Readiness Center, Project No. T1932-01 will be received byStateFMDC, of MO, UNTIL 1:30 PM, 8/20/2020 via MissouriBUYS. Bidders must be registered to bid. For specific project information and ordering plans, go to: http://oa.mo. gov/facilities

PARKS AND RECREATION DIRECTOR

The City of Richmond Heights is accepting applications for our Parks and Recreation Director. To apply go to https://richmondheights. applicantpro.com/jobs/1459352.html Applications will be accepted from July 16, 2020 through August 10, 2020.

The City of Ladue, MO located in St. Louis County is seeking qualified applicants for the full-time position of Laborer for the Department of Public Works. General duties include pavement maintenance, operating equipment and vehicles, mowing, trimming, leaf collection, various projects within the municipal right-of-way, and other duties as assigned. Starting Salary range of $42,577 - $46,303 depending on qualifications and experience. Competitive benefit package and excellent work environment.

Applicants must be able to work rotating shifts during snow removal season. A Class B CDL is desired and will be required within six months of employment. Applicant must possess good communications skills and a strong ability to work well with others. To apply, email resume no later than August 10, 2020 to publicworks@cityofladue-mo. gov. More information about the position is available on the City’s website at cityofladue-mo.gov

BID PROPOSAL

Great Rivers Greenway is requesting proposals for PreConstruction and Construction Management Services for the Brickline Greenway. Go to www.greatriversgreenway. org/jobs-bids/ and submit by August 27 , 2020.

ADVERTISEMENT FOR BIDS

Cornerstone Realty, 856 Hanley Industrial Court, St. Louis Mo 63144 (314-725-0145) is the General Contractor on Chouteau Redevelopment Public Improvements-Praxair Site Demolition; Chouteau Redevelopment ImprovementsLafayette Reserve and Chouteau Redevelopment Public Improvements-New Water Main (2350 Chouteau Ave., St. Louis Mo 63104) and is interested in receiving subcontract bids and/or material quotations from qualified subcontractors and qualifying Minority and Women Business Enterprises on any or all portions of the contractual work scopes. It is the intent of Cornerstone and the owner to encourage qualified MBE, DBE and WBE firms to participate in the execution of the work. Plans will be available through Cross Rhodes Reprographics 314-657-8282 or Electronically at x-rhodes. com(SLDC Plan Room) There will be two onsite Pre-Bid meetings on July 22nd at 10:00 AM as well as August 4th at 10:00 AM.

Project Name: Chouteau Redevelopment Public Improvements – Praxaire Demo Chouteau Redevelopment Public Improvements – Lafayette Reserve Chouteau Redevelopment Public Improvements – New Water Main Cornerstone Realty is an Equal Opportunity Employer 314-725-0145

City of St. Louis

Virtual Public Hearing Notice 2021 Funding Priorities

The Community Development Administration (CDA) will hold a virtual public hearing at 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday, July 29, 2020 to solicit feedback on annual Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), HOME Investment Partnership (HOME) priorities/activities. The 2021 CDBG/HOME Funding Priorities document will be available on July 22, 2020 in draft form for review by any interested citizen. Copies of the priorities may be downloaded from the City of St. Louis website at https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/cda/ Written comments may be submitted to CDBG@Stlouis-mo.gov and will be accepted until 5:00pm on July 28, 2020.

Instructions for attending the Virtual Public Hearing are available on the website: https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/cda/.

The views of citizens, public agencies and other interested parties are encouraged. Interpreting services are available upon request by calling the Office on the Disabled at (314) 622-3686/Voice or (314) 622-3693/TTY.

ProposedAmendment to the Constitution of Missouri

To be submitted to the qualified voters of the State of Missouri at the Special Election to be held on Tuesday, the 4th day of August, 2020.

AMENDMENT NO. 2

[Proposed by Initiative Petition] OFFICIALBALLOTTITLE:

DoyouwanttoamendtheMissouriConstitutionto:

• adopt Medicaid Expansion for persons 19 to 64 years old with an income level at or below 133% of the federal poverty level, as set forth in theAffordable CareAct;

• prohibit placing greater or additional burdens on eligibility or enrollment standards, methodologies or practices on persons covered under Medicaid Expansion than on any other population eligible for Medicaid; and

• require state agencies to take all actions necessary to maximize federal financial participation in funding medical assistance under Medicaid Expansion?

State government entities are estimated to have onetime costs of approximately $6.4 million and an unknown annual net fiscal impact by 2026 ranging from increased costs of at least $200 million to savings of $1 billion. Local governments expect costs to decrease by an unknown amount.

Be it resolved by the people of the state of Missouri that the Constitution be amended:

ArticleIVoftheConstitutionisrevisedbyaddingonenew section to be known as Article IV, Section 36(c) to read as follows:

Section 36(c). 1. Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, beginning July 1, 2021, individuals nineteen years of age or older and under sixty-five years of age who qualify for MO HealthNet services under 42 U.S.C. Section 1396a(a)(10)(A)(i)(VIII)andassetforthin42C.F.R.435.119, and who have income at or below one hundred thirty-three percent of the federal poverty level plus five percent of the applicable family size as determined under 42 U.S.C. Section 1396a(e)(14) and as set forth in 42 C.F.R. 435.603, shall be eligible for medical assistance under MO HealthNet and shall receive coverage for the health benefits service package.

2. For purposes of this section “health benefits service package” shall mean benefits covered by the MO HealthNet

program as determined by the department of social services to meet the benchmark or benchmark-equivalent coverage requirement under 42 U.S.C. Section 1396a(k)(1) and any implementing regulations.

3. No later than March 1, 2021, the Department of Social Services and the MO HealthNet Division shall submit all state plan amendments necessary to implement this section to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

4. The Department of Social Services and the MO HealthNet Division shall take all actions necessary to maximize federal financial participation in funding medical assistance pursuant to this section.

5. No greater or additional burdens or restrictions on eligibility or enrollment standards, methodologies, or practices shall be imposed on persons eligible for MO HealthNet services pursuant to this section than on any other population eligible for medical assistance.

6. All references to federal or state statutes, regulations or rules in this section shall be to the version of those statutes, regulations or rules that existed on January 1, 2019.

STATE OF MISSOURI

Secretary of State

I,JohnR.Ashcroft,SecretaryofStateoftheStateofMissouri, hereby certify that the foregoing is a full, true and complete copy of Constitutional Amendment No. 2, to be submitted to the qualified voters of the State of Missouri at the Special Election to be held the fourth day ofAugust, 2020.

In TESTIMONY WHEREOF, I hereunto set my hand and affix the Great Seal of the State of Missouri, done at the City of Jefferson, this 26th day of May, 2020.

CITY OF ST. LOUIS Community Development Administration Request for Proposals

The City of St. Louis will be accepting applications for 2021 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding beginning July 31, 2020 and ending at 4:00 p.m. CST on August 31, 2020. Beginning July 31, 2020, the 2021 CDBG Request for Proposals (RFP) and related documents can be found on the Community Development Administration (CDA) website at: https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/departments/ community-development/

Grants Management System Training and RFP Workshop

CDA utilizes a grants management system called EGrAMS to streamline grant processes and to allow organizations to apply for funding online. CDA will hold a virtual training session for organizations interested in applying online via EGrAMS. CDA will host a workshop to answer questions on the RFP on Thursday, July 30, 2020 at 9:00 a.m.

Instructions for attending the Virtual Training and RFP Workshop Session are available on the website: https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/cda/.

The 2021 CDBG funding proposal deadline is Monday, August 31, 2020, 4:00 p.m., CST.

Questions concerning the RFP process may be submitted to the Community Development Administration at CDBG@Stlouis-mo.gov

CDA is an equal opportunity Agency. Minority participation is encouraged.

Swag Snap of the Week

rocked sundresses in the sunflower field Saturday afternoon @ Columbia Bottom Conversation Area

Tammie Holland was serving a flawless face on Facebook

Virtual ‘Country Grammar’ concert coming to a screen near you Looks like I might get a sip of Nelly doing his greatest “Country Grammar” hits in concert after all. Look at God! Y’all know I wasn’t the least bit fretting from not being on the list for the Drive-in concert, right? I’m sorry, but Miss Rona has your girl eager to be persona non grata to keep myself safe! So now, I can catch it from the comfort of my plush, fully reclining basement theater seats. Each your heart out AMC Esquire. Okay, maybe mine can’t have me fully horizontal at the push of a button, but my futon hatch works just fine thank you very much. Okay, my whole point was to talk about this Nelly surprise news. Nelly is set to perform “Country Grammar” in full on MelodyVR to celebrate his diamond-selling debut album’s 20th anniversary. “Anytime you get a chance to celebrate 20 years, you want to do something that you have never done before – so we are going to rock the Country Grammar album top to bottom,” Nelly said in a statement about the show, which will take place as a virtual 360-degree performance at 8 p.m. CST on Saturday, July 25. “Performing in the MelodyVR studio is epic and we have put together this show that people will hopefully want to replay 20 years from now.”

Y’all know I forgot that Nelly received a “Best Rap Album” Grammy nod out the gate with “Country Grammar” until I read the press release about Saturday’s show. I tip my goddess braids lace front to you once again. MOI will be perched for every bit of the show.

Fans will be able to watch the free-to-view show via the MelodyVR app on smartphones and VR headsets.

I’m really hoping this means a second St. Lunatics reunion installment! Oh, and in case you hadn’t heard, he’s releasing a special 20th Anniversary deluxe version of “Country Grammar” on Friday July 24 – which will include some bonus tracks. I’ll tell you what St. Louis, let’s try to get our boy another platinum plaque by coppin’ the deluxe joint in droves.

The Verzuz dog fight. Since I’m already talking about virtual musical experiences, let me say that because of my deadline, I can’t officially declare a winner, but I’m doubling down on my prediction that Snoop Dogg will be the victor against DMX for what I’m claiming to be my favorite Verzuz battle to date. I’m doing a victory lap two hours in advance around my laptop. Because they are both rappers of a certain age, I’m just really hoping with all my heart that the technical difficulties are kept to a minimum.

‘Futile Affair’ and on-screen happenings. What? As much as I love Nia Long for staying snatched from head to toe without interruption for the past 30 years, y’all know that little Netflix movie “Fatal Affair” was a flop of a hot heap of predictable mess. I can’t say that Omar Epps is serving up the same lowkey Benjamin Button game as Nia. But still – unlike the movie – he’s not terrible to look at. What? Y’all know it was trash. I’ve seen that plot so many times, that I wrote my own version of it in real time. I didn’t have anything else to do. while I was praising Nia for serving hair goals whether it’s short or long. Being mesmerized by her sew-in wizardry was the only thing that allowed me to make it through to the end. Somebody asked me what I thought about “Fatal Affair,” and no caps, my response was “Nia Long serves hair goals – whether short or long. That’s all I got.” Admiring how her glorious mane never had a single strand out of place throughout the whole movie gave me a flashback of the movie wig trauma I suffered through while watching “Tyler Perry’s A Fall From (Wig) Grace.” To steal a description from my favorite former blogger Freshalina and say that movie should have been titled “When Bad Wigs Happen to Good People.” Is it too much of a conspiracy theory stretch to think that those wigs were an omen for what was to come in 2020? I’m gonna go ahead and say no. Because each of those wigs is a different expression of the events that have made up the tragic lightweight biblical plague that this year will be remembered as. Since I’m talking about bad things on screen, I might as well jump into “The Valley.” That is my Partyline edit of the edited for television title of the newest Starz Network rachetry. Anytime the made for tv edit of the title is too much for TV, you know it’s some primetime raunch going on. I’m not here for it, but I’m not mad at it. Please, by all means, enjoy “Players Club meets Katrina: The Series.” Now if there is one thing that gives me pause on the show, it’s those tattered southern accents. Who was the dialect coach, the OG First Lady Diamond LisaRaye? As a granddaughter of the Great Migration with roots in the ArkLAMiss (Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi) I am downright appalled every time they open their mouths to say a single word. Sunflower scenes. Leave it to Miss Rona and the craziness of 2020 to make a field full of sunflowers the area’s newest urban hotspot. Everybody, their mama, baby mama and grandbaby was perched in Spanish Lake at the Columbia Bottom Conversation Area this week. I saw baby photos, engagement photos, friends with champagne glasses drinking mimosas – and proudly holding up their dranky drank to show it’s the same color as the sunflower leaves. It’s been everything except for a socially distant day party out there. Honestly, it’s all quite cute. If there was one positive to come out of this quarantine, it’s that we have been out here reconnecting with nature… do you hear me? I’ve seen gardens, folks hiking and last week y’all were frolicking through those sunflower fields like Celie and Nettie in the opening scenes of “The Color Purple.” It was a cute and refreshing thing to see on folks’ timelines, to tell you the truth.

Chrissy, Shadress Johnna

House of Soul became an impromptu girls’ night for these gorgeous ladies last weekend

This lovely lady was chillaxing in her cute but casual summer gear last Saturday @ The House of Soul

and Instagram this week

The Red and Black Brass Band breaking it down for the closing party of Cbabi Bayoc’s ‘What’s The 411?’ exhibit last month

Larry and Becky Blue spent their Sunday afternoon @ Columbia Bottom

Elizabeth Donielle putting in work as part of the PR and social media team for House of Soul

Andrea and Christaan took Friday to soak in the sunflower scenery @ Columbia Bottom Conversation Area

A cute couple kicked back last Friday night @ The House of Soul

Tracie Berry-McGhee represented for her #IDefineMe Movement Saturday @ Columbia Bottom Conversation Area

Rap star Nelly will be continuing the celebration of the 20th Anniversary of “Country Grammar” this weekend with a virtual concert presented on the MelodyVR app at 8 p.m. on Saturday, July 25. He’s seen here in a 2012 throwback with Taz, one his legions of fans who are thrilled to see him rep for St. Louis around the world –