July 4th, 2013 edition

Brenda Girton-Mitchell,director of the

Baptist educators convene in St. Louis

30,000-plus guests generate $20.4M for local economy

By Bridjes O’Neil

Of The St.Louis American

The National Baptist Congress of Christian Education held its 108th Annual Session June 16-21 at America’s Center in Downtown St. Louis. The Congress serves as the primary training arm of the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc., the nation’s oldest and largest African-American religious group with an estimated membership of 7.5 million. According to the Rev. Sammie E. Jones, senior pastor of Mount Zion Baptist Church-Christian Complex, St. Louis is the first city to host back-to-back sessions of the Congress. As local host committee chairman and 2nd vice president of the Congress who oversees nine states in the Midwest Region, Jones was instrumental in making this happen.

American:Publication of the Year

Roland Martin challenges publishers to embrace new technology

By Kenya Vaughn Of The St.Louis American

(Nashville, Tenn.) – The St. Louis American was recognized as 2013 Publication of the Year for the largest newspaper class at the National Newspaper Publishers Association’s annual Merit Awards last Thursday in Nashville, Tenn.

Aformat change in the categories, eliminating the John D. Russwurm Award, means that for the first time no individual publication can officially claim the “Best Black Newspaper in the Nation” title. But by winning Publication of the Year in the largest of the three circulation markets, The American can credibly claim the mantle as the top black

This year, the Houston Defender and Miami Times shared Publication of the Year recognition for smallercirculation newspapers.

East Building opens eyes

“We need to stop thinking like newspapers and embrace growing into multimedia companies.”

– Roland Martin

By Rebecca S.Rivas Of The St.Louis American

The Missouri Foundation for Health recently tightened up its strategy and focused on new

By Rebecca S.Rivas Of The St.Louis American

Advocates for more minority police leadership say that the last round of St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department promotions was a slap in the face – and a sign that the promotions process isn’t working.

“Promotional exams like this are further destroying the already dismal morale of this department, especially among its senior African-American officers,” said Sergeant Darren Wilson, president of the Ethical Society of Police. Out of 19 promotions, the St. Louis Board

Photo by Wiley Price

Photo by Wiley Price

T.Pain claims Kanye is a disgraceful gift receiver

Rapper T. Pain has reportedly refused to buy a baby gift for Kanye West branding his pal uncouth.

“Kanye is much richer than me so I’m not even going to try [getting him and Kim Kardashian a gift],”

T. Pain told US Magazine. “Kanye has no couth when it comes to things like that, so when you bring him something, he’d be like, ‘What the [f-word expletive] is this? You don’t want to be that person because he’ll make a big scene about that.”

Kevin

Clash molestation cases tossed over technicality

come forward accusing Kevin Clash of engaging in inappropriate sexual relationships with them when they were underage.

Now, according to reports, three of the young men are out of luck because the statute of limitations for their lawsuits has run out.

The statute of limitation to sue expires three years after the accusers turned 18.

Former Elmo voice actor Kevin Clash has reportedly won a major victory in court after three of the molestation cases filed against him were thrown out.

Over the past year five young men have

Was Rihanna written up by record label for tragic tour performances?

Rihanna has reportedly been given a “written warning” by her record label.

Her mentor Jay-Z, who runs the Roc Nation label she is signed to, is said to be growing tired of her antics.

“Everyone can see Rihanna’s not behaving herself. Fans have paid hundreds of pounds for tickets and she’s regularly showing up hours late,” an insider told British Magazine Look.

“Then she often gives lackluster performances where she even forgets her words at times. They issued a written warning which was emailed to Rihanna.”

A number of fans have lashed out at Rihanna

lackluster vocals on stage. Hip-hop mogul Jay-Z is apparently worried his protégé could be ruining her career.

“There’s no excuse because, because Jay knows exactly how talented Rihanna can be on stage,” the insider explained. “He takes work very seriously and this is not what he expects from his talent. She’d better start giving her fans what they paid for.”

On Sunday night Rihanna was more than 90 minutes late for her concert in Zurich, Switzerland after partying with her entourage until 4am the night before.

Making matters worse, when she did show up it wasn’t exactly worth the wait, with one fan writing on Zurich’s Radio 24 Facebook page”

mother of his two children with a very public post on social media.

“The fate has decided to split our romantic paths,” the singer has captioned around a picture of the former couple on his Instagram account. “Know that I will always love you. Forever your partner, forever your friend. Forever my miracle. “ In the comment section Ne-Yo adds “I will always be there. Always.”

“I’m of the opinion that she was not sober. She decided to party like a world star and then sang like a street busker. With full playback recording, she could have at least given some effort to the lip-synching. That was the first time I’ve ever left a concert before it ended. And for so much money. Unbelievable.”

Ne-Yo dumps his fiancée on Instagram

Rev Sharpton signs with Cash Money

Political activist Rev. Al Sharpton signs a publishing deal with the literary arm of Cash Money Records.

According to reports Al Sharpton’s next book “The Rejected Stone” will be released under Cash Money Content and Massenburg Media in partnership with Simon & Schuster imprint Atria. “The Rejected Stone”, scheduled for release Oct. 8, will detail Rev Al’s “personal evolution” from

‘Turning challenges into opportunities’

Sylvester Brown Jr. tries to keep kids off the streets with sweet potatoes

By Dale Hart For The Beacon

The sweet potato is keeping kids off the streets in North St. Louis thanks to the Sweet Potato Project, an entrepreneurial effort at community reform headed by Sylvester Brown Jr. and the North Area Community Development Corporation.

In its second year, the project attempts to stem the flow of African-American youth into the judicial system by promoting a self-sustainable economic program within local communities.

On a recent Saturday morning, participants planted a crop of sweet potatoes in the O’Fallon, Penrose and Greater Ville neighborhoods. They will grow them, create ideas about how to transform them into a marketable product and sell them back to the community.

“The Sweet Potato Project shows kids that they have options,” said Brown, founder and director of the program. “Many of them see the illegal drug trade and criminal activities as the only methods for making money out there.”

Brown suggests that kids, especially African-American youth, are incubated in an environment of negativity.

For years, they’ve witnessed relatives getting locked up.

“There’s a system already in place for wayward children, children we don’t understand, children we don’t take the time to nurture,” said Brown. “We need to create new systems, new ideas, new mechanisms. And what better way to do this than turning the challenges of their communities into opportunities?”

Last year in St. Louis, 564 youth spent time in the Juvenile Detention Center; 542 were African-American. That’s 96 percent of detained youths being African-American in a city’s whose racial makeup is almost evenly split.

“I’ve seen dead bodies, drug dealers, the whole nine,” said Myke King, a 17-year-old

participant.

Brown wants to turn this around by diverting the focus from illegal activity to legal revenue.

“You can take the same rules of supply and demand from the drug trade to become entrepreneurs,” said Brown. “The same skills of discipline, math and marketing can all be applied in a positive manner.”

The project, which depends on outside donations to survive, starts with a community plant day. Kids who show up must undertake an hour’s work for free. Brown uses this time to interview candidates to be selected for the roughly 20 spots available.

The second stage sees candidates undertake a series of classes focused on the

community, conflict resolution, connections with the past and commerce, held at the St. Louis Catholic Academy Participants then walk through local neighborhoods, taking note of the types of businesses and stores, comparing them to more affluent areas such as the Central West End.

“I couldn’t believe how negatively they market the black community,” said King. “There were just posters advertising cigarettes, alcohol, quick cash schemes – there was nothing positive.”

Volunteers give their time to educate the kids on marketing and advertising.

Past volunteers include Jonny Little Jr., founder of the eLittle Media Group; Nicole Adewale,

principal and president of ABNA Engineering firm; and Koran Bolden, owner of Street Dreamz recording studios.

Last year, the group decided to focus on producing a sweet potato-based cookie product. SweetArt Bakery owner Reine Bayoc came up with a recipe. Then the students marketed the product to several local businesses, with the kids making a commission off the proceeds.

“One day, we had to give a presentation in front of local business Afroworld,” said Barry Goins, a 19-year-old participant. “Mr. Brown wasn’t there, but some of the shyer kids really stepped up their game, came out of their shells and delivered.”

Last year was a struggle for Brown, starting with just a $5,000 grant from the Incarnate Word Foundation. The group has had to raise awareness and funds for the project as it progresses, nearly folding by the end of the 6th week.

“I told the kids not to come the following week,” said Brown. “However, every single one of them turned up with ideas on how to save the program. It blew me away.” Donate to the Sweet Potato Project via the North Area Community Development Corporation, a 501 (c) (3) agency, at http://nacda. wordpress.com/ Edited for length and reprinted with permission from stlbeacon.org.

Above - Sweet Potato Project students JoNetta Muldrew, 16, and Jason Fitzpatrick, 19, prepare to plant sweet potatoes on a vacant lot in the 4th Ward.

Students Barry Goins, 19, Keyundra Baker, 18, and Frederick Butcher, 17, prepare sweet potato fries during a health & nutrition class conducted by the St. Louis Department of Health.

Editorial /CommEntary

We share our awards with you

There are many challenges in the newspaper industry in general and in the Black Press in particular, but there are also opportunities. This is a stressful but exciting time to be engaged in this work. So we are gratified to see our efforts recognized by the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA). This weekend in Nashville, The American was awarded Publication of the Year for our class (the largest newspaper class), along with four other first place awards that run the gamut of editorial content: Best News Story, Best Business Section, Best Entertainment Section and Best Use of Photographs. Competing in a field of 92 blackowned newspapers across the nation, we took first, second or third place in more than half of the 15 award categories. This makes the ninth time in the past 18 years that The American has been awarded the equivalent of best newspaper by the NNPA.

This newspaper is foremost a collective effort by a small staff, and we benefit from a tremendous amount of participation from our community of readers. Though staff members did the work recognized by the awards in the individual categories, we estimate that 40 percent of our editorial content – opinion pieces, inspirational messages, celebrations, reunions, letters and more – is reader-generated. Community newspapers such as ours were relying on reader input long before the concept of “citizen journalist” became adopted in the mainstream. We fervently hope that everyone who has had their work published in any section of our newspaper realizes that we share this national recognition with you.

Thinking more deeply about our mission, in fact, we owe everything we do to our community. Everything we do here is done with

the intention to live up to the high expectations of our community, and we are proud to provide you with some of the critical information our people need, such as health and financial literacy, education news, reports on public policy and success stories. We also recognize the need to entertain you and to stay current with society news, both in the local club scene and among national celebrities. We have a very special regard and respect for our community. When our peers recognize us for excellence, we feel, what they are recognizing is our commitment to the community that enables our efforts. However, like the parent who can not hear his child praised enough, we admit to being somewhat disappointed to have placed second, rather than first, for Digital Excellence, a category of critical importance to the future of our industry and this publication. Not to diminish the victory of the Pittsburgh Courier or to suggest its new website launch did not deserve its first place recognition, but we would place our digital publishing – on stlamerican.com, in our free E-edition, via our mobile application and on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) – alongside the digital products of any publication in the NNPA.

We continually seek to improve our print product, just last week adding a superb upgrade in the quality of our printing and this week adding a new insert, USA Weekend magazine. But we recognize that media become more digital, mobile and social every day, and if we are going to serve our audience in the future as effectively as we do today, we will need to reach you digitally as well as in print. We encourage our print readers to discover us in this new media. And we promise to be here – and there –to serve you long into the future. Thanks!

Food for thought on Paula Deen

Her fears are well-founded.

Paula Deen needs to give the self-pity a rest. The damage to her carefully built image is self-inflicted – nobody threw a rock – and her desperate search for approval and vindication is just making things worse. Deen is tough and savvy enough to have built a culinary empire from scratch, in the process becoming the most famous Southern cook in creation. She incarnates the whole “steel magnolia” archetype, with razor-sharp toughness beneath the flutter and the filigree.

“I is what I is,” she said in her weepy exculpation on the Today show. And that’s fine. Go ahead, be what you be. Just don’t try to make everybody else responsible.

For anyone who somehow managed to miss this whole melodrama – distracted, perhaps, by trifles such as landmark Supreme Court rulings or shocking revelations of government snooping –Deen’s troubles stem from a deposition she gave last month in a lawsuit filed by a former employee. Under oath, Deen acknowledged that “of course” she had used the N-word. This was years ago, she explained, and, well, people use inappropriate language when they’re telling jokes, but

she never used that word in a hurtful way.

On the contrary, Deen told Today host Matt Lauer, she is now the victim -- of “very, very hurtful lies” and the erroneous judgments of “people I have never heard of.”

I guess that includes me. But I believe Deen is familiar with the Food Network, Smithfield Foods, Wal-Mart, Target, Caesars Entertainment and the Novo Nordisk pharmaceutical company, all of which have severed or suspended their business relationships with her. Executives of those firms are the constituency that Deen seems to have lost, even if much of her fan base remains loyal.

The question isn’t just whether Deen used an ugly, forbidden word, or how many times she used it, or how long ago that was. The question is whether there is anything about race and diversity in this country that she really understands.

For me, the most jawdropping passages in Deen’s deposition concern plans she was making for her brother Bubba’s wedding. She recalled visiting a restaurant “in Tennessee or North Carolina or somewhere” that she admired.

“The whole entire wait staff was middle-aged black men, and they had on beautiful white jackets with a black bow tie,” Dean says in the deposition. “I mean, it was really impressive. And I remember saying I would love to have servers like that, I said, but I would be afraid that somebody would misinterpret.”

State should fully fund Harris-Stowe

We are now living in a world where everyone is required to get a college degree to earn a living wage. We reside in a time when college degrees are expensive to receive and extensive in their admissions requirements. We now exist in an era where Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are being questioned for their existence. All the while Harris-Stowe State University (HSSU) is renovating its campus, filling educational needs in the community and bringing back the HBCU.

HSSU’s campus atmosphere is custom-made for its rich history and purpose. The new campus touts beautiful new suite-style dorm rooms, newly renovated cafeterias with endless food stations, countless new media rooms and computer labs, access to any library book you need, new popular student organizations, beautiful new outdoor scenery and the lowest university tuition in the state.

All of this newness is in the heart of the city of St. Louis, a short walk to the constantly growing Grand Center, a few blocks from downtown and down the street from the Central West End.

HSSU students and graduates get jobs. Recently,

two HSSU students were featured in The American as receiving top-notch internships for the summer.

Jordan Fowlkes is spending his summer with the Boeing Company and Chris Miller is in Atlanta, GA with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many HSSU graduates have great careers in organizations around the St. Louis region and the nation.

HSSU alumnus Leonard Johnson, deputy chief of staff for St. Louis Treasurer Tishaura O. Jones, says, “You can’t beat the amount of opportunity and experience that you will receive at the price you pay; I would call it a world-class institution.”

Stacey Shaw-Miller, founding partner of Shaw and Associates, LLC serving the Greater Kansas City area; Darius Chapmann of the St. Louis License Collector’s Office; and Candice Dixon of the Mayor’s Office are all graduates of HSSU.

For some time now, HBCUs have received the stigma that they are sub-par to other higher education institutions. While each of us knows a successful person who has graduated from an HBCU, we seldom recognize their elite status.

For centuries, public HBCUs like HSSU have accepted even the lowest-scoring students out of responsibility to the community, and they have cultivated these students into the success stories we hear today. Those efforts are necessary in our urban areas to

Letters to the editor

Outrage at Voting Rights Act ruling

Calling on Congress

I am deeply disappointed with the Supreme Court’s decision on Shelby County v. Holder. For nearly 50 years, the Voting Rights Act – enacted and repeatedly renewed by wide bipartisan majorities in Congress – has helped secure the right to vote for millions of Americans. The decision invalidating one of its core provisions upsets decades of well-established practices that help make sure voting is fair, especially in places where voting discrimination has been historically prevalent.

“Of course, I’m old but I ain’t that old,” Deen goes on, “I didn’t live back in those days but I’ve seen pictures, and the pictures that I’ve seen, that restaurant represented a certain era in America.”

Asked what era she’s talking about, Deen replies, “Well, I don’t know. After the Civil War, during the Civil War, before the Civil War.” She goes on to acknowledge that in antebellum years those welldressed servants would have been slaves, but clarifies that she “did not mean anything derogatory.” She needn’t worry, because the only person she’s derogating is herself.

The woman is 66, not 96. She was all of 7 when the Supreme Court issued its Brown v. Board of Education decision, which means she’s had plenty of time to get used to it. She has spent her adult life in an America where black people are not compelled to be subservient to whites. She has made her fortune in an America where most people, white as well as black, consider warmand-fuzzy nostalgia for the days of slavery and Jim Crow to be highly offensive.

I’ll put it in terms that someone who missed the last 50 years might understand: All black people are uppity now. Every one of us, I’m afraid.

I hope she figures it out, because anyone that fond of the deep-fryer can’t be all bad. A period of silence would be a good start. My advice: Eat some hushpuppies. And don’t talk with your mouth full.

As a nation, we’ve made a great deal of progress towards guaranteeing every American the right to vote. But, as the Supreme Court recognized, voting discrimination still exists. And while today’s decision is a setback, it doesn’t represent the end of our efforts to end voting discrimination. I am calling on Congress to pass legislation to ensure every American has equal access to the polls. My administration will continue to do everything in its power to ensure a fair and equal voting process.

President Barack Obama Washington, D.C.

Stand our ground

This decision has the potential to set voting rights back more than 50 years. It is especially unsettling in a year when we commemorate Medgar Evers, a man who gave his life to expand and protect the right to vote. But in the spirit of Medgar, who said, “You can kill a man but you can’t kill an idea,” we will stand our ground and bring this debate to Congress.”

Roslyn M. Brock, chairman NAACP National Board of Directors

Politics over precedent

The Court’s majority put politics over decades of precedent and the rights of

ensure that every willing person is educated and able to earn a living wage. Yet, efforts like those are being frowned upon in our state government.

Proposed Missouri State Government Foundation Formulas that will fund institutions based on credit hour production and performancebased models, rather than need, can be detrimental to HSSU’s main funding source. Cuts to federal aid programs such as the Pell grant and Parent PLUS loans are creating a funding dilemma for many HBCU students.

We as a community must fight back against any cuts to funding of the very institutions that have created so many leaders in our community. The civil rights responsibilities of our HBCUs are needed now more than ever, and we cannot let them down.

HSSU doesn’t need stagnate funding; it needs an increase in funding to continue its progress. That’s why I will work at the state government level for increased funding for our HSSU. Our state needs universities like HSSU to stay open and to help close the education achievement gap. You can help too. Make a contribution to your local HBCU today.

State Rep. Michael Butler represents District 79 in the Missouri House of Representatives.

All letters are edited for length and style.

voters. Congress must resurrect its bipartisan efforts from 2006 to ensure that the federal government has the power to preemptively strike racially discriminatory voting laws. Without that power, we are more vulnerable to the flood of attacks we have seen in recent years. While Section 2 is powerful after the fact, we must have a tool to protect against stolen elections proactively.

Benjamin Todd Jealous, president and CEO NAACP

Huge blow to working people

The Supreme Court decision on the Voting Rights Act dealt a huge blow to working people. Instead of recognizing the continued importance and efficacy of the Voting Rights Act, a five-vote conservative majority on the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice John Roberts tossed aside a key provision that has helped protect and expand the right to vote. We call on Congress with leadership from President Obama to live up to the ideals of our democracy by protecting and ensuring the right to vote for all.

Richard Trumka, president AFL-CIO

Battle the obstructionists

The Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) strongly condemns the ruling by the Supreme Court to strike down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act. Once again, the most reactionary Supreme Court majority in our lifetime has struck a blow for white supremacy and alerted black folks to fear the vigilantes who wear the black robes on the High Court. But disappointment will only stiffen our resolve to battle the obstructionists in Congress and statehouses who want to suffocate voices for justice and equality while turning back the hands of time. CBTU will continue to work with our allies in the civil rights and labor movements and in Congress to restore the voting rights

protections stripped away by the court.

Rev. Terry Melvin, president Coalition of Black Trade Unionists

Columnist Rep. Michael Butler

Columnist Eugene Robinson

AKAs with ‘Hattitude’

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority,Inc.,Upsilon Phi Omega Chapter,recently held

Vilajean Jones,Gamma Omega.

SLU Law to shelterCatholic Legal Assistance

Saint Louis University School of Law has announced an agreement with Catholic Legal Assistance Ministry (CLAM) to provide legal service to the poor in the law school’s new building, 100 N. Tucker Blvd., adjacent to the Civil Courts Building in downtown St. Louis when the law school moves in August.

The partnership between CLAM and the SLU LAWLegal Clinics, which offers upper division students practical experience while providing legal services to the community, began in 1999 when both organizations were located on Saint Louis University’s midtown campus.

CLAM, which offers assistance for impoverished families who do not have the means to afford an attorney,is an agency of Catholic Charities of St. Louis and is housed in a separate law office from the Clinics.

CLAM and the Clinics will continue to refer cases to each other and to cocounsel on important impact litigation regarding immigration, adoption subsidies and other issues of concern for the poor. CLAM’s new space will be on the 7th floor of 100 N. Tucker Blvd with offices next to the SLU LAWLegal Clinics. For more information, visit http://law.slu.edu/.

Funding available to improve waterquality

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources is accepting applications to fund projects that will protect Missouri’s waters from pollution caused by stormwater runoff. Eligible projects will protect or restore waters impaired by nonpoint sources and provide pollutant load-reducing practices. Educational institutions, local governments, and not-for-profit organizations are eligible to apply, and award amounts will vary. Additional information is available online at dnr.mo.gov/env/wpp/nps/319nps-proj-req.htm. To request an application packet, contact the department’s Water Protection Program at 800-361-4827 or 573-751-7428. Applications are due July 30.

One block at a time

By Carmen Hense For The St.Louis American

In the news, there seems to be never-ending reports on violence in our neighborhoods. It is almost as if we as a community have become numbed or deaf to the fact that violence in urban areas is ongoing. I feel that we can change this stigma by looking back to a time before our streets were filled with violence.

I can remember when neighborhoods had Neighborhood Watch committees, including the neighborhood I grew up in, the North Point neighborhood between Baden and Jennings. We had a Neighborhood Watch on just about every street. Along with Neighborhood Watches, there were also block parties to show that our neighbors could enjoy one another’s company with clean music, food and fun for the entire block.

It is time to do more for one another within our community. Good camaraderie is the key to any type of good relationship. Let’s bring it back to our neighborhoods, one block at a time. This summer would be a great time to get with your neighbors and get a block party going. Also, set up a Neighborhood Watch. You can get information for a Neighborhood Watch by contacting the local police department.

We also should look after the children during summer break to prevent accidents and incidents that might occur if the children are not tended to. It is important that they have fun activities to do while not in school. Your group could possibly designate a house on the block for the kids to eat lunch together before playing outside. That will assure you that all of the kids are being looked after and cared for. They also could set up some activities or field trips for the children on your street. Remember, many attractions, such as the Science Center, Art Museum and Zoo are free. Involving all of the kids in the neighborhood would be very cool. By taking time to talk and organize fun activities, you will keep the attention of the kids during the summer months.

Remember, it takes a village to raise a child. Parents we can take that proverb to heart and bring our community together one street at a time through interaction with one another. If the children can see the parents working together in the neighborhoods respecting one another, then they will do the same.

It is a community effort that is missing in the many stories of crime and violence that overshadow the good in our neighborhoods. Togetherness in our neighborhoods is what we are lacking. This is something that needs to be seen by our children. To grow up in a neighborhood where children can’t go out to play should never be the norm. As parents, neighbors, and friends let’s take this time to step up, stand up and do the right thing.

Carmen Hense

its 2013 Hattitude Scholarship Luncheon. Pictured are the presidents from the five metropolitan chapters Pamela Westbrook Hodges,Omicron Eta Omega;Dr. Nina Caldwell,Omicron Theta Omega;Mary Lyons Nicholson,Upsilon Phi Omega;Courtney Vales Robinson,Delta DeltaOmega;and

“The St. Louis American is very much a collaborative effort between our staff and the community,” said Donald M. Suggs, publisher and executive editor of The American

“We work together closely as an organization and we rely on the community for support, content and holding us accountable to a standard of excellence – which we accept as our charge.”

Of the 16 categories presented at the 2013 Merit Awards, The American was recognized in eight categories, winning five first place awards (Best Business Section, Entertainment Section, News Story and Use of Photographs) along with Publication of the Year for general excellence.

The American won second place for Digital Excellence and third place for Best Layout and Design (Broadsheet) and Best Column.

Other multiple award winners for the evening included the Philadelphia Tribune Miami Times, Houston Defender and Houston

HEALTH

Continued from A1

Missouri has a 6.3 percent infant mortality rate, which is below the nation’s 6.7 percent rate. However, Missouri’s infant mortality rate for African Americans is more than twice that, with 13.3 percent.

St. Louis’rate is also almost twice the state’s rate with 11.9 percent. Hughes said the foundation goes where people are most vulnerable, according to the data.

“These are problems that

Forward Times.

“We are grateful and humbled by the awards we have received, but our intention is to be of greater service to the community,” Suggs said.

“We pride ourselves in the partnership that has been mutually cultivated between The St. Louis American and our readers. Moving forward, our hope is to further strengthen this partnership through the new channels technology has afforded – including growing our website, video and social media presence and distribution of our e-Edition.”

Inaugural Front Page Awards

Along with celebrating editorial excellence, the NNPA also awarded five Nashvillearea college students with scholarships and presented the inaugural Front Page Awards, recognizing individuals for continued dedication and service to the Black Press.

Columnist, commentator and media personality Roland Martin and longtime Miller Coors executive Larry Waters were the Front Page Award recipients for 2013.

“I thank you for this award, and I thank you for sharing our stories – and, more important-

many people have been working on for a while,” Hughes said. “Despite the good work, when you look at the data over a long period of time, we just haven’t made the progress that we need to make. So we are optimistic that we can begin to make that happen.”

Supporting organizations that are training and sending more physicians in underserved areas is another way the foundation is addressing the issue.

Lack of health insurance is another part of the problem. However, even those with insurance have to deal with confusing bills and obscure

ly, owning our stories,” said Martin, who began his career in the Black Press at the Chicago Defender and Houston Defender

“Some of the most popular websites and magazines that tell our stories aren’t owned by

processes for charging patients.

Recently, the Obama administration released information on how much hospitals are charging for services, as part of efforts to make the health care system more accountable.

Website editor Kenya Vaughn accepts The St. Louis American’s 2013 Publication of The Year Award presented by NNPA Chairman Cloves Campbell and NNPA Merit Awards Chairman Karl B.Rodney last Thursday night at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville,Tenn.

us. How many of you know that there’s a huge difference between managing our stories and owning our stories? It’s actually all the difference.” Martin also challenged black publishers to embrace new technology to continue the

“Our basic way for paying for health care in this country, as almost everyone acknowledges, really needs to change.”

–

Robert Hughes, Missouri Foundation for Health

The study looked at the top 100 most frequently billed discharges at 3,000 U.S. hospitals and found significant differ-

ences in what St. Louis hospitals are charging patients.

Looking at that study, Hughes said there weren’t any surprises for him. The figures represented both information about what Medicare paid as well as what the hospitals charge, “which is kind of like the list price if you go to an auto dealership,” he said.

“Unfortunately, the people who were most at a disadvantage were the people who don’t have health insurance,” Hughes said. “People who have health insurance have a third party who negotiates with the hospital.”

Medicare has a lot of bargaining power as well, he said, and it pays much less than list price.

“Who loses out in this system?” he said. “It underscores that our basic way for paying for health care in this country, as almost everyone acknowledges, really needs to change. Some of that is beginning to happen.”

legacy of the Black Press.

“Strictly being print publications is not going to cut it in this new age of up-to-theminute news,” Martin said.

“Wherever your readers are, you need to be – period –whether that’s the computer, the phone or social media. If we are going to have a future in the business of telling our stories – and owning our stories – we need to stop thinking like newspapers and embrace growing into multi-media companies.”

Over time, the incentives in a predominately fee-per-service system lead to higher prices, he said. Through some experimentation in pilot projects and ongoing assessment, the country will have to figure out how these different paying processes for health care affect both cost and quality, he said.

“Ultimately what we as a society want to pay for is higher quality of health care –higher value for our dollar,” he said. “That’s going to take a while.”

Patients who don’t have health care can ask to negotiate their bill for services with a hospital representative. However, that’s hard to do on the back end, he said.

Hughes said he’s excited about the roll out of the state health insurance exchange, which is part of the federal Affordable Care Act. The exchange offers all residents an online marketplace for buying private health insurance plans. Under the health care law, the federal government will create exchanges for states that don’t create their own –and that includes Missouri. Enrollment begins in October.

Some Missourians are eligible for subsidies to offset the

cost of the insurance.

Subsidies are available to those earning between 100 and 400 percent of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL).

Currently 19.3 percent of St. Louis city’s population and 11 percent of St. Louis County’s population are uninsured and under age 65. More than 40 percent of those individuals are eligible for some kind of subsidy.

Having a heavy hand in preventative care is another way the foundation can keep patients out of the hospitals.

Last year, the foundation gave $1 million awards to four food banks, including one in St. Louis, to promote access to healthy food. This builds into the foundation’s work on childhood obesity. He offers simple advice for parents with overweight children.

“Being physically active is number one,” he said. “Small changes are worthwhile, whether in food or healthy activity. If you can make just one of the meals a healthier meal, if you can get out and walk in the neighborhood, those things all add up and make a difference.”

Photo by Kelvin Braxton (NNPA)

BAPTISTS

Continued from A1

He was joined by local host committee co-chairs the Rev. Jimmy Brown, pastor of St. Luke Missionary Baptist Church-St. Louis, and the Rev. Zachary Lee, pastor of Mount Paran Missionary Baptist Church–East St. Louis. They worked with the St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission (CVC) and local churches on both sides of the Mississippi to host the event, which Jones described as “a mammoth task which caused us to pray and pray hard.” Although the theme for this year’s session was “Solidarity with the Savior,” the local host committee came up with its own. “Let’s do it again, only better,” Jones said of organizing the event.

“How is it that we are still waiting on a system that never wanted to educate us in the first place?”

– Roland Martin

According to the CVC, the 30,000-plus people who attended the convention generated an estimated $20.4 million for the local economy, a substantial increase from last year’s $17.4 million.

Last May, Jones rallied for the support of every pastor in the region to come out and support the Congress. It seems as if his plea was answered, because Missouri ranked 9th among the states with the highest number of registered churches and delegates, according to Jones.

The session featured three

POLICE

Continued from A1

of Police Commissioners promoted two African Americans on June 19. The officers earned two of the four lieutenant positions. However, out of 15 sergeant promotions, none were African-American.

In January, African Americans had a bigger presence in promotions. African Americans landed seven out of 17 open positions, including assistant chief of police, two majors, one lieutenant and three sergeants.

Overall, African Americans – both men and women – have a harder time getting into positions of leadership on the force, according to department demographics. Black male officers lag behind their white male counterparts in the percentage of those who hold a rank of sergeant or above. For black males, 18 percent hold such rank compared to 25 percent of white males. For black female officers, the percentage is lower. About 16.6 percent of black females rise to a higher rank compared to 24.6 percent of white female officers.

high-profile keynote speakers, including two senior U.S. Department of Education officials from the Obama administration. Brenda GirtonMitchell, director of the Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and David Johns, executive director of the newly-formed White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African-Americans, both made brief remarks before the Dean’s Address on June 18. The Rev. Elliott Cuff, pastor of Lincoln Heights Missionary Baptist Church in Woodlawn, Ohio, serves as Congress Dean. Roland Martin, award-winning journalist and commentator, gave a rousing speech at the President and Educational Scholarship Banquet on June 19. Drawing inspiration from the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” Martin addressed the current state of education in our country and its negative impact on AfricanAmerican youth. He reminded the audience that next year the country will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, but the African-American community is still battling many of the same problems faced by the courageous youth and their families who desegregated public education.

“We are still waiting on a

re-enforce this perception, he said.

“Sergeants have a special role in the community,” Shahid said. “They are the first point of leadership that the community contacts in times of need. It’s common sense to have African Americans in that position – people who would be sensitive to the particular needs and culture of our community.”

“We need more African Americans to apply, and we need to hire them when they do apply.”

– Police Chief Sam Dotson

However, police commissioners would have set themselves up for a lawsuit if they ignored the promotions process to hire more African-American sergeants, Dotson said. Depending on their testing scores, officers get put into clusters of A, B or C – Abeing the highest. According to department policy, the Board of Police Commissioners must select officers from the clusters in order. Under former Police Chief Clarence Harmon, the department lost a lawsuit for jumping to lower clusters to promote African Americans.

system to change when it comes to educating our children,” he said. “How is it that we are still waiting on a system that never wanted to educate us in the first place?”

The next generation of African-American and Hispanic youth will not be

hired a different consultant to manage and coordinate the promotions process. Overall, Dotson said one of the things that’s important to him is to have a police department that represents the community. That’s a challenge, he said, and it’s reflected in the newest police academy class.

equipped to take advantage of two-thirds of available jobs, he said. He said that at the root of the problem are “sorry teachers, administrators, school boards, politicians and even parents” who need to be called out.

“Every day that we are

“I hired every eligible African American, and I could only find 10 to fill a class of 30,” he said. “We need more African Americans to apply, and we need to hire them when they do apply.”

Dotson said he has pressed the Human Resources Division to extend its recruitment out-

waiting on elected officials or a teachers’union, our kids are falling farther and farther behind,” Martin said. He said that churches can be used to fundamentally alter national education systems, like seeking out retired school teachers within a congregation

reach and attend all nearby college fairs, especially at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. He also said Major Ronnie Robinson, who was promoted in January, is leading community outreach in North St. Louis to strengthen the police’s relationship in those neighborhoods.

to help develop after-school tutoring programs. The

be

“The reality is the Metropolitan Police Department competes with Boeing, Anheuser Busch and Enterprise for qualified candidates,” Dotson said. “For a variety of reasons, some African Americans choose not to join law enforcement.”

Wilson and Police Chief Sam Dotson agree that one of the biggest problems is recruitment. African Americans make up about 33 percent of the 1,300 police officers, which is disproportionate to the city’s population of 48 percent African-American.

Dotson met with members of the Ethical Society and the community last week to talk about their concerns. Dotson said he is open to hearing about changes that could be made to the process before the next round of testing for promotions this fall.

“Everything has an up side and a down side,” Dotson said about different testing options.

“You just have to be as thoughtful as you can. It goes back to the root. If we had more African Americans in the department, then you would have more African Americans in the position to be promoted.” Former police officer Anthony Shahid said the African-American community does not trust the police department, and that’s why there’s such a low representation on the force. And the recent promotions – particularly hiring no new AfricanAmerican sergeants – will only

In this round of promotions for sergeants, there were six candidates in the Acluster and two were African-American. In the B cluster, there were 17 names and only one candidate was African-American. All three of these African Americans in Aor B clusters were promoted to sergeants in January, leaving only white candidates in June.

However in the C cluster, eight African Americans were eligible out of 27 names. This list expired on June 30, and now all the officers in the C cluster have to retest.

When being tested, officers go before various panels of three people, who are a mix of trained internal and external police officers. They perform assessments on everything from crisis response to leadership skills. All panels had at least one African-American member.

Wilson said the test is too subjective, and the panelists who assess candidates bring in their own biases. The promotions test involves a written portion that accounts for 20 percent of the score. Yet the biggest part, 80 percent, is a structured interview, which Wilson said relies too much on the panelists’favoritism. Next week, Wilson said the Ethical Society will give Dotson a proposal with ways to make the process more objective in its scoring. Dotson said changes are already underway. In the spring, he

109th Annual Session of the National Baptist Congress of Christian Education will

held in Dallas, Texas next year.

Roland Martin,award-winning journalist and commentator,gave a rousing keynote speech at the President and

Educational Scholarship Banquet on June 19 as part of the National Baptist Congress of Christian Education’s 108th Annual Session in St.Louis.

Photo by Wiley Price

Guns are not toys

Changing the way our children play

By Leah Gunning Francis For The St. Louis American

I live in St. Louis, a city that is filled with lots of family-friendly places where children can run, jump, explore, inquire and create. Expansive parks, free museums and zoo, musical shows for children and multiple science learning centers are just a few of places that enhance the physical, social and intellectual development of our children. However, for all of the fabulous places that make St. Louis a welcoming place for children, there is another dimension to this city that regularly gives me pause: it is one of the most deadly cities in the country. In 2011 and 2012, 113 people died from gun violence. In 2012, 43 of those people were under the age of 25. These numbers are alarmingly high due to St. Louis’ modest size population of 318,000 people. Gun violence is largely

concentrated in parts of the city that are disproportionately black and poor, but its reverberations are often felt around the metro area. And in all of these spaces, children are present. Too many of St. Louis’ children have heard gunshots, know someone who has been shot or have witnessed a shooting.

This reality is a far cry from the idealistic image of children playing freely without having to duck and run for cover. Yet in the midst of this, there are some children that are given toy guns to play with. A few weeks ago, I was driving home and a young boy decided to point his water gun at my car as I drove slowly past his apartment building. I stopped my car, rolled down my widow and said, “Young man, guns are not toys. Never point a gun at someone.” He stood shell-shocked while his mother came outside and started yelling at him for pointing the gun. I was

stunned, because it is likely that she permitted him to have the water gun, and what did she think he would do with it? s parents and caregivers, we have the power to choose what we put in our children’s hands.

Moreover, there can be dire consequences. A team of pediatric specialists at St. Louis Children’s Hospital have cited the case of a “4-year-old boy who found a handgun in a closet at home, placed the barrel into his mouth and pulled the trigger as he had often done to get a drink from his water-pistol.”.

Why, in a city that has the some of the highest incidents of gun violence in the nation, would we encourage our children to pretend to be violent? Why do we expect young children to know the difference between a real gun and a fake one? Why

would we want our children pretending to do the very thing that has decimated black and poor communities across this country?

Recently, a coalition of St. Louis-area faith communities and organizations has joined forces to host a Toy Gun Buy Back Exchange Day. On July 13, local children can bring their toy guns and other violence-simulating toys/ videos and exchange them for a non-violent toy. The goal of the initiative is to change the way our children play.

For more information, go to www.toygunbuyback.org.

Leah Gunning Francis, Ph.D. is assistant professor of Christian Education at Eden Theological Seminary. She is married to Rev. Rodney Francis, pastor of Washington Tabernacle Baptist Church, and they live in St. Louis with their two sons.

SCOTUS and ‘second generation’ discrimination

By Eric E. Vickers For The St. Louis

American

“Hubris is a it word for today’s demolition of the Voting Rights Act,” Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg declared in dissenting from the Supreme Court’s decision gutting the Act.

Ironically, the statute the court found unconstitutional was named the “Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act.” Certainly these women will not rest until this misguided decision by the court is corrected.

The opinion by Chief Justice Roberts relects judicial activism – which conservatives purport to loathe – at its worst.

The court went out of its way to take up the issue by ruling on what legal scholars call a “facial challenge” to a statute (a rarity for the court). It also dissed the 15,000 pages of the legislative record compiled by Congress in 2006, which detailed both lagrant individual voting discrimination situations and systemic discrimination.

This demonstrated that the Voting Rights Act was still very much needed.

While the court’s decision rests on the notion that race discrimination in voting has all but been eliminated since the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, as Ginsburg pointed out, we are dealing today with “second generation” discrimination barriers.

The irst generation barriers that directly blocked blacks

from voting, such as literacy tests, have been replaced by indirect measures, she noted, that dilute or marginalize the impact of the minority vote, such as incorporating majority white areas into city limits. In her powerful and poignant dissent, Ginsburg tells the story of the “Bloody Sunday” that caused Martin Luther King, Jr. to lead a march from Selma, the site of the protesters bloodshed, to Montgomery, Alabama’s capital, to call for passage of the Voting Rights Act. And she also tells the story of how race discrimination in voting still infects our democracy. She points to a recent case involving an FBI investigation that “provides a further window into the persistence of racial discrimination in state politics.” FBI wiretaps of some white state senators revealed them making racial slurs – calling fellow black legislators “Aborigines” –which, Ginsburg observed, led the judge who presided in the case to conclude that racist sentiments “remain regrettably entrenched in the highest echelons of state government.” If there is any redeeming value to the court’s decision, it is that it leaves the door open to Congress to ix the court’s clear setback to democracy. We urge the Congress to immediately act to reinstate the voting rights stripped by the court’s decision. For as Ginsburg pointed out in citing a 1886 Supreme Court case, the right to vote is the “preservative of all rights.”

Selective enforcement of marijuana laws

Blacks in St. Louis city 18 times more likely to be arrested for pot

American staff

According to a new report by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), blacks were arrested for marijuana possession at 2.6 times the rate of whites in Missouri during 2010, despite comparable marijuana usage rates. The report, “Marijuana in Black and White: Billions of Dollars Wasted on Racially Biased Arrests,” is the first ever to examine state and county marijuana arrest rates nationally by race. The findings show that while there were pronounced racial disparities in marijuana arrests 10 years ago, they have grown significantly worse, and that is the case in Missouri. In Missouri, the counties with the largest racial disparity in marijuana possession arrests were St. Louis city, Pettis, Lafayette, Jasper and Butler; St. Louis city’s 18-to-1 disparity was the highest in the state. Statewide, police officers made 18,416 arrests for marijuana possession in 2010, and marijuana possession rates accounted for 50.4 percent of all drug arrests in 2010. In the past 10 years, marijuana possession arrest rates have risen 43.6 percent and the racial disparities among such arrests have increased 9 percent. The report is available at http://www.aclu-em.org/ files/5113/7037/7685/acluthewaronmarijuana-rel2.pdf.

Eric E. Vickers

Leah Gunning Francis

Obituaries

In Memory of James A. Moore Jr.

September 05, 1991July 04, 2012

Angel in Heaven

There’s a special Angel in Heaven, That is part of me; It is not where I wanted him, But where God wanted him to be. He was here just a moment, Like a night time shooting star; And though Lil James is in Heaven, He is not very far. He touched the heart of many, Like only an Angel can do; I would’ve held him every minute, If the end I only knew. So I send this special message, To Heaven up above; Please take care of my Angel, And send him my love. I miss you and love you, Momma A thousand words won’t bring you back, I know because I’ve tried; Neither will a thousand tears,

I know because I’ve cried. The Angels are now with you, They will take my place for now; And they’ll give you all their love, Rest in peace now. I know that my son has passed away, But I will love him until my dying day. Love and miss you, Dad James, you will always be in our hearts. We love and miss you terribly.

Granny Shirley and Evie; Grandpa Rev. Fraction; Uncle’s Terry, Robert and Edward; Aunt’s Lesa and Denise. Daddy, I miss you so much. Jacorion D. Moore

Deacon Thomas Bryant, Sr.

Deacon Thomas Bryant, Sr. was born in Finchburg, Alabama on September 13, 1927. He was the ninth of 10 children born to Reverend William Bryant, Sr. and Alice (Feggins) Bryant. He has four sisters, five brothers and one son, Clifford. All preceded him in death.

Deacon Bryant accepted Christ at age nine and united

with Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church under Reverend Ira Taite. He was a faithful member of the male chorus.

Deacon Bryant loved singing! He would sing himself happy & enjoyed praising God. His favorite song was Amazing Grace.

Thomas Bryant, Sr.

Deacon Bryant served in the United States Army stationed in Korea. He was MP and received an honorable discharge in 1954. After his military service Deacon Bryant married the love of his life, Bernice (Edwards) Bryant on March 15, 1956. They were married for 57 years and deeply devoted to one another. She selflessly cared for him during his entire illness with undying love, just as Christ loved the church.

They relocated to St. Louis, MO where he dedicatedly worked 34 years for 18th Street Building Company.

Deacon Bryant joined Christ Southern Mission Baptist Church under the leadership of Pastor Herman Gore, Sr., Pastor Herman Gore, Jr. and most recently Pastor Lamarr Goldman. He joined the senior choir serving as treasurer, attended prayer service and cherished his time as a deacon. He was a faithful member until his health failed.

Deacon Bryant was a dedicated father who loved &

enjoyed his children! Deacon Bryant was a caring person and loved by many. He was called Buddy, Dad, brother & Papa. He faithfully cared for his mother, brother & sisters during their illnesses. He has a crown waiting for him! He made his heavenly transition on Thursday, June 20, 2013.

Deacon Bryant leaves to cherish in his memory a devoted wife, Bernice Bryant, St. Louis, MO; two sons: Thomas Jr. (Loren), Los Angeles, CA; Melvin, St. Louis, MO; one daughter Evelyn (Pastor Carl) Lucas, St. Louis, MO; seven grandchildren; six greatgrandchildren; one great-great grandchild; three sisters in-law; one brother in-law; a host of nieces, nephews, relatives and friends.

James Edward Thompson

James Edward Thompson was born on August 16, 1928 to the union of Lester and Emma Thompson, both of whom preceded him in death. He was a graduate of Marshall Elementary School and Sumner High School. James received a Bachelor of Science Degree from Wilberforce College in Ohio and his Masters of Education from Indiana University at Bloomington.

James was baptized at a very young age. He served as an Attendants Keeper for the Antioch Reapers Sunday School Class. He was a

faithful member of Antioch for over seventy years. James was drafted and served in the United States Army from September 1950 to August 1952. He served at Camp Chafee in Arkansas and Korea. He was honorably discharged from Ft. Carson, Colorado in 1952.

James spent his career as a Teacher and Administrator in the St. Louis Public Schools. He was a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., The Royal Vagabonds, Inc., Ye ‘Ole Nucleus and The Breakfast Club. He also was a founding member of the El Costaricos.

James passed away on Sunday, June 23, 2013, at the age of 84. He leaves to cherish in his memory his beloved wife, Norma Thompson; daughter, Lisa Thompson of Los Angeles, CA; step children, Candelaria (Tessil) Collins of Boston, MA, Nina (Chris) Gardner of Florissant, MO and Glenn Ellis of Florissant, MO. He also leaves his brother, Retired Lt. Colonel Donald (Hattie) Thompson of Wildwood, MO; grandchildren, Christina and Chris Gardner, Amber and Cyrus McQueen; as well as two great-grandchildren, nieces, nephews, relatives and friends.

Natalia Louise Taylor Brown

Natalia Louise Taylor Brown, the only child born to the union of Gentry and Olivia (Webb) Taylor, was born on March 3, 1928 in St. Louis, Mo. Natalia grew up in the Mill Creek neighborhood of North St. Louis City. She accepted Christ at a young age and was baptized at the Calvary Missionary Baptist Church. Later in life, Natalia converted to Catholicism and became a member of St. Engelbert Catholic Church, now named

St. Elizabeth Mother of John the Baptist Catholic Church.

Natalia was educated in the St. Louis Public School System. She was a graduate of Vashon High School Class of 1946. She later earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration at Saint Louis University.

Natalia was united in Holy Matrimony to Mr. Edward Brown on September 30, 1951. There were no children born to this union. Natalia and Edward enjoyed many years of happiness together, until his sudden passing on May 16, 1971.

Natalia began her career at Homer G. Phillips Hospital as a secretary for the Assistant Hospital Administrator. Later she was employed by the U.S. Government as a Procurement and Production Defense Contract Specialist. After 33 years of dedicated service, she retired from the Federal Government. During her retirement years, her ambitious spirit and strong work ethic continued, as she became a substitute teacher for SLPS and Normandy School District.

Natalia was a community advocate and was actively involved in several civic, religious and business organizations prior to her illness. She was a 60 plus year charter member of the Iota Chapter of Gamma Phi Delta Sorority, Inc., a professional business women’s sorority. Natalia was also a member of the Coalition of 100 Black Women, Top Ladies of Distinction-St. Louis Chapter and the Knights of Peter Claver Ladies Auxiliary, 4th Degree Bishop J. Terry Steib Chapter #29 and 3rd Degree Tekakwitha Coury #68. She was a proud life member of the NAACP and also volunteered for the St. Louis Symphony.

Natalia was preceded in death by her parents, husband and sister (Mrs. Shirley Alexander), aunts and uncles. She passed away peacefully on May 26, 2013 at 12:45 pm. Natalia leaves to cherish her precious memories a host of family members and friends.

James A. Moore

Natalia Louise Brown

SCOTUS lives three centuries in one week

Attentive observers of the U.S. Supreme Court – and there appear to be more than ever, after the advent of social media – developed some serious cases of whiplash last week, as the Court issued rapid-fire rulings on three successive high-profile cases, each with the potential of living up to landmark status. Taken together, the rulings make the EYE wonder which century the Roberts Court is living in.

First came the ruling on Fisher v. Texas, which was handed down in time for the EYE to notice it last week as a diversity bullet dodged. “The Court voted to send the case back to a lower court of appeals,” Ben Jealous, president and CEO of the NAACP, writes in a new commentary. “In doing so, they reaffirmed the use of race in admissions.” That’s a good, Civil Rights Movement-era, 20th Century thing – even if the details in the ruling give enemies of affirmative action plenty of pointers about how to reframe their attack.

Then came the ruling on Shelby County v. Holder which struck down Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. The decision, U.S. Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay remarked, “will make it easier to suppress the voting rights of minorities and the disabled.” That’s a bad thing, more in keeping with the values of the 19th Century. Clay agreed that it was a leap back in time. “That is a giant step backwards for this country,” Clay said, “and Congress must act to restore the Voting Rights Act to full strength.” Given that

Clay actually works in this dysfunctional Congress, he knows voters would have to elect a new Congress to get something done about voting rights – or anything else of substance.

And then came the ruling striking down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), wherein the Court leap-frogged from the 19th Century all the way up to the 21st Century, where – it is becoming increasingly likely – sexual orientation will no longer be a legal impediment to anyone enjoying a full range of civil rights. “This was discrimination enshrined in law,” President Barack Obama said of DOMA. “It treated loving, committed gay and lesbian couples as a separate and lesser class of people. The Supreme Court has righted that wrong, and our country is better off for it.”

Obama made it clear he wants to move as fast and far into the 21st Century as the Court will let him. “I’ve directed the Attorney General to work with other members of my Cabinet to review all relevant federal statutes to ensure this decision, including its implications for Federal benefits and obligations, is implemented swiftly and smoothly,” Obama said. Clay, too, saw history on the march. “The high court has affirmed that equal protection under the law applies to every American,” Clay said. “This is a historic turning point that advances full equality for all.”

The problem is, with so many “historic turning points” in so many directions in such a

short period of time, the EYE is getting seasick over here and completely confused about which century we are living in.

Three-century building down

Here in St. Louis, it’s definitely the 21st Century – a stormy 21st Century, literally, where a series of devastating storms (more than one per day, on some days) has battered and weakened much of our building stock from previous centuries. Notoriously, this includes so-called Cupples 7, a sevenstory brick building that is the only unrenovated structure remaining in the historic Cupples Station complex in Downtown St. Louis. The buildings were constructed by Eames and Young for Samuel Cupples, a woodenware merchant and business partner of Harry and Robert S. Brookings, between 1894 and 1917. This late 19th-Century structure made it just barely into the 21st Century before it was condemned by the City of St. Louis in 2008. Now fierce winter and spring storms have taken their toll and left the old building on the verge of collapse, endangering public safety. The last developer

standing that was considering taking a risk in investing to stabilize and restore the historic building, Vertical Realty Advisors, could not pull its financing together by the June 28 deadline. Demolition began on July 1.

“Under the proposal by Vertical Realty, the City would have had to become the Master Tenant of Cupples 7, meaning the City would have had a moral obligation to pay the unsecured debt if the development failed,” says City Treasurer Tishaura O. Jones, who was left holding the promissory note to the building by her predecessor, Treasurer Larry Williams “That unsecured debt would have nothing backing it up other than a promise of future payments – by the City – if the developers ran out of money. If the City could not meet that financial obligation, it would default on its promise and trigger a downgrade in its credit rating.”

Jones is not taking the outlying view on this matter.

Even Mayor Francis G. Slay, who has been notably responsive to the high-voting historic preservation lobby, agreed publicly. “We cannot put either the taxpayers or the City’s credit rating at risk,” said Slay. “Vertical Realty’s finance structure might work for public projects like new

police stations or college dorms, but it does not fit here.”

Spiritas Wrecking Company, which was awarded the $482,500 demolition contract through an open bidding process, has begun preliminary work on the site. It does not anticipate new street closures. Right now, 11th Street from Spruce to Poplar, and Spruce between 10th and 11th Streets are closed.

New deseg headache

Or is it the 20th Century over here? Because St. Louis, St. Louis County and St. Charles County have a new school desegregation issue that looks a lot like the old one from last century. Just ask the administrators and parents in the Normandy and Francis Howell school districts.

“On June 11, 2013, the Missouri Supreme Court handed down its decision on the Breitenfeld v. School District of Clayton case. This means that students in an unaccredited school district may elect to attend a school in an accredited district in the same or an adjoining county, including St. Charles County. The two unaccredited school districts in the greater St. Louis area are Normandy and Riverview Gardens – both of which are in St. Louis

Last week the U.S. Supreme Court issued rapid-fire rulings on three successive highprofile cases, each with the potential of living up to landmark status.

County,” writes Francis Howell Superintendent Pam Sloan

“The unaccredited school districts must choose at least one district to which they will provide transportation for resident students wishing to attend school in an accredited district. On Friday, June 28, the Normandy School District informed me that they selected Francis Howell as the district to which they will transport students. Families may choose other districts to provide their children’s education, but if a different district is chosen, transportation will become the responsibility of the parent.” The distance from Normandy High School to Francis Howell High School is 25 miles with an estimated commute time of 40 minutes. But more than distance separates the two districts. At last count, the student population of the Francis Howell District – located in the southeast corner of St. Charles County – was 87.4 percent white. The Normandy School District is 97.6 percent black. The EYE has seen the comments on social media – those St. Charles County parents are doing the math. It looks like their white flight just got a lot less white. Let’s hope some 21st Century respect for diversity rises to the occasion as these kids from Normandy start showing up for school in St. Chuck this fall.

BUSINESS

RBC grooms young leaders

Young

Professionals Network membership crests 1,700

American staff

The Regional Business Council (RBC) hosted its Young Professionals Network (YPN) Leadership Dinner on June 13. As Steven Harris, a partner at RubinBrown and chair of the YPN Steering Committee, remarked to open the event, “The YPN leadership challenges all of us to grow our outstanding and diverse regional talent pool.”

“When we launched the YPN six years ago, we knew that there was a need to bring together young, globally diverse talent in our region and I am not surprised this network has grown so quickly and so strong,” said

Immigrants seen as economic opportunity

Regional leaders announce welcoming campaign to bolster economy

By Rebecca S.Rivas Of The St.Louis American

More immigrants mean a stronger economy, and the St. Louis should take active steps to invite more immigrants to the region.

That’s basically what several St. Louis city and county leaders told the community on June 27 when they announced the region’s new immigrant welcoming committee, called St. Louis Regional Immigration and Innovation Steering Committee. The group’s first step is to launch the St. Louis Mosaic Project, a marketing strategy for attracting and welcoming immigrants.

St. Louis has less than 5 percent foreignborn people living in the region. It ranks in the top 20 in population but 42nd in terms of immigrants.

If St. Louis had experienced inflows of

See CAMPAIGN, B2

YPN members sit on every cabinet and board of the United Way and are engaged with every aspect from leadership level giving to allocation panels.

Kathy Osborn, executive director of the RBC. It was announced that the YPN has now surpassed the 1,700 member mark on the way to a goal of reaching 2000 members in 2013. The group continues to grow as a result of

strategic partnerships with numerous companies and organizations. The YPN successfully provides networking opportunities for young St. Louis professionals to get involved and make a difference in our community.

2013 Leadership 100

The 2013 Leadership 100 participated in unique experiences with RBC companies, as well as small nonprofits. Several members

See RBC, B6

Discrimination slows MBE growth

Part 1 of a 3-part series, ‘The SBAand us’

By Adolphus Pruitt For The St.Louis American

Economic base theory holds that in order for communities to prosper they must derive income that primarily comes from the wage earners and businesses of the community, and when that does not happen communities suffer catastrophic adverse social outcomes, such as poor health, poor educational attainment, low property values and high crime.

Research suggests that micro businesses play a crucial role in a community’s economic system.

neutral explanation for the disparities, the regression findings point to racial and gender discrimination that lead to depressed business ownership, business earnings and business loan approval rates,” the study concluded.

Micro businesses employ local citizens and are an economic engine that causes cash to move through the community’s economy. Successful local businesses allow owners to remain in place and generate opportunities for in-migration and more opportunities for other entrepreneurs.

The most recent analyses of minority business ownership, earnings and loan approvals was conducted by Mason Tillman & Associates as a part of the Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) Disparity Study. The study documents disparities that could adversely affect the formation and growth of minority-owned business enterprises (MBE) and woman-owned business enterprises (WBE) within the St. Louis region.

“In the absence of a race- and gender-

PEOPLEON THE MOVE

Graham

“Such discrimination creates economic conditions in the private sector that impede minorities and females’efforts to create and grow businesses. An impact of these private sector conditions is manifested in M/WBEs’lower business formation rates.”

Of course, American history shows clearly how this discrimination was put in practice.

The Great Depression touched everyone, but by 1932 half of all African Americans were out of work, and in Northern cities whites demanded that African Americans be fired so that unemployed whites could get jobs. Racial violence increased, lynchings surged in the South, the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment was underway, and some soup kitchens refused to serve blacks.

The president and Congress paid little attention to the specific plight of disenfranchised African Americans. Their focus was on alleviating the financial crisis for businesses hurt by the Depression.

In 1932, the Reconstruction Finance

See PRUITT, B2

Doris Graham, Ph.D., of North St. Louis County has been selected as vice chair of the St. Louis Community College Board of Trustees. She will serve a one-year term. Graham represents Subdistrict 1, which includes the Hazelwood, Ferguson/Florissant, Riverview Gardens, Jennings, Pattonville, Ritenour, University City, Normandy, Clayton and Ladue school districts.

Willicia Hobbs has been appointed assistant superintendent of the Hazelwood School District. Previously she was principal of Hazelwood Northwest Middle School and an assistant principal in the Parkway School District. She holds a doctorate degree in education from Maryville University and a master’s degree in elementary education administration from UMSL.

Kent Adams will serve as interim assistant principal at Wyland Elementary in the Ritenour School District. Adams, who holds a graduate degree in educational leadership from Saint Louis University, has been a kindergarten teacher at Wyland Elementary for the last 13 years. He began his educational career as a first grade teacher in the St. Louis Public Schools.

Aaron Whittington has been hired as the head varsity football coach at Hazelwood East High School. Whittington served as an assistant football coach at HEHS from 20102012. He is a 2003 graduate of the school. Whittington has a bachelor’s degree in history from UCLA, where he received a full athletic scholarship and was an All PAC-10 conference football player.

BUSINESS BRIEFS

Minority Business Development Agency set new record in FY2012

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) set new records in fiscal year 2012, as detailed in its FY 2012 Annual Performance Report, released last week. MBDABusiness Centers helped minorityowned businesses obtain over $3.6 billion in contracts and capital and create or retain 16,730 jobs, the highest level in the agency’s 44-year history. MBDA’s performance in FY12 builds on success achieved during the first term of the Obama administration. From FY09 to FY12, MBDAhelped its clients obtain $14.6 billion in contracts and capital. These efforts also helped businesses create or save 33,048 jobs. This marks the best four-year performance in the agency’s history.

“Much work remains to ensure that opportunities to prosper are open to all entrepreneurs who are pursuing the American dream, especially our minority business owners,” said David A. Hinson, MBDANational Director.

GM plans to invest $133M in its Wentzville facility

General Motors plans to invest $133 million in its Wentzville facility by adding a third stamping press to the assembly and stamping plant, with the potential for creating or retaining 55 local jobs. In 2011, the company announced a plan to invest $380 million and create or retain 1,260 new jobs to produce a new mid-size pickup as well as 400 new jobs to support demand for their existing vehicles.

“Investments by global brands like GM have helped keep Missouri’s unemployment rate below the national average for 45 consecutive months,” said Gov. Jay Nixon.

COCAbiz hosts Twitterexecutive Claire Diaz Ortiz

COCAbiz will host Claire Diaz Ortiz, Twitter executive and author of Twitter for Good: Change the World, One Tweet at a Time, at 4 p.m. Wednesday, July 10 at COCA, 524 Trinity Ave., followed by a networking reception. Individual tickets ($55 per person) are available at www.cocabiz.com. Special pricing consideration given to groups, students and non-profits; contact Tori Gale at (314) 561-4908 or tgale@cocastl.org for more information.

Doris

Willicia Hobbs

Aaron Whittington

Kent Adams

Nate Johnson of Real Estate Solutions and Pam Weston of Express Scripts connected at the Regional Business Council’s Young Professionals Network Leadership Dinner on June 13 at the St.Louis Club in Clayton.

Adolphus Pruitt

How to dispute a credit card charge

By Jason Alderman

Have you ever ordered something online that was delivered damaged ‘ or never arrived at all? Or been doublebilled by a merchant? Or spotted a charge on your credit card statement you didn’t make? Most of us have.

Fortunately, the 1975 Fair Credit Billing Act (FCBA) protects your rights during such credit card billing disputes. It also outlines the process for contesting charges made to your account. Here’s how it works: First, FCBAprotection applies only to “open-end” credit account transactions ‘ those involving credit cards or revolving charges (e.g., department store accounts). It doesn’t

CAMPAIGN

Continued from B1

immigrants similar to other large cities, its income growth would have been 4 to 7 percent greater, and the region’s income would be 7 to 11 percent larger, according to a 2012 study by Jack Strauss, professor of economics and director of the Simon Center for Regional Forecasting at Saint Louis University.

“That study clearly showed that the number one reason why we have population stagnation and economic decline is because we don’t have enough foreign-born individuals in our community,” said Bob Fox, board chairman of Casa de Salud and a member of the steering committee.

Statistical analyses show that immigration expands a region’s productive capacity by stimulating investment and promoting specialization, Strauss said.

“This in turn leads to effi-

cover installment contracts you repay on a fixed schedule, such as car loans. Billing errors that are covered by the FCBAinclude:

ï Fraudulent or unauthorized use of your credit card, whether it was stolen or merchants charged unapproved items to your account.

ï Charges that list the wrong date or amount.

ï Charges for goods or services you either did not accept or that weren’t delivered as agreed.

ï Math errors, such as being charged twice for a transaction.

ï Failure to post payments

ciency gains, higher profits and wage raises for all workers,” he said.

The Mosaic Project puts into play the study’s recommendation for creating a “welcoming campaign.” The idea is to engage local chambers of

“It is refreshing to see a study that promotes diversity, statistically showing how diversity can positively impact a city as a whole.”

- Karlos Ramirez, St.Louis Hispanic Chamber of Commerce

commerce, health-care providers, politicians and volunteers in driving home the message that immigration can create opportunities. On Thursday, local leaders – from the St. Louis Regional Chamber and World Trade

or other credits.

(Note: Report suspected fraud immediately. By law, you’re only liable for the first $50 in unauthorized charges; however, most card issuers waive that liability if you report the charges quickly.)

Review all billing statements carefully upon receipt because in order to be covered under FCBArules, most disputed transactions must be reported within 60 days of the statement date on which the error appeared.

First, contact the merchant and try to resolve the dispute directly with them. If this good-faith resolution attempt doesn’t work, you can escalate the process by filing a written report with your credit card

Center to the St. Louis County Economic Council (SLCEC) and St. Louis Development Corporation (SLDC) – pledged to be part of this welcoming committee.

“St. Louis has such a diverse, stable economy,” said James H. Buford, president of the Urban League and committee member. “It is a perfect community to come and settle, be embraced, bring new ideas and start your business. I want to see an economic engine for growth.”

The committee’s chairs include SLDC Executive Director Rodney Crim, Regional Chamber President & CEO Joe Reagan and SLCEC President & CEO Denny Coleman.

“Immigrants create small businesses,” said St. Louis County Executive Charlie A. Dooley. “And through small businesses, they create jobs and opportunity.”

In his report, Strauss also said the region’s poor immigrants are not a “burden” to the system because they are

issuer within the 60-day window. The card issuer is then obligated to investigate the dispute on your behalf. They must acknowledge your complaint, in writing, within 30 days of receipt and resolve the dispute with the merchant within two billing cycles ‘ but not more than 90 days.

Send your letter via certified mail to the card issuer’s billing inquiry address, not the payment address. Include your name, address, account number and a description of the billing error. Include copies of sales slips or other documents that support your position.

According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), you may withhold payment of the disputed amount and related

less likely to receive food stamps and cash assistance. Also, immigrants are not taking away jobs but creating them. Encouraging immigration can lower both the white and African-American unemployment rate by about two percent, the study found.

Strauss goes a step further to focus on just African Americans and Latinos in his June 2013 study, “Allies, Not Enemies: How Latino immigration boosts African American employment and wages.”

Despite the myth, African Americans are actually helped – not hurt – economically by Latino immigration, the study shows. St. Louis has only 1.5 percent of its population from Latin America. If St. Louis had a Latino population as large as other large metropolitan areas, African-American wages would be approximately 30 percent higher, according to the report.

“To the extent that there really is a ‘black-brown’

PRUITT

Continued from B1

Corporation (RFC) was created by President Herbert Hoover. It was basically a federal lending program for businesses. The RFC’s efforts for small business intensified during World War II to help smaller businesses that were left unable to compete against large wartime plants. To help small business participate in war production, Congress created the Smaller War Plants Corporation (SWPC) in 1942 to provide direct loans to private entrepreneurs, encourage large financial institutions to make credit available to small enterprises, and advocate small business interests to federal procurement agencies and big businesses. The SWPC was dissolved after the war, and its lending and contract powers were handed over to the RFC. Congress created another wartime organization to handle

charges during the investigation. In fact, many card issuers may voluntarily remove the charge until the matter is resolved since they are representing you, their client, in the dispute. If it turns out your bill contains a mistake, the creditor must explain, in writing, the corrections that will be made. In addition to crediting your account, they must remove all finance charges, late fees, or other charges related to the error.

However, if the card issuer’s investigation determines that you owe part ‘ or all ‘ of the disputed amount, they must promptly provide you with a written explanation. If you disagree with the investigation’s results, you may fur-

divide, it is rooted in politics and perception – not economics,” he said.

The study, which analyzed over 900 cities, is the largest economic examination of immigration’s effect on African Americans in terms of

“The number one reason why we have population stagnation and economic decline is because we don’t have enough foreign-born individuals.”

– Bob Fox

wages and employment to date.

“Economic tension between African Americans and Latinos is not one that we have particularly seen in St. Louis, and it is refreshing to see a study that attempts to override popular perceptions of these popula-

“Such discrimination creates economic conditions in the private sector that impede minorities and females’efforts to create and grow businesses.”

– Mason Tillman & Associates

small business concerns during the Korean War, this time called the Small Defense Plants Administration (SDPA). Its functions were similar to those of the SWPC, except that ultimate lending authority was retained by the RFC. The SDPAcertified small businesses to the RFC when it had determined the businesses to be competent to perform the work of government contracts. By 1952, a move was on to abolish the RFC. To continue the important functions of the

ther dispute your claim with the creditor, as outlined by the FTC at www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0219-fair-credit-billing.

(That site also contains a sample dispute letter and other helpful FCBAinformation.)

If you believe a creditor has violated the FCBA, you may file a complaint with the FTC or sue them in court.

Hopefully, you’ll never have a billing dispute that goes to these extremes. But it’s good to know how consumer laws protect you, just in case.

Jason Alderman directs Visa’s financial education programs. To Follow Jason Alderman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ PracticalMoney

tions,” said Karlos Ramirez, executive director of the St. Louis Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

The Hispanic Chamber’s experience in the St. Louis region has generally been one of “mutual respect and cooperation” with the AfricanAmerican community, he said.

“Strauss’s study does a great job at looking at all of the variables that can promote economic growth within a city,” Ramirez said, “and it is refreshing to see a study that promotes diversity, statistically showing how diversity can positively impact a city as a whole.”

What are the next steps in the plan?

Using Strauss’study as its foundation, the 18-member steering committee will build support for local recommendations to attract, support and ultimately retain new citizens. Visit www.stlmosaicproject.org for more details.

earlier agencies, President Dwight Eisenhower proposed creation of a new small business agency – the Small Business Administration (SBA). Congress established the Small Business Act with the intent of providing services, including but not limited to financial, management and technical assistance that would provide for the opportunity for full participation in our free enterprise system by socially and economically disadvantaged persons.

More specifically, Congress found that it is in the national interest to expeditiously ameliorate the conditions of socially and economically disadvantaged groups by providing the maximum practicable opportunity for the development of small business concerns owned by socially and economically disadvantaged groups so that they could compete on an equal basis in the American.

To be continued in next week’s St. Louis American.

“They sleeping on McLemore.Just watch.”

– LeBron James,tweeting on NBA Draft night,when St.Louisan Ben McLemore dropped out of the top five

Sports

JULY4 – 10, 2013

INSIDE SPORTS

With Earl Austin Jr.

Soul on ice

The National Hockey League is becoming the home for more and more talented black players. There were two black players taken in last Sunday’s NHLDraft with both players having family connections to other pro athletes.

Seth Jones, a 6’4” 205-pound defenseman from Texas, was taken by the Nashville Predators with the No. 4 pick. Jones is the son of Popeye Jones, who played in the National Basketball Association for 10 seasons. Jones was one of the top players in the Western Hockey League. He was also in the discussion as the possible overall No. 1 pick heading into the draft. Darnell Nurse, a 6’4” 185pound defenseman from Hamilton, Ontario, was taken at No. 7 by the Edmonton Oilers. Nurse is the nephew of former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb. Jordan Subban, a defenseman from Rexdale, Ontario, was taken by the Vancouver Canucks in the fourth round.

Subban is the third brother in his family to be drafted by a NHLteam. P.K. Subban was the Norris Trophy winner this past season with the Montreal Canadiens. The award goes to the NHL’s top defenseman. Malcolm Subban was selected with the No. 24 pick by the Boston Bruins in the 2012 Draft.

Suggs to Bucks

Former Washington High basketball standout Scott Suggs was picked up by the Milwaukee Bucks as an undrafted free agent last week. He will play with the Bucks in the NBALas Vegas Summer League, which will run from July 1222. The Bucks will play Denver on July 13 at 9 p.m.; New Orleans on July 14 at 9:30 p.m. and Golden State on July 16 at 5:30 p.m. All times are St. Louis time. Many of the games will be televised on NBA-TV.

Surge stays undefeated

The St. Louis Surge remained undefeated with a 95-55 victory over the Kansas Nuggets last Saturday night at UMSL. The Surge are now 6-0 in Women’s Blue Chip Basketball League play. The Surge will return to action on Saturday, July 13 when they host the Missouri Arch

Black talent goes early in NHLdraft Draft day dealing

Pelicans, Sixers, Nets and Celtics mix

up

The NBAdraft is like an exciting trip to the amusement park for fans, aspiring players and team executives alike. Players experience ups, downs and corkscrew turns regarding their draft status. GMs are like parents hoping to maximize their experience while simultaneously minimizing their spending. Fans are the excited children, running around screaming, cheering and crying as they deal with the exhilara-

Angels at UMSL. Tip off is at 7:05 p.m. It will be the final home game of the regular season.

The Illinois Shooting Stars improved to 3-4 with an 89-57 victory over the Arch Angels last Saturday night. The two teams will meet again on Sunday night at the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Center in East St. Louis at 6 p.m.

Hawks best Hornets

The St. Louis Hawks won the Central Basketball League championship on Saturday night with a 107-96 victory over the Bowling

IN THE CLUTCH

With Ishmael H.Sistrunk

tion of the fastpaced event. However, like many trips to the amusement park, the NBADraft is done in a day. With the draft in the books, teams have finally returned home, put away their big boards, sent scouts on vacation and pulled their private investigators from college campuses. The shiny new prizes have been unwrapped, gushed over and taken to the team facilities. It’s time for league execs to shift their

If it sounds like Brooklyn pillaged the village, it’s because they did.

focus and dive face-first into free agency. If the early transactions and rumors are any indication, even though the draft is over, fans are still in for a wild ride.

Adraft day deal helped set the mood as Kentucky’s Nerlins Noel, a man many pundits pegged as the top overall talent, fell all the way to number six, where he was drafted by the New Orleans

Green Hornets. The Hawks finished first in the regular season with a 5-2 record in addition to the championship. Head coach Floyd Irons was selected as the CBL’s Coach of the Year. Forward Alex Jackson was selected to the CBL’s All-Star First Team. He averaged 15.8 points and six rebounds a game. Guard Corey Hill was selected to the All-CBL Second Team.

(You can follow Earl Austin Jr. on twitter.com/earlaustinjr or his basketball website, www.earlaustinjr.com).

Kings pick McLemore

Former Wellston High star goes 7th overall in NBAdraft

By Earl Austin Jr. Of The St.Louis American

Former Wellston High star Ben

McLemore was selected by the Sacramento Kings with the No. 7 pick in last week’s National Basketball Association Draft.

The 6’5” McLemore entered the draft after one season at the University of Kansas, where he led the Jayhawks in scoring in his lone season of college basketball.

In getting McLemore with the No.7 pick, the Kings felt like they got a steal on draft day. McLemore was rated as the No.1 shooting guard in the draft and was projected to go anywhere in the top four picks.

In getting McLemore with the No. 7 pick, the Kings felt like they got a steal on draft day. McLemore was rated as the No. 1 shooting guard in the draft and was projected to go anywhere in the top four picks. As it turned out, the Kings were looking into trading up for a chance to get McLemore, whom they had rated at the top of their draft board. But, they did not have to as McLemore slipped into their grateful arms.

McLemore’s slight dip in the first round did not go unnoticed by many in the league as even four-time MVPLeBron James chimed in as teams continued to bypass him.

“They sleeping on McLemore,” James tweeted as the first picks unfolded. “Just watch.”

“Ben is a special player,” Kings General Manager Pete D’Alessandro told the Sacramento Bee. “He’s someone our staff spent many hours, watching, evaluating, debating. We debated about a lot of players,

Pelicans and then shipped to Philly for All-Star point guard Jrue Holiday. The deal made perfect sense for the Pelicans, who already have a slender shot blocker extraordinaire in Anthony Davis. The Sixers seem to be taking a bit of a risk, considering their deal for another injury-prone big man by the name of Andrew Bynum was a disaster. It appears that the Sixers will let Bynum and his oft-injured knees walk in order to bring in Noel and his achy ACL. The deal that has sent the biggest shockwaves through the league so far was bred in

A draft day deal helped set the mood as Kentucky’s Nerlins Noel, pegged by many as the top overall talent,fell all the way to number six,where he was drafted by the New Orleans Pelicans and then shipped to Philly for All-Star point guard Jrue Holiday.

Darnell Nurse,a 6’4”185-pound defenseman from Hamilton,Ontario,was taken at No.7 by the Edmonton Oilers in last Sunday’s NHL Draft.

Ishmael H. Sistrunk

it

Earl Austin Jr.

Former Wellston High star Ben McLemore entered the draft after one season at the University of Kansas, where he led the Jayhawks in scoring.

CLAIB’S CALL

With Mike Claiborne

That future Hall of Famerhogwash

I have worn tired of the “future Hall of Famer” discussion. You pick the sport, and I will find some gabber telling me about who is a future Hall of Famer after one hot playoff series. Every game has a lot of Hall of Fame criteria. It’s more than just a talk show host man crush.

Let’s get a few parameters straight.

First, a Hall of Famer is not decided by how many championship rings they wear. Championships are won as a team and not by individuals. While an individuals may play well in championship rounds, it is still about teammates who put that individual in the position to perform at a high level. Yes, it’s still about the team. That’s why they have team trophies for winning championships.

Second, can we all forget about the shining moment on prime time TVthat we all remember? After all, a more comprehensive examination of an athlete’s body of work should be considered.

Third, just because he is an analyst after his career on TV does not give him a free pass of entry. Although their name does continue to stay in the limelight, I never understood how a guy all of a sudden got better after his playing career just by talking about other athletes’performances.

Finally, the Hall of Fame should be considered only if that player was dominant during his era. In many cases, longevity is overlooked. How many years you played at a high level is more important than how many years you played. Numbers certainly come into play, but the meaning of stats changes over time and by changed circumstances. Smaller ball parks spawn more home runs, and changes in the passing game have inflated the numbers for receivers and quarterbacks. Now that the three-point shot is an essential part of an offense, not just a sign of desperation, those numbers will

go up. As for hockey, it was teams deciding to open up the game and forego defense that helped create Wayne Gretzky With the exception of basketball, changes in equipment have made a significant difference in athletic output. Could you think about what Stan Musial would have done with the new maple bats? What if Gretzky or Brett Hull had a chance to use the new composite sticks? There is a reason why golfers now hit 300-yard drives with more regularity. Throw in the allegations of performanceenhancing drugs contributing to the achievements of many “great” players in recent decades and you have to wonder just who is a true Hall of Famer?

Here is a list of players who would have a very hard time making the Hall of Fame if I am at the door:

Basketball: Dwayne Wade

Football: Michael Strahan

Baseball: Alex Rodriguez

Hockey: Chris Osgood. Here is a list of athletes who should be Hall of Famers but are not for some strange reason:

Football: Charles Haley

Baseball: Lee Smith

Hockey: Sergei Federov

Hall of Fame worthiness is about more than just a talk show host man crush.

Basketball: Bernard King. Hall of Famers should not be determined by a popularity contest, a measure that comes into play more often than it should. The determination should not involve what they have done after they retire from the game. So when that “future Hall of Famer” hogwash surfaces, remember it is about being the best at your trade and not who likes you for one hot night.

Jamal’s name on Cup

Congratulations to former St. Louis Blue Jamal Mayers as he was part of the Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Black Hawks. It took 16 long years to get there, but he now has his name on the Stanley Cup. He

keep out of

and Black Hawk goalie Ray Emery join Hall of Famer Grant Fuhr as the only men of color to be on a Stanley Cup championship team.

NHL Draft diversity

While other team sports have had athletes of color selected in the first round of

the draft many times, the National Hockey League had it happen only once before this past Sunday when Seth Jones (son of former NBAplayer and now assistant coach Popeye Jones) was selected fourth overall by the Nashville Predators and Darnell Nurse was taken seventh overall by the Edmonton Oilers. Nurse comes from an ath-

letic family. His father, Richard Nurse, played wide receiver for Hamilton in the Canadian Football League. His mother, Cathy Nurse, starred with the McMaster Marauders basketball team in Hamilton, Ont. His older sister, Tamika Nurse, played basketball at Oregon and Bowling Green. And his younger sister, Kia Nurse, has represented both Ontario and Canada in basketball. His uncle is former NFL quarterback Donovan McNabb and his aunt, Raquel Nurse, is a former Syracuse basketball standout. It was a good day for Jones and Nurse and for future people of color who want to venture into the National Hockey League in the future.

but the one player we were sure about as the process began was McLemore.” McLemore seemed hardly fazed with his drop to No. 7 as he expressed gratitude as the realization of fulfilling his dream of playing in the NBA.

“I’m not disappointed at all,” McLemore said. “I’m happy where I’m at. I’m just happy to have the opportunity to be picked by a team.” As a freshman at KU, McLemore averaged 15.9 points a game and broke the Jayhawks’freshman scoring record, which was previously held by the legendary Danny Manning. McLemore also shot 42 percent from beyond the 3point line.

McLemore will make his professional debut with the Kings in the NBA’s Las Vegas Summer League, which will from July 12-22. Sacramento will play on Saturday, July 13 vs. Dallas (5 p.m. St. Louis time); Monday, July 15 vs. Golden State (7:30 p.m.) and Tuesday, July 16 vs. Toronto (5 p.m.). Many of the games will be televised on NBA-TVA.

Visit the St. Louis American at: www.

Former New York Giant Michael Strahan makes the list of celebrated athletes whom Claibs would

the Hall of Fame if it were his call.

Mike Claiborne

BlueJAYS are state champs

Local North County select baseball teamthe St.Louis BlueJAYS traveled to Kansas City,MO June 21-24 to compete in the USSSA 14U AAA Missouri State Championship tournament.

St.Louis BlueJAYS defeated Grays Baseball out of Excelsior Springs,MO by a score of 14-0 in the Championship title game.This is the second state title for St.Louis BlueJAYS in four years (they also win in 2010).

First row:Carlos Blocker Jr.,Dexter Swims,James Bradley Jr.,Dylan Shotwell,Lloyd Abernathy.

Second row:Head Coach Carlos Blocker,Milton Green,Brendan Larkin, Devan Stewart,Charlie Leuthauser, Patrick Sanders,Tyren Ware,Evan Wilson,Asst.Coach LaRae Dixon,Asst. Coach Dale McClain.

The BlueJAYS will travel back to Lees Summit,MO the week of July 1014 to compete in the World Series.

What happens to the undrafted?

Bringing the student-athlete relationship into balance

By Benjamin Todd Jealous Of The NAACP

In 2011, 17,500 college basketball players were registered with the National Collegiate Athletic Association. That year, 48 college players were drafted by NBAteams. What happens to the undrafted? Some bounce around the international leagues for a few years, and a few even make it to the NBA. Many more go on to office jobs. But far too many college basketball players, especially players of color, leave college without an NBAcontract and without another crucial ingredient for success: a college degree. In the student-athlete equation, being a student must come first. In order to make that happen, colleges need to start rewarding coaches for encouraging their players’ growth in the classroom as

CLUTCH

Continued from B3

Brooklyn. Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov continued to show a willingness to make big, bold, expensive moves by agreeing to acquire Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Jason Terry from the Boston Celtics in exchange for Kris Humphries, Gerald Wallace, Keith Bogans, Kris Joseph, MarShon Brooks and three future first-round draft picks. If it sounds like Brooklyn pillaged the village, it’s because they did. The Celtics brass made it clear they were ready to go into full rebuilding mode. Dealing away their two aging superstars will cement their status as lottery contenders for years to come. Still, the Nets have assumed an enormous risk as well. Pierce, Garnett and Terry likely have only one or two years left to compete at a high level. That means the Nets must win immediately, with a rookie head coach, to make the deal worth the enormous luxury tax dollars they will take on. Of course, as much as he’s all-in on winning a title, Prokhorov is seeking to refurbish the Nets image and turn the team into a destination franchise. Bringing in big names like Garnett and Pierce will definitely help. Once the Nets deal was announced, everyone knew the Knicks wouldn’t stand pat and allow their crosstown rivals to steal all the spotlight. It looks like Carmelo Anthony and company will have a new teammate in former #1 pick Andrea Bargnani. The Knicks will send Steve Novak and Marcus Camby to the Great North for a change to help Bargnani rejuvenate his career. Bargnani averaged 21.4 ppg during the 2010-11 season in Toronto, but that number fell

much as their success on the field. The student-athlete relationship in this country has always been out of balance. Colleges grow rich off of ticket sales, television rights and merchandise while many athletes struggle academically and ultimately fail to graduate. This crisis regained national attention in 2011, when the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) released an expose of black and white graduation rates on men’s Division I basketball teams.

The report found a gaping racial gap. Overall, white players graduated at a 32 percent higher rate than their black teammates. Many large colleges and universities failed to graduate even half the black players on their teams. At the University of Akron, the men’s team had a 33 percent graduation rate - and a 33 percent white team. The graduation rate for black students? Zero.

to a paltry 12.7 ppg during an injury-plagued campaign last season. It’s silly to expect the Italian big man to put up 20 ppg alongside Anthony, but if he can get healthy he can become a key contributor since he won’t be relied on as heavily as he was in Toronto. What would free agency be without entertaining the annual courting of Dwight Howard? Anybody who thought Howard would quietly re-sign with the Lakers hasn’t been paying attention. Howard loves attention and will make the most out of his unrestricted free agent status. He’s expected to entertain offers from the Houston Rockets, Dallas Mavericks, Atlanta Hawks and Golden State Warriors, in addition to the purple and gold. The Lakers and Rockets appear to be the early favorites but Mavs owner Mark Cuban will surely make a strong pitch. Maybe if he promises Howard his own reality TV show, we’ll see Howard lined

In the wake of the report, the NCAABoard of Directors finally took action. Urged on by TIDES, the NAACPand U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, the NCAA’s governing body voted to raise the minimum four-year Academic Progress Rate, effectively setting a minimum graduation rate for teams involved in the men’s March Madness tournament.

According to the new rules, any team that fails to graduates half their players for three years in a row is banned from postseason play. They also lose access to scholarship money.

This higher standard has helped bring the student-athlete relationship back into balance somewhat.This year, 10 schools were banned from the March Madness tournament

up next to Dirk Nowitzki next season.

Staying in Hollywood, it seems that the Clippers’bold move to trade for a coach, Boston’s Doc Rivers, has paid off. It looks like all-world point guard Chris Paul will resign in “Lob City.” That’s great news for Blake Griffin and Co. as the team seeks to continue its turnaround from dismal failures to consistent title contender.

Overall, there’s still plenty of player movement to go around. Players will be signed, traded, released, recycled, refurbished and more. With the Miami Heat asserting its dominance with two consecutive titles in three trips, expect more teams to make bold and desperate moves to try and reach the mountaintop.

Follow Ishmael H. Sistrunk and In the Clench on Twitter @IshmaelSistrunk and on Google+.

for poor grades, including perennial power house University of Connecticut. The graduation rate for black players in this year’s tournament increased from 59 percent to 65 percent, and the overall graduation rate inched up to 70 percent.

However, the race gap still is stubbornly persistent. The 65 percent graduation rate for black players this year is still 25 percentage points lower than the rate for white students.

Nearly half of the teams that participated in this year’s tournament suffered racial gaps of

30 percent or more.

One solution is to change the incentive system for college coaches. According to a recent study, the average bonuses for athletic achievements are 11 times greater than bonuses for academics. In recent weeks, USAToday’s editorial board and former Maryland Congressman Tom McMillen both suggested that coaches’bonuses should be tied more strongly to players’ academic performance.

Coaches’contracts should reflect the spirit of teamwork and mutual responsibility that makes the NCAAthe premiere institution for young athletes. Coaches should be rewarded for effective strategies that keep their students at the top of their academic game. One example of how to do this comes from Xavier, which employs a nun as academic adviser to make sure that students attend class and study hard. Xavier has graduated ever men’s basketball player, black and white, since Sister Rose Ann Fleming began advising in 1985. Colleges and universities clearly benefit from their students’athletic performance. They should also push their student-athletes to perform at peak academic capacity. That is the only way we can ensure that college athletes are prepared for victory in life as well as victory on the court. Ben Jealous is president/CEO of the NAACP.

Benjamin Todd Jealous

RBC

Continued from B1 of the leadership class revealed the impact of these opportunities and how each of them has contributed this year in the region.

Kewana Regans, a native St. Louisan, works as an assistant vice president and Banking Center manager for UMB Bank. Through YPN, she was inspired to work for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library to raise funds to sponsor 100 children and recruit readers for this new, early literacy program at the Kingdom House Early Childhood Center. Salim Awad moved to the United States from Columbia and is a proud U.S. military veteran. He is a founding attorney of McQueen Awad law firm. Through YPN, he serves as vice chairman of the St. Louis Veterans’Business Resource Center.

Christina Anderson is a graduate of Fontbonne University and a vice president and market manager at Eagle Bank & Trust. Through YPN, she served as a mentor to a nontraditional student interested in entering the professional world.

Delia Davis is a transplant to St. Louis from Chicago. She is pursuing her MBAat Washington University and interning at Nestle Purina. Through YPN, she was selected for the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s second Latino Leadership Institute and describes the experience as being transformational.

George Kim grew up in St. Louis, went to Purdue for college and returned home to work with Centric Group. He is now the director of Inventory for Keefe Group and on the board of the Asian American Chamber of Commerce. Through YPN, he was connected to the Asian Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and serves as the volunteer in charge of the professional development offered to their members.

Courtney Bass of Scottrade,Kewana Regans of UMB

Bank-St.Louis and Naretha Hopson of Ever-Appropriate Etiquette Institute at the Regional Business Council’s Young Professionals Network Leadership Dinner.

Sisi Beltran grew up in Puerto Rico and came to St. Louis to attend Washington University. She works at Build-A-Bear Workshop. Through YPN, she participated in YPN professional development sessions in collaboration with the St. Louis Business Diversity Initiative Fellows.

Matt Nelson is a senior Security Administration analyst at Express Scripts and graduate of UMSL. Through YPN, he had access to unique networking opportunities over the past year, including hearing from the St. Louis Rams General Manager Les Sneed at the Rams Training Camp, connecting with young professionals in the medical field at Washington University’s Department of Surgery, and witnessing history being made in St. Louis at the private event for the Solar Impact Flight.

Tiffany Hayes is an assistant vice president at Wells Fargo Advisors. Agraduate of Florida A&M, an historically black university, she earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree. Through YPN, she helps young professionals in the InSight program that recruits HBCU grads to St. Louis.

Keisha Mabry is from Tennessee and came to St. Louis four years ago as a Teach For America corps member. She works as a business analyst at Dot Foods. Through YPN, she will join the United Way’s Young

Leadership Society cabinet for this year’s campaign. YPN members sit on every cabinet and board of the United Way and are engaged with every aspect from leadership level giving to allocation panels.

Wale Soluade, who has an MBAfrom Fontbonne University, works with Commerce Bank as the Diversity & Inclusion and Organizational Development representative. Through YPN, he was sponsored by the RBC for his first year membership in the Urban League Young Professionals.

Raegan Johnson is a project manager at Monsanto Company and pursuing her PhD in Public Policy from Saint Louis University. Through YPN, she participates in unique community events, such as a professional development session with David Steward and the Jewish Federation and a networking dinner with new recruits for Teach for America.

The RBC announced it will name the 2014 Leadership 100 class in the early fall. It seeks to identify new young talent in our community, and through membership in the YPN, offer these kinds of opportunities for development and engagement. The priority outcome is to better retain young professionals and effectively groom them as part of the succession plan of our region.

For more information on the RBC’s Young Professionals Network visit www.stlrbc.org.

Financial Focus

By Veronica Coleman

Look beyond U.S. borders for investment opportunities

Are you traveling abroad this summer? If so, you won’t be alone. Increasingly, Americans seem to have gotten the “travel bug.” In fact, over one-third of the population now holds valid passports, according to the U.S. Department of State. Of course, seeing the world can help broaden our horizons in many aspects of life — including how we invest. Investment prospects now exist in every part of the planet. However, you might wonder why you should invest globally. Aren’t there enough good opportunities right here in the United States? The U.S. does indeed provide a wealth of investment choices. But you can still receive at least two key benefits from international investing. Let’s take a quick look at them:

ï Growth potential As you know, the United States is a highly developed economy. That doesn’t mean, of course, that we have no “upside” here — we do, and we always will. Nonetheless, you can also find growth opportunities in foreign markets. Which ones? There’s never any one “right” answer. In one year, a particular country, or even an entire region, such as the Pacific Rim, might lead the way, as far as performance. Then, the very next year, a different country or region could top the list. Since it’s almost certainly futile to try to guess which areas will perform the best in any given year,

‘Jim Crow to Barack Obama’

Self-love through young style

Denise WardBrown premieres new documentary at

By Kenya Vaughn Of The St. Louis American

“I was so proud when Barack Obama became president of the United States I said, ‘Oh my God, I never thought I’d live to see this happen,’” said Lois Jean Turner, one of the handful of octogenarian subjects of Denise Ward-Brown’s new film Jim Crow to Barack Obama Turner, a St. Louis native, was among more than three dozen individuals – ranging in age from mid-teens to late 80s – assembled by Ward-Brown to discuss race and their experiences as African Americans in the film. The 98-minute documentary film will screen 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 16 as part of Cinema St. Louis’ 2013 St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase, which takes place July 14-18 at The Tivoli. Those interviewed offered firsthand accounts of living under segregation in the Deep South and in

LAHA Clothing models didn’t let rain stop them from ripping the runway as they opened the Blacque Séance’s Luminosity Fashion Show on Sunday afternoon at the corner of 15th Street and Washington Avenue.

LAHA Clothing returns to runway with ‘This is Me’

By

Kenya Vaughn Of The St. Louis American

Sunday’s severe weather threatened to ruin Luminosity, an outdoor fashion show organized by Jacqueline Craig’s Blacque Séance. A rain delay pushed the show back by more than an hour. But when the music cued them to kick off the runway walk, Lillian Jones’ child models managed to reverse the soggy energy brought about by the rain with their fierce postures and matching faces.

“I teach my children reality,” Jones said. “Rain, what’s that? We have a job to do.” And those baby divas worked! They strutted with signature pony walks and all types of supermodel attitude.

“I teach that to all of my models, from the new ones who just came to me for rehearsal in June to the ones who have been with me for the past five years,” Jones said.

The four youth featured in Craig’s runway show on Sunday were just a small sample of what audiences will see when Jones, more than 100 child models (ages

4-16) and a dozen or so stylists, designers and boutique owners present “This Is Me” on July 14 at SLU’s Busch Student Center.

“I’m hoping that the children walk away with self-identity – this is who I am, like it or love it, I can only be me,” Jones said. “That’s what ‘This is Me’ is about.”

‘Go South’ for black talent

The power of self-love is a lesson Jones passes down based on personal experience.

“Growing up, I was always the dark-skinned skinny girl. Back then, light skin was in, thickness was in,” Jones said.

Chief George, Mama Lisa make screen debuts at St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase

Photos by Lawrence Bryant See LAHA, C4

Denise Ward-Brown’s new documentary film “Jim Crow to Barack Obama” will screen at The Tivoli

Dana G. Randolph

Incoming 2013 Spelman College freshman class members Grace Reid, Sydney Smith and Rahny Longley.

Photo by Dr. Pamela Jackson

How to place a calendar listing

1.Email your listing to calendar@stlamerican.com OR

2.Visit the calendar section on stlamerican.com and place your listing

Calendar listings are free of charge, are edited for space and run on a space-available basis.

concerts

Sat., July 6, 7:30 p.m., The Whispers featuring The Coleman Hughes Project and Adrienne Felton, Khorassan Room, Chase Park Plaza. For more information, visit www.metrotix.com

Sat., July 6, 8 p.m., The Old Rock House welcomes Twista, The Old Rock House. For more information, visit www.metrotix.com or call (314) 534-1111.

Wed., July 10, 7 p.m., Mindless Behaviorwith special guest Coco Jones and OMG Girlz Peabody Opera House, 1400 Market Street St. Louis, MO 63103. www.peabodyoperahouse.com

Sat., July 20 8 p.m. (7 p.m. doors), Café Soul Live II starring R&B Diva Keke Wyatt, also featuring Nikko Smith, Aloha Mi’sho, Ms. Kriss, Cherise Carroll, Wildmann, Mz. N.V., C. Jay Conrod, Rhoda G. Silky Sol and more. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar.

July 27, 8 p.m., All White AffairConcert and Party starring Tank, Ginuwine and Tyrese, Chaifetz Arena. Tickets on sale Thursday, June 20 at 10 a.m. at TheChaifetzArena.com, the Chaifetz Arena box office or by phone at 314-534-1111.

Aug. 3, 8 p.m., Nelly featuring Karmin, The Pageant. 6161 Delmar. For more information, visit www.thepageant.com

local gigs

Sat., July 12 – Sun., July 13, Jazz St. Louis presents and Jazz at The Bistro welcomes Anita Jackson, Jazz at the Bistro, 3536 Washington. For more information, visit www.metrotix.com or call (314) 534-1111.

Sundays, 6:30 p.m. (6 p.m. doors) Jazz @ Eventide, featuring Black and White Trio Sip N Savor, 286 DeBaliviere, 1/2 block north of the Forest park Metro link. For more information, call (314)3612116.

special events

Sat., July 6, 10:30 a.m., KutNup Productions is auditioning in search of actors, dancer choreographers, DJ, host, judges and technical support for the R&B/Hip Hop Tribute performance, Mid County Library located 7821 Maryland in Clayton Mo. 63105. Call Eric and Sherre 314-313-1614 or visit www.facebook/kutnupproductions.com

July 11, The Drum Corps Alumni Organization (DCAO) will be making a turnaround bus trip to the University of Central Missouri, Warrensburg MO, forthe Tourof Champions DCI show.Seven of the top drum corpses in the nation will be performing.We will be leaving from New Beginning Missionary Baptist Church, 4055 Edmundson Rd.For further information contact: Rodney Williams @ cwowms@aol.com, 314-8691622.

July 12 – July 14, Tee Masters Golf Club proudly presents: The Bell Will Ring No More 31st Annual Golf Tournament in memory of Black Legends of Golf Probstein Golf Course Forest Park Registration Options: Online: gatewaygolfassociation.org or contact Anthony Coleman at 314-437-1906 and/or anthony_coleman@us.aflac.co m or Charles Smith at 314.853.5091 and/or Csmithjr57@gmail.com

July 13, 12 noon, Bryan Cox and Club 51 present the 3rd

CALENDAR

Annual C.O.X. Celebrity Golf Tournament, “Creating Opportunities for eXcellence”, Invited guests include: Fred Baxter, NFLveteran (Jets, Bears, Patriots and Redskins), Andy Dickerson, NFLveteran Coach (St. Louis Rams), Larry Webster, NFL veteran (Dolphins, Browns, Ravens), Brandon Marshall, NFL(Bears, Dolphins), Dana Howard, NFLveteran (Cowboys, Bears), Marcus Coleman, NFLveteran (Jets, Texans), Bobby Hamilton, NFLveteran (Jets, Raiders and Patriots), Carey Davis, NFL veteran (Atlanta Falcons and Pittsburgh Steelers), Far Oaks Golf Club, 419 Old Collinsville Rd, Caseyville, IL 62233. For more information, visit www.faroaksgolf.com or http://bryancoxgolf2013.eventfast.com/

Sat., July 13, 6 p.m. The Igbo Community of Nigeria in St Louis presents Igbo Cultural Day, Bridgeton Banquet Center 12259 Natural Bridge Road, Bridgeton, MO 63044. For more information, call Mrs. Otuoma Onyema314283-2974, Mrs. Stella Oparaji 314-303-9931 or Dr. Isaac Onyema314-443-3544.

and the New Northside Bapt. Church Expressions of Praises. Theme: God is ..... Scripture: God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Psalm 46:1Rev. Cornelius J. Osby, Pastor/Teacher. First Bapt. Church of Robertson, 356 Woodlawn Ave. St. Louis, MO 63136 For more information, e-mail mrs.focus2011@gmail.com

July 19 – July 21, Classmates of the SumnerClass of 1988 are invited to join for “The Main Event” 25 year reunion celebration, July 19–21, 2013 in St. Louis, Missouri. For details/registration information please email sumnerclassof1988@sbcglobal.net.

Jul. 21, 3rd Annual I’m A SurvivorAll White Cancer Gala, The History Museum in Forest Park. For more information, visit www.survivorstl.com

Sat., July 28, 8 p.m., The 13 Black Katz present “The Black White Explosion,” The Millennium Hotel, 200 South 4th, St. Louis MO 63102.

the areas of vocal, dance, and theater in order to build self esteem, public speaking skills, and overall confidence in children.Classes begin AUG 8OCT8.Enroll Now! Under The Annointing Dance Studio, 7502 W. Florissant St. Louis, MO 63136. For more information, e-mail tltproductionsllc@gmail.com

Sat., Aug. 24 – Sun. Aug. 25, 10 a.m., Festival of Nations, Amultiethnic celebration featuring dance, music, food, cultural and educational exhibits, folk art demonstrations, and craft market. Presented by the International Institute and 125 community organizations, Tower Grove Park on the City’s South Side. The event will take place nearest S. Grand and Arsenal. A free shuttle service will be available throughout the Park.

Through Sept. 3, Missouri History Museum presents Gridiron Glory; The Best of the Pro Football of Fame Exhibit. The exhibit will also include spectacular footage from NFLFilms’unparalleled archives. 5700 Lindell Blvd., 63112. For more information, call (314) 746-4599 or visit www.mohistory.org

Sept. 25, 6 p.m., The 2013 Signature Chefs Auction, Sample unique and delicious culinary creations by dozens of our town’s top chefs and enjoy the live auction with fabulous items up for bid! More than 600 guests are expected to attend the annual event that raises more than $250,000 for the Missouri Chapter of March of Dimes. Contact Missy Tillman, 314-513-995, to make your reservation or visit: www.marchofdimes.com/missouri Thursdays, 7 p.m. (6 p.m. practice), The Cultural Bop Society Of St. Louis Continuing the Bop with Style (CBS) (BOPthe official Dance of St. Louis, Free Bop Lessons and Bop Set Every Thursday Night, 7555 Olive Blvd. in UCity, St. Louis, MO 63130.

TLTProductionsalong with NCCD Corporation presents Youth Take the Stage, an after school arts program that focuses on artistic development at a young age. The Arts and Culture Initiative will provide both a creative and practical outlet for youth ages 6-17. The mission is to provide entry level knowledge of the arts in

Aug. 18 – Aug. 19, The Jack Buck Golf Classic, benefiting the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the exclusive Country Club of St. Albans. The Golf Classic is the longest-running charity golf tournament west of the Mississippi. For the past 44 years, the tournament has raised vital funds for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. The Golf Classic is comprised of two events – the Jack Buck Classic Dinner & Auction on Sunday night and the Jack Buck Golf Tournament on Monday morning. Monday’s golf tournament activities start at 7am with registration, com-

Thurs., July 11, 7 p.m., St. Louis County Library is pleased to present young adult authorLaura Nowlin, Ms. Nowlin, a St. Louis native, will read from and discuss her debut novel, “If He Had Been With Me.” The program is part of the Reading Garden Event Series sponsored by the St. Louis County Library Foundation. Library Headquarters, 1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd. in Ladue. Sat., July 13, 12 noon, New African Paradigm Study Group Presents Dr. David Imhotep, author of “The First Americans were Africans.” Meet and Greet and book signing at Afro World from 12p.m. - 1p.m. on July 13th. The lecture to follow at Better Family Life, 5415 Page Blvd at 3:30p.m. Tickets available at Afro World, Sabayet, Inc., and

Sun., July 14, 3 p.m., First Bapt. Church of Robertson Scholarship Musical Invited guest for the afternoon will be TLTProductions, as they present STANDAGAINSTVIOLENCE!Also, joining us will be Salt Covenant Bapt. Church plimentary breakfast, a putting contest, complimentary golf lessons and more. Golfers also have a chance to win a car from TriStar Mercedes and Johnny Londoff Chevrolet. More information and tickets to both events are available online at http://gateway.cff.org/jackbuck or by calling the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation at 314.733.1241.

Mindless Behavior with special guests Coco Jones and OMG Girlz.See CONCERTS for details.

Napps. Contact James Steward at (618) 977-8191 or Greg Harris at (314) 877-9252 for more information.

Thurs., Aug. 1, 7 p.m., Shirley Bradford Leflore reads and discusses herbook of poetry “Brassbones and Rainbows.” LeFlore, a founding member of the Black Artist Group, has been actively involved in the St. Louis performance art community over the past 5 decades, St. Louis Public Library - Schlafly Branch,225 N. Euclid Ave. St. Louis, MO 63108.

The New African Paradigm Study Group will meet every 3rd Sunday forbook study. Sabayet, 4000 Maffitt. They are starting a new book, “The first Americans Were Africans: Documented Evidence,” by David Imhotep, Ph.D.

comedy

Thurs., July 11, The All Star Comedy Kick Off featuring Joe Torry, Melanie Camarcho and more, The Ambassador. For more information, visit www.metrotix.com or call (314) 534-1111.

Thursdays, 9 p.m., 2 Funny Thursday Comedy & Open Mic,P3 Platinum Plus Playhouse, 5411 Virginia, Free all night. Hosted by Comedian Spinks. For more information, call (314)-440-9262.

theatre

July 11 - July 14, JPEK

Creative Works presents Through The Eyes, a dramatic journey of love, destruction and truth.Based on a true-life story.... Seating is limited. There are a total of 4 shows to choose from 1 Friday-8pm, 2 Saturday 3pm and 8pm, Sunday 4pm. Kranzberg Theatre (inside of Big Brother Big Sisters) 501 North Grand Boulevard St. Louis, MO 63108. Please go to www.jpektte.eventbrite.com to get your

ticket.

July 12 – July 20, 8 p.m.

Union Avenue Opera Theater presents one of the world’s most beloved operas, “Madama Butterfly,” Puccini’s tragic tale of love and heartbreak returns to the Union Avenue Opera stage. Friday Night Lecture Series: July 12 & 19in the Fellowship Hall presented by Glen Bauer, Ph. D., Associate Chair, Department of Music at Webster University. Lectures are free and open to the public. “Madama Butterfly” will be presented in Italian with projected English supertitles. Union Avenue Opera,722 Union Boulevard Saint Louis, MO 63108. For more information visit unionavenueopera.org.

July 13 – July 30, The St. Louis Black Repertory Company presents The Wiz, The Grandel Theatre, 3610 Grandel Square, 63108. For more information, call (314) 534-3810 or visit www.metrotix.com

Through July 14, Gitana presents So Yo, An Afro Latina Suite, written by Mariah Richardson and directed by Vivian Anderson Watt, Kranzberg Arts Center, 501 N. Grand. For more information, visit www.gitanainc.org or call (314) 721-6556.

July 31 – Aug. 4, 2013 St. Louis Cabaret Festival in Grand Center. Headliners include the legendary Marilyn Maye, Broadway’s Jason Graae, the jazzy Billy Stritch, and Broadway composer John Bucchino. For more information, visit www.stlouiscabaretconference.com, www.thecabaretproject.org or call (314) 314-359-0786.

arts

The Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (CAM) and Gateway Foundation are pleased to announce a call to artists for the sixth edition of

Great Rivers Biennial. This collaborative initiative identifies talented emerging and mid-career artists working in the greater St. Louis metro area, provides them with financial assistance, and elevates their profile across the Midwest and national arts communities. Winners will receive a grant of $20,000 and will be featured in the Great Rivers Biennial 2014 exhibition at CAM (May–August 2014). Artists in all stages of career development are invited to submit work from any of the following categories: drawing, painting, photography, film and video,printmaking, sculpture, installation, mixed media, and multi-media. To be eligible for participation, artists must reside in the metro area, including St. Louis City and the counties of St. Louis, Jefferson, and St. Charles in Missouri or St. Clair, Madison, and Monroe counties in Illinois, for at least one year prior to the application deadline of August 26, 2013. Artists meeting the eligibility requirements are invited to apply. For more information, visit camstl.org/grb

The All Star Comedy Kick Off featuring Joe Torry, Melanie Camarcho and more. See COMEDY for more information.

lectures

July 7 – July 12, 7 p.m.,

Avenues of Activism, Aweek of powerful events with the purpose of engaging the community, gaining understanding and examining different perspectives of people throughout St. Louis. Missouri History Museum, 5700 Lindell in Forest Park. For more information, visit www.mohistory.org.

Wed., July 10, 4 p.m., COCAbiz presents bizSESSION SpeakerSeries: Claire Diaz Ortiz COCA (Centerof Creative Arts), 524 Trinity Avenue St. Louis, MO 63130. For more information, visit www.coca-stl.org.

July 13, 20 and 27, 9:30 a.m., Woman’s Place will offer a free, 3-session series for adult women who want to release their fears, boost their selfesteem, befriend themselves and expand their human potential. Group will meet for 3 Saturdays - July 13, 20 & 27, from 9:30 to 11:30 am. Preregistration is required. Space is limited. Call by July 10. 314-645-4848. Visit our website at

www.womansplacestl.org

Wed., Jul. 17 – Sat., July 20, 9 a.m., National Black State Troopers Coalition 28th Annual SummerTraining Conference & Membership Meeting, Providing members with personal enrichment, professional development skills, through training, networking, community service and history. This year’s theme is “Mentoring: Aclear Vision Today, For Tomorrow.” Active and retired state troopers from various states, many of america’s first black state troopers. Join us for our Public Safety Event, Saturday, July 20, 2013, Location-TBA. Follow us on FaceBook @ National Black State Troopers Coalition. The Renaissance Hotel St. Louis Airport, 9801 Natural Bridge Road St. Louis, MO. For more information, e-mail NBSTC.President@gmail.com

Fri., July 19, The Illinois Humanities Council (IHC) will be hosting a special Humanities Resource Day in Hartford, Illinois. Representatives of local Illinois museums, libraries, historical societies, and other non-profits are invited to attend this half-day workshop. Event is free, though registration is required. Registrations can be made online by emailing to events@prairie.orgor at (312) 422-5580.

Sat., July 27, 10 a.m., Women of Evolution and Destiny Empowerment Conference, a gathering of women on an annual basis to receivethenecessarytools to overcome the mental stigma of abuse of all types., Regional Arts Commission, 6128 Delmar Blvd St. Louis, MO 63132. For more information, visit www.lavitabell.com

health

July 8 and July 15, 1 p.m.

MU Extension’s Eat Well Be Well with Diabetes, this series of 4 classes provides practical information and skills needed to manage diabetes and pro-

mote optimal health. It also benefits spouses and other family members of those with diabetes. As a participant in the class you will learn how to manage your blood sugar, meal-planning and the importance of diabetes self-care. 10650 Gateway Boulevard, Creve Coeur, MO 63132. Cost is $30. Contact Damaris Karanja at 314-400-7298 or email karanjad@missouri.edu

Sat, July 27th 11-3pm, Trinity Mt Carmel Church presents: Healthy Families 2013Health & Back To School Fair. This event will offer free cancer screenings for men & women, diabetes, blood pressure, cholesterol, hearing, vision, dental and healthy eating and exercising tips. Free school supplies, haircuts & safety helmets will be given out to the children along with free food, entertainment and giveaways for all.Over 40 participating vendors on site:For more information: 314-837-7878.

spiritual

July 7, 7 p.m. Bethalto Church of God Bluegrass Gospel Concert, Bethalto Church of God on Highway 140 in Bethalto, IL.

Wed., July 10 – Friday, July 12, Three Church Revival featuring First Missionary Baptist Church of Kinloch, Inc.-4400 Parker Road, Black Jack, MO 63033,Southern Mission Baptist Church-8171 Wesley Avenue, Kinloch, MO 63140, Liberty Community Worship Center-11221 Larimore Rd. For more information, call (314) 521-3951. Sat., July 13, 11 a.m., Southern Mission Baptist Church presents their9th AnnualClassic CarShow, All cars, bike, motorcycles and SUVs are welcomed. Southern Mission Baptist Church-8171 Wesley Avenue, Kinloch, MO 63140. For more information, call (314) 521-3951

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“But when I looked in the mirror all I wanted to do was be okay with who I am versus what the next person is. I knew I couldn’t worry about that. And that’s what I wanted to instill in my girls and my boys with this show.” Her shows have grown to become a highly anticipated fashion experience for young people in the five years that she has been presenting. Jones typically has girls decked out in colorful tutus and bedazzled Chuck Taylors, among other signature looks. She has boys get their suit and tie on with crisp bowties or swagged out in urban wear.

“I hope that the kids show them what they have been working on as far as their walks and their attitudes and all of that,” Jones said. “The clothes might not be them, but their attitude is what you see on the runway.” For Jones, the runway is her route to guide her young models on the path to self-

FILM

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St. Louis. As the title suggests, the documentary features personal narratives and historical accounts that span nearly 100 years and explore the evolution of racism and civil rights in America.

Ward-Brown allows the younger subjects to interview the older ones, who give heartfelt accounts of being schooled on Jim Crow and the debilitating impact it had on their lives. One man spoke of riding the bus by himself to a St. Louis Cardinals game and being forced to separate from the white boy he had befriended on the trip because they had to use separate entrances to the stadium.

A woman spoke of reuniting with a child she and her brother had played with during their childhood. After she and her brother ran up to greet him as an old friend, the young white boy stopped them in their tracks, saying that from that point forward they would refer to him as “Mister.” The white boy even physically assaulted her brother.

confidence.

“It’s about being who you are and loving you first,” Jones said. “Once you love you, everybody else will come on.”

LAHA Clothing’s ‘This Is

The most eye-opening element of Jim Crow to Barack Obama is the common bond that emerged in this intergenerational discussion. While the elders talked of passing white schools on the way to “the colored school,” the young subjects spoke of being bussed to formerly all-white schools: waiting at the bus stop before sunrise, having to ride for more than an hour to school, and constantly being discriminated against as “deseg” students.

Post-segregation people of color can only explore the indiginites and rejection endured by the Jim Crow generation in an historical context. But those who lived through it provided haunting recollections of American apartheid. Those same survivors take pride in all that they were able to accomplish in the fight for civil rights, including seeing a man of color sworn in as U.S. president, and how that same fervor and commitment should be applied to change current conditions for African Americans.

“None of the men in this room had made it to 40 at the time,” the Rev. Samuel Kyles, a pastor and civil rights leader in Memphis, said while

POTPOURRI

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Alumni Chair), Adrienne

Rainey Lynette

Watson

Janice Hartsfield, Irsa

Jackson Roxanne Jackson

Dr. Stacy Morgan, Rene

Wilson Gates, Odessa Owens, Nancy Thompson Dr. Carla

Longley, Mary Elizabeth Grimes, Francine Hill, Debbie Ross and Adrienne Jenkins

Patel

Three young ladies introduced at the luncheon were anxiously awaiting their dormitory assignments. They are off to Spelman this fall as freshmen. The recent high school graduates are Sydney A. Smith (Clayton), Grace Reid (Crossroads) and Rahny Longley (John Burroughs). Congratulations, girls!

will take place at 6 p.m. (5 p.m. doors) on Sunday, July 14 at Saint Louis University’s Busch Student Center, 20 N. Grand. For tickets, or more information, call (314) 4584153.

looking at one of the last images of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “Martin was 39, I was 33, Jesse Jackson was 27 and John Lewis was 23. The question is: What are you going to do with your life by the time you’re 40?”

Denise Ward-Brown is an associate professor at Washington University, filmmaker and internationally exhibited sculptor whose art frequently explores African and African-American themes and history. Her recent film and video credits include Being Born Is Marvelous (2008), a portrait of her mother; i am loved (2006), a portrait of a mother whose 17-year-old gay son was killed in a car accident; and View From the Other Side (2005), a documentary that present the African perspective of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.

Cinema St. Louis’ St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase will present Jim Crow to Barack Obama at 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 16 at The Tivoli Theatre. For a complete festival schedule, visit http://www. cinemastlouis.org/st-louisfilmmakers-showcase. Tickets are on sale at the Tivoli and at http://www.landmarktheatres. com/.

The Jack and Jill of America Midwestern Region Teen Leadership Conference was held in Akron, OH this year. As expected, a talented St. Louis delegation left other regional chapter members impressed. Proud parents Aaron and Tara BucknerSwain were delighted that their daughter, Mauryn BucknerSwain, was awarded the Regional Community Service Award for the most number of volunteer hours worked. Mauryn will be a freshman at the University of Kansas this fall.

Talia Bennett (daughter of Vincent and Christina Bennett) was elected Regional Foundation Chair and Ronson Longley (son of Ronald and Carla Lewis-Longley.D.D.S) was elected Nominations Chair. The conference was attended by over 600 teens from 34 chapters in the 8-state

SOUTH

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movie, and earned an individual producer’s credit by personally funding the rental of a key prop: an American automobile from the early 1940s.

The 89-minute silent movie is a fable about the making of the first atomic bombs during World War II. One storyline follows the widow of a Los Alamos scientist who dies in a nuclear physics experiment. The scientist’s widow and her

region. The St. Louis chapter received awards for the largest number of attendees and largest number of teens per capita.

The movie Twenty Feet

From Stardom opened the Miami Film Festival in March. It was a popular success. The movie/documentary showcases the lives of hard-working, multi-talented women who perform back-up for many of the world’s most popular vocal artists and bands. Director Morgan Neville showcases and celebrates talented back-up singers who devote their lives to this craft.

Singer Darlene Love is prominently featured in the film, which opens here July 3 at the Tivoli on Delmar. She has also penned an autobiography My Name is Love that was released June 4. Additional artists include Lisa Fischer, Merry Clayton and Judith Hill

Ms. Love still has a beautifully solid voice and demonstrated as much in several recent interviews, including appearances on Katie, Joy Behar, Kathie Lee

daughter are turned out of Lost Almost, as the fictional Los Alamos is known. For the rest of the movie they are on the road driving in a period vehicle that Newman funded.

Newman also joins a sizable African and AfricanAmerican cast in the movie’s tribal storyline. The actual Los Alamos bomb project mined for toxic uranium and tested nuclear bombs on tribal Native American lands. Also, tribal Africans mined for uranium at the Shinkolobwe mine in Congo as part of the U.S. atomic bomb effort. The movie dramatizes that history by making a tribal child get ill after drinking water poisoned by nuclear waste from the uranium mine. The tribal storyline consists of a series of ceremonies attempting to heal the sick child.

Former Fire Chief Sherman George plays an elder of the tribe who leads a divination ceremony, and Newman plays his assistant.

“I felt the most important thing for me was to portray my character as primal, and not primitive,” Newman said.

“The affected tribal members sought the Diviner to petition a higher power for intervention and spiritual healing for a condition far beyond their understanding and control. This act of seeking answers and a remedy was a very human thing to do, not primitive in the least. It is our primal instinct.”

For Chief George, playing a tribal elder – a chief – was familiar territory, though the costume was different.

“My character is a wise man respected by his community,” Chief George said of his acting debut. He said he enjoyed the new experience and would consider doing more acting “so long as the role is dignified.”

Making Go South for Animal Index was also a new experience for Martin Sophia, a veteran stage actor and director who had never acted in a silent movie. He plays a young shaman who leads another healing ceremony. Sophia, an immigrant from Kenya, said he felt he brought “a different feeling of spirituality” to the scenes where he prays for the sick child’s health.

Mama Lisa Gage – the

and Hoda, NPR Radio, and feature articles in the Miami Herald and The New Yorker this week. Darlene Love started singing solo and her 1962 hit “I’m a Rebel” was a number one hit single. She was a member of a group of girl singers The Blossoms. They sang back-up for Dionne Warwicke, The Beach Boys, Elvis Presley Sonny and Cher and Tom Jones My Name is Love is available at www.amazon.com. New Addition. Cheers to Brandon and Brittani Marcell McClure Williams on the birth of their second daughter Blake Michael Williams. The latest addition to Team BMW was born May 18, 2013 at 12:05 a.m. She is healthy and weighed a fit 7lbs. 11ozs. I can’t wait to visit the St. Louis Art Museum’s new East Building. The expansion opened to the public this past weekend (June 29/30) and all exhibits and events were free to the public. The inaugural exhibits featuring about 230 pieces of American Art and Postwar German Art includes several African-American artists. Works of Kerry James Marshall Martin Puryear, Glenn Ligon, Leonardo Drew and David Hammonds are installed in this initial exhibition. Sir David Chipperfield designed the state of the art 200,000 square foot space that is linked to the Museum’s 1904 Main Building. The Black Rep has extended the run of The Wiz through July at The Grandel Theatre in Grand Center. This soulful, funky, and vibrant musical will close The Black Rep’s 36th season and 20th anniversary at The Grandel Theatre! Happy 4th of July! Dana Grace: dgrandolph@ live.com.

popular local choreographer, dancer and educator who specializes in traditions from the African Diaspora – plays a dancing shaman who leads another healing ceremony. “To be able to integrate my life’s work into the pulse of creative film arts in St. Louis is a major affirmation for the importance of cultural preservation,” Mama Lisa says.

Other black actors in the cast include Roland Franks, Karley M. King, JaLisa Ray, Camille Jackson, Lydia McGhee, Marilyn Cowins and Leyla Fern King.

Dawn Majors, a former photojournalist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch who now shoots for the governor of Tennessee, is one of the movie’s cinematographers. One of the movie’s production assistants, Carla Doss, also is African-American

“In our movie, the good guys are basically the tribal people, played by the black actors,” said director Chris King, who also is the managing editor of The American. “The movie presents two basic alternatives. You can use the natural powers of the earth to heal the community, which the tribal people do. Or you can disrupt the basic structure of nature – split the atom –to make a weapon of mass destruction, which is what the nuclear scientists do. Of course, the scientists were working with the U.S. military to defeat Hitler, so they’re not presented as evil either.” Go South for Animal Index is based on a long poem of that name by Stefene Russell, a St. Louis transplant from Salt Lake City. The movie is an 89-minute silent feature shot and edited to a rock musical setting of Russell’s poem previously produced by Poetry Scores.

“Go South for Animal Index: A Fable of Los Alamos” premieres 7:15 p.m. Sunday, July 14 at the Tivoli as part of the 2013 St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase, presented by Cinema St. Louis. For more information, visit http://www. cinemastlouis.org/st-louisfilmmakers-showcase. Tickets are on sale at the Tivoli and at http://www.landmarktheatres. com/.

Mauryn Buckner-Swain - Jack and Jill Regional Community Service Awardee

Me”

Photo by Lawrence Bryant

By Melanie Adams

Anchoring the community

The Missouri History Museum and us

A couple of weeks ago I traveled to Washington, D.C. for a work-related meeting. In addition to visiting the National Mall and DC Cupcakes, I had the chance to have an engaging conversation with my museum colleagues about what makes a museum an “anchor” in the community.

The Missouri History Museum strives to be a place that encourages community dialogue through the use of history. Whether we are talking about the housing issues described in the Pruitt Igoe documentary or the racial issues of Delmar Avenue, the Museum doesn’t shy away from difficult topics.

Along with hosting community conversations, the Museum also looks to serve as a meeting place for diverse audiences to come together for a common experience. For many people this common experience is Twilight Tuesdays while for others it is our Community Cinema documentary series. These and other programs provide a solid foundation from which the Museum is able to build partnerships, engage citizens, and learn about their neighbors.

In order to continue to be relevant, museums of all types have to take a good look at their community and find ways to meet their needs while staying true to their organizational mission. For some communities this could be providing low cost after-school programs for neighborhood children. For other communities it is hosting English as a second language classes. Both of these types of programs are a far cry from what you would have previously found in your typical history museum.

At their inception, history museums (and historical societies) were created to preserve an accepted historical narrative that could be passed down from generation to generation. History museums were not the only ones guilty of using the “Great Man” theory of history; school textbooks and the media also bought into this whitewashed idea of history.

As I was writing this column, I received a call from the toy gun buyback initiative sponsored by Washington Tabernacle Church. This creative program aims to curb violence in the community by encouraging children to turn in their toy guns for non-violent toys (www.toygunbuyback.org).

This project may seem like a stretch for the History Museum, but it actually connects with a current exhibit, The Doll Project: Public Displays of Healing by Lois Ingrum. Ms. Ingrum, a local photographer, became interested in the roadside memorials that spring up after acts of violence occurred at the sites. With camera in hand, she traveled to urban areas around the country to document these memorials that honor the memory of the deceased. Collaboration with the toy gun buyback initiative allows the Museum to reach beyond its walls and welcome families to the Museum as they look for educational and engaging activities during the long summer

months.

These are just a few examples of how the Museum serves as an anchor in the St. Louis community. Since I have only been on staff for eight years, I cannot take credit for creating the mission and the culture that encourages strong community connections. This was done over the past 24 years through the leadership and vision of a president who understood that the Museum needed to be a community anchor before there was even such a term. Miriam-Webster online dictionary describes the word anchor as “a reliable or principal support; mainstay.” The Missouri History Museum is proud to be an anchor in the St. Louis region and looks forward to continue serving the community needs.

Exhibit

The Doll Project: Public Displays of Healing Closes July 7 • FREE

Teens Make History Sacking Segregation in the NFL Saturday, July 6 11:30 a.m. • FREE

In 1946, the year before Jackie Robinson and Branch Rickey made history in baseball, the L.A. Rams and the Cleveland Browns decided to give segregation the sack. Learn about the pioneers who paved the way for future football greats.

Summer Family Fun Series Saturday, July 13, 2013 11:00am to 1:00pm • Free

July is National Ice Cream Month. More than a century ago many people had ice cream cones for the very first time in St. Louis at the 1904 World’s Fair. What better way to celebrate than with free frozen treats at the Museum (first come/first served basis)!

Working in the YES Program has been an opportunity of a lifetime

Last September, I was given the chance to work at the Saint Louis Science Center as a Senior Educator for the Design Engineering and Robotics component in the YES (Youth Exploring Science) Program. Prior to obtaining this amazing position, I had experience in working with kids at Confluence Academy. However, I still was a bit nervous about working at the Science Center. I didn’t know what to expect. After many months here, I’m glad to be an employee in the YES Program.

Working in the YES Program has been an opportunity of a lifetime. I’ve met so many interesting adults and adolescents. I’ve been able to work with various staff, interns, and volunteers who also share the desire of enriching kids with knowledge for science and the real world. In addition, I’ve been able to mentor a wide range of area teens that have a desire for STEM education.

As a senior educator, I’ve been able to teach teens several engineering and science concepts. Unlike a high school, teens in the YES Program are not graded or tested on the

things taught to them. With that being said, students don’t have to worry about receiving a failing grade in the organization. Instead, in the Design Engineering component, teens are able to learn about engineering, physics, and chemistry. In addition, I like that teens in the YES Program also learn work-based skills needed for the job market. This expertise gives them the chance to prepare for future jobs and careers when they’re no longer working at the Science Center. Similarly, teens in the program are given resources to help prepare them for college.

Personally, the YES Program is improving my communication skills.

Prior to working at the Science Center, I had a difficult time with public speaking and meeting new people. Since working here, I’ve become more confident when talking to individuals. In addition, working in the YES Program has given me the chance to work in the field of informal education. Though my background is in engineering, I enjoy teaching science and engineering concepts to teens and adults at the Science

Partick Harris

An image is from “The Doll Project: Public Displays of Healing” by Lois Ingrum, a free exhibit that closes July 7.

~ CELEBRATIONS ~

Birthdays!

Donald T. Cross, Ph.D., a professional psychologist and former professor in St. Louis, celebrates his 70th birthday with family, friends and colleagues at Sanfilippo’s Restaurant. From left to right standing: Fanon C. Cross, Diarra T. Cross-Davis, ChristopherCross, Ethel L. Cross, Donald T. Cross, Jr., Devon S. Cross and Kennedy Cross. Seated: Lillian Davis, Donald T. Cross, Ph.D., and Fanon Cross. Master of Ceremonies Washington University Professor Emeritus Robert L. Williams

Reunions

All reunion announcements can be viewed online!

Beaumont Classes of 1965, 1966 and 1967 join us for dinner and dancing at the Embassy Suites Hotel (St. Louis Airport) on October 12, 2013 from 7:30pm to 12:30am. Hosted by Beaumont Class of 1966. For further information contact: Jacque’Hughes-Hayes 314-971-7012 orJosh Beeks 314-303-0791.

Beaumont High School Class of 1973 is holding its 40th reunion on Aug. 16-17. Contact Randy Sanderson, at 314-393-8510, rsanderson1954@sbcglobal.netor Shelia Owens Pargo, 314-7240073, sheliap4@sbcglobal.net.

Beaumont High School Class of 1983, Save the Date! Please prepare for our 30 year Class Reunionon October 4, 5, and 6.Please send emails with home address to bhsco1983@gmail

Cardinal RitterCollege Prep, c/o 1988, 25-year reunion, July 26-28. Please check the CRCP class of ‘88 web page for the details for the weekend. Contact: Nathaniel Thomas at nathanielthomasjr@gmail.com or 636-399-3053, Sean Camp

Cydnei Veiges Jamie Bailey

Happy Birthday to my granddaughter, Cydnei Veiges, who celebrates her 4th birthday on July 8 and to my son, Jamie Bailey, who celebrates his 32nd birthday on July 9. May God continue to bless you both. We love you! Your family

at seancamp31@yahoo.com or 314-479-9370, Angela D. Williams at adw13414@yahoo.com or 314-374-6625.

Central High School All Class Reunion “Return to the Prom”weekend August 9-11. For Tickets and Information contact Laura Joiner at 3237833 or Ada Livers at 2292961 or send e-mail to centralallclass2009@yahoo.com.

East St. Louis SeniorHigh Class of 1974:The Steering Committee is diligently planning our special 40-year reunion in June 2014.Contact dyj54@yahoo.com to be added to the class Facebook page to stay informed.For additional information, contact:314-4065354 or 618-580-2006.

Sharon and Bernd Marion celebrated their 34th wedding anniversary on June 30. Sharon is retired from Verizon and Bernd retired from American Airlines. The Marions have two children, Denise and Mykel and one grandson, D’ante. They will enjoy an anniversary honeymoon in Puerto Rico.

Happy 60th Birthday to Pamela Reese on June 30. Your family loves you!

Kinloch All Schools Picnic, Saturday August 17, 2013, Noon at Norman Myers Park, 8700 Midland Blvd. For more information, Please contact Lester Wilson at 863-2180, MC McKinnnies at 524-0126, Reuben Melton at 239-5202, or Arlene (Owens) Davis at 792-0659.

Normandy SeniorHigh School Class of 1973 40-year Reunion Announcement Event is Planned for Saturday, August 3. For details send email to:normandyreunion73@yahoo.com or check the Normandy High School Alumni Website at www.normandyhighschoolalumni.net.

Northwest High School Class of 1973 will celebrate its 40th Class Reunion July 19-21, 2013.If you have not received the specific details, pleasesend your contact information including email address, phone and mailing address to northwesths1973@gmail.com. Information has also been posted on Classmates.com and Facebook Group: Northwest High School 1973. If you have questions feel free to call Cornelia Clark Stephens at 314 580-1114.

Riverview Gardens Senior

High Class of 1993 20-year Reunion, Friday July 26-28. Please go to http://rghs93.classquest.com to register.

Soldan is having its 9th AllClass Alumni Picnic Saturday, August 10, 2013 at Blanchette Park in St. Charles, MO, from 10 am- 6 pm. The price is $10 adults, $5 4yrs12yrs, free 3 and under. Tshirts with the graduation year on the sleeve are $13. This picnic is for all who attended Soldan High School. For more information call(314) 4139088 or (314) 322-6406.

Soldan Class of 1963 50-year Reunion, August 2-3 2013, Renaissance Airport Hotel, St. Louis. To register or obtain additional information, please contact: Walter McElroy 314725-9335 or Joe DuBose 314727-3951.

SumnerHigh School Class of 1968 is celebrating its 45th class reunion the weekend of July 26-28, 2013 at the Renaissance St. Louis Airport Hotel.To register or obtain additional information, please contact Herman Jonesat 314435-3434, Ronald Buford 314837-4284 or Chrisena Bolden Brown 314-388-3324.

Do you have a celebration you’re proud of? If so we would like to share your good news with our readers. Whether it’s a birth, graduation, wedding, engagement announcement, anniversary, retirement or birthday, send your photos and a brief announcement (50 words or less) to us and we may include it in our paper and website – AT NO COST – as space is available Photos will not be returned. Send your announcements to: kdaniel@stlamerican. com or

Reunion notices are free of charge and based on space availability. We prefer that notices be emailed to us! However, notices may also be sent by mail to: Kate Daniel, 4242 Lindell Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63108. Deadline is 10 a.m. on Friday. If you’d like your class to be featured in a reunion profile, email or mail photos to us. Our email address is: reunions@ stlamerican.com

University City High School Class of 1973 40th High School Reunion July 12-13, 2013; Cost: $40 per graduate, $35 for spouse/significant other($50/$45 after July 1). Call (314) 726-6737 or email ucclassof73@gmail.com to register and for more information.

Jehovah’s Witnesses to hold District Convention

‘God’s Word Is Truth!’

July 5-12 at the St. Charles

Family Arena

American staff

An estimated 14,400 Jehovah’s Witnesses and others from Eastern Missouri and Southern Illinois will converge at the St. Charles Family Arena to benefit from the positive message and practical suggestions that will be highlighted at the 2013 “God’s Word Is Truth!” District Convention, July 5-12.

The convention theme, “God’s Word Is Truth!” underscores a core family value for Jehovah’s Witnesses who embrace the Bible as the most trustworthy guide and source of advice in these troubled times. Lively discourses, dramatic Bible readings, symposiums, and two live plays will all emphasize this theme.

Two three-day conventions will be held in St. Charles on the consecutive weekends of July 5 and July 12. The opening session starts at 9:20 a.m. There is no admission fee. Conventions of Jehovah’s Witnesses are supported entirely by voluntary donations with no offerings ever being solicited.

Locally, all of the area’s 112 congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses will be supporting a campaign of distributing printed invitations to the conventions.

Throughout the United States, there will be 385 conventions in 103 cities. There are over 7,700,000 Witnesses in more than 111,000 congregations worldwide.

In the United States, 37 percent of adults who self-identify as Jehovah’s Witnesses are African Americans, according to the American Religious Identification Survey conducted in 2001 by researchers at the City University of New York.. This was the highest proportion among the 22 largest religious identifications in the United States at the time of the survey. For more information, visit www.jw.org.

Teen inspirational film screens

Local audiences are partnering with producers of King’s Faith to bring the teen inspirational drama to St. Louis for a one-night-only showing at the Wehrenberg Ronnies 20 on July 25 at 7 p.m.

King’s Faith (PG-13) tells the story of a foster couple who cares for Brendan King (Crawford Wilson), an 18-year old attempting to leave his turbulent gang life behind him, but his past continues to threaten his new-found faith, family and future.

King’s Faith stars Emmy Award winning actress Lynn Whitfield (Eve’s Bayou, The Women of Brewster Place), Crawford Wilson (Judging Amy, Zoey 101), Kayla Compton (Entourage) and James McDaniel (Malcolm X, NYPD Blue).

The film is produced by DiBella and Faith Street Film Partners LLC, a Rochester, NY-based collective of filmmakers, churches, investors, and supporters. Hopefilled Media, a media ministry of Hope Lutheran Church in

Ministers of Jehovah’s Witnesses from across the region will give timely and insightful bible-based discourses at the 2013 “God’s Word Is Truth!” District Convention to be held at the St. Charles Family Arena July 5-12.

Rochester, also produced the film.

King’s Faith is about second chances, especially for those that many have overlooked,” said director Nicholas DiBella. “We wanted to tell the story of these amazing foster kids and their families.”

King’s Faith is creating more than 40 national screenings to benefit National Foster Care Month. It’s partnering with Bethany Christian Services on their N.O.W. Campaign, an initiative to raise awareness and move people to act on behalf of those in foster care. More than 400,000 kids are in foster care, with 26,000 aging out of the system each year.

Portions of the proceeds from the St. Louis screening will be donated to Bethany Christian Services. In addition, groups can organize their own screening to benefit foster care families or organizations in their communities.

Tickets can be purchased at the box office and on-line through Wehrenberg Theatres. The film’s website is www. kingsfaith.com.

With an economy that is slowly bouncing back from a recession, various reports are stating that there are not a lot of offers on the table for jobs, opportunities and advancement. But there is one offer that is always available, even when it is not warranted or asked for: an opinion!

Most of the time, people tend to have different interpretations of the same set of facts. That’s okay. However, when those differences are not celebrated it can become an assault.

They were too busy looking at the outward man, the humanity of Jesus Christ, and not the divinity of Jesus Christ, which is why he said, “A prophet is without honor in his own country.”

People will form opinions solely because of where you come from; the problem is their opinion is most likely wrong. They may know where you come from but they don’t know where you are going!

Most of us want to be accepted. No one wants their thoughts or ideas attacked as to who you are as a person or your ability to rationalize. Don’t get me wrong, everybody should always seek guidance from God and those he put in your path for growth and correction, but when it is not done in love, it is not profitable to anyone.

I’m reminded of the story in St. Matthews 16: 53-55, when Jesus was done speaking to the multitude; the opinions of him were not made until he came around people who knew him.

Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Mary is his mother. His brothers are James, Joses, Simon and Judas. They made sure you knew they had the right person by naming his whole family.

It’s like the movie Real Steel. A little boy finds an old robot in the dumps with A-T-O-M stamped on him; he pronounced it Adam. He took the robot home and cleaned it up to fight this mammoth of a robot named Zeus in the boxing ring.

Everybody’s opinion was that the robot didn’t deserve to fight Zeus. In fact, the media called the old robot a “junk yard dog.” In the end, the people no longer saw the robot as “trash” but the “people’s champion.”

Isaiah 64:8 says, “But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.” Don’t let people’s opinion re-define you; God is the master curator and potter, and He said that you are fearfully and wonderfully made. You are simply His “work of art.”

The American is accepting Inspirational Messages from the community. Send your column (no more than 400 words) as a Word document and pasted text to cking@stlamerican. com and attach a photo of yourself as a jpeg ile. Please be patient; we will run columns in the order received.

Cynthia Bennett

Camp introduces high schoolers to engineering careers

Plus, Community College hosts Summer Job Fair on July 25 at Flo Valley

American staff

The SIUE School of Engineering is hosting its annual Engineering Camp for high school students interested in learning more about engineering and the career options within that field. This summer, the camp held its first session June 9-14. The second session was held June 16-21.

Students at the camp are scheduled for various hands-on activities that introduce them to the fields within the engineering discipline. Activities during the camp encompass principles of mechanical, industrial, electrical and civil engineering, as well as construction management and computer science.

“We provide an overview of all the programs offered by the School of Engineering,” said Dr. Chris Gordon, associate dean of the School of Engineering, and coordinator of the engineering camp. “The campers get a feel for what these programs entail and the incredible range of rewarding opportunities available in these fields.” In the course of the camp, students participate in several projects, including building fuel cell cars, rockets and robots. Before embarking on their own projects, they get to see demonstrations of projects built by SIUE engineering students to inspire their work.

This year, students from various parts of the nation as well as from the Metro East and St. Louis-area have participated in the camp. Gordon says the camp has reached a record number of 56 total students enrolled. Each year, the camp attracts students from Illinois and neighboring states, including Indiana, Tennessee, Kentucky and Missouri.This year’s camps also included applicants from as far away as Alaska and Idaho.

Pershall Road.

a career.

Sisters Casey Beard, 14, and Reese Beard, 12, travelled from Howser, Idaho, to attend the Engineering Camp. They are home-schooled students who attend the Idaho Virtual Academy, which is an online home schooling program. Despite their ages, they are at high school academic levels, and they both have come to the camp to explore their career and college options.

“I didn’t know what field of engineering I wanted to go into, but after coming here, I think I have a better idea.”

– Chris Couch,16,O’Fallon Township High School

“I know I want to go into engineering,” Casey said, “but I don’t know if I want to be an electrical engineer or an industrial engineer. This program has the best survey of all the different fields of engineering.”

Chris Couch, 16, of O’Fallon (Ill.) Township High School came to the camp

knowing he wanted to be an engineer but unsure of which field he wanted to focus on.

“I didn’t know what field of engineering I wanted to go into, but after coming here, I think I have a better idea,” Couch said. “The camp has done a good job of separating the fields and saying how

they’re different and how they also can be related.”

Brent Ellis, 16, of Bloomfield (Ind.) JuniorSenior High School, finds the several fields of engineering each fascinating in different ways. He has also found that having knowledge in all of the fields can be helpful in starting

“I have already found more fields that I’m interested in,” said Ellis. “I’ve learned that sometimes you can get one degree in engineering but then still go into a different field because the fields can overlap.”

Gordon believes that bringing together promising young students with varying engineering interests and showing them the diversity within the broader field has garnered enthusiasm among SIUE engineering faculty and students.

“Our campers bring incredible dynamism to the school,” Gordon said. “We get to work with them as they learn what they are most excited about and which direction they might want to go. It’s a great opportunity for us as faculty members to work with future engineers and learn about their ambitions and their approaches to the various challenges they experience during the week.”

Summer Job Fair

St. Louis Community College Florissant Valley is partnering with the Community Action Agency of St. Louis County, Inc. (CAASTLC) to host a Summer Job Fair 11 a.m. -2 p.m., Thursday, July 25, in the Student Center Multipurpose Room on campus, 3400

CAASTLC provides lowincome people with emergency and crisis intervention services.

“The job fair is open to students, alumni and the community,” said Michela Walsh, manager of career and employment services at Florissant Valley. “Employers will recruit for positions in customer service, retail, healthcare, technical, social service, hotels and call centers.” Walsh says more than 30 employers are expected to participate and approximately 300-400 job seekers are anticipated.

“This job fair is a golden opportunity for those seeking gainful employment to network, pursue and obtain employment in a wide array of fields,” said James Ingram, employment specialist at CAASTLC.

Business attire is suggested and job seekers are asked to bring resumes.

CAASTLC holds job fairs quarterly. The program is funded by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services with support from the Missouri Department of Social Services’Family Support Division. For more information, contact Walsh at 314-5134543.

SIUE School of Engineering faculty member Steve Muren (in the middle) explains a point to Amber Holt (17) of Edwardsville High School and John Wicks (16) of the SIUE East St.Louis Charter High School at the SIUE School of Engineering’s annual Engineering Camp for high school students.

Celebrity Swagger Snap of the Week

Congrats in order. I would be downright silly if I didn’t give a shout out to the paper that has given me a home for ALL these years after they raked in the awards Thursday night in Nashville during the Black Press annual convention. We were once again awarded Publication of the Year along with a gang of awards that I don’t have room to name off one by one – but you can read about them on the front page and in the editorial. My point in bringing this up is to tell y’all how grateful we are to be able to represent St. Louis to the fullest mainly because we have your support in such a major way. There is no way we could be named Best Black Newspaper nine out of 18 years if y’all didn’t have our backs, and it is humbling to think about how y’all pick us up every week and log on every day and challenge us to be and do our best. Okay, enough raw emotion…back to the disgrace.

Back that time up. I’m sorry but Juvenile made it too easy for me to take a jab after I had to spend the night at the Loft on Thursday to see his few little hits. That’s right, the Loft…as in not the Coliseum. After the Coliseum “had issues with their sound system” (that’s the story and they’re sticking to it), SLIM and his crew took Juvenile around the corner to the Loft and the crowd followed. It was a welcome home/b-day party for Phil of Liquid Assets. And Phil entered like he was with the money team –flanked by six former fly girls dressed in all white though more than a couple opted out of some much needed Spanx and were quietly serving stay puff marshmallow midsections

I thought DJ Cuddy & Boogie D were going to have to put some grills in and tie rags on their heads and take the stage as a Juvenile tribute duo, but AFTER 1:30am he finally decided push his way to up the stage. He could barely squeeze past the peplum shirts and less-than-fresh weaves that had been occupying the stage. For the less than fashion forward, peplum is that extra ruffle around the bottom of the shirt or the midsection of the dress. And clearly peplum overload is to 2013 what a baby doll dress/stretch pants combo was to 1993! Okay, I’ll get back to Juvie…I just wanted y’all to see how it felt to be waiting around. By the time he set it off with “Back That Thang Up,” the only thing keeping me from swearing to my soul that I had been transported to 1999 was the lack of Nokia phones, the abundance of on location Instagram video directors and the new age Hot Boys were serving all kinds ankle meat in thugged out capri pants. Help. Everyone from the “who’s who” to the “girl, boo” was on hand to see it. Juvie can come back anytime and STL would love it, but now I know to make sure I get a nap in before his 2am start time. Cheers to Aunt Viv. As I predicted, Vivica A. Fox had the Office all the way live Friday night as she stopped through to celebrate the release of something or another by Heineken (they are not sponsors, so I don’t have to get it right – but Heineken, y’all are more than welcome to inquire about attaching your brand to Partyline…wink wink). Anyway, she mingled the night away and the only thing uptight was her freshly botoxed face. What? Y’all were thinking it. She’s still an awesome hostess for just about every event I’ve seen her tied to – and Friday night was no different. I really caught life from the toast! She’s going to be in town filming a movie next month, so I’m crossing my fingers and anticipating that she will have more spots __________(insert new slang for turned up) as we wind down the summer.

Café Soul Live: The Sequel. Okay, so the real reason for me giving some promo play to Café Soul for two weeks in a row is because I left off one of the most captivating performances of the evening and thought I would give saxophonist Rhoda G. some play and inform y’all that R&B Diva KeKe Wyatt will be teaming up with Café Soul when they do another Pageant takeover in two weeks. But first things first…Rhoda is probably not reading this because she is still on stage at the Pageant holding that note from “Love on Top,” but I still want to give her props as I try to wrap my mind around how I left her out of my highlights in the first place. I mean honestly, I went to bathroom, ordered a drink, played three levels of Candy Crush Saga and she hadn’t taken a breath. And the folks were flinging dollars on stage like, well, let’s just say like I heard they do as standard operating procedure in a gentleman’s establishment – not that I would know. That being said, she will also be one of the featured performers next month (and rightfully so) that warm up the stage for KeKe on Saturday, July 20. Other STL stars on the bill include Nikko Smith, Aloha Mi’sho, Ms. Kriss, Cherise Carroll, Wildmann, Mz. N.V., C. Jay Conrod, Silky Sol (welcome back from France) and more.

Getting back to Got Lyrics. I’ve decided to kick my Fourth of July off with sparklers and spoken word the ribs go without saying. My girl Mocha Latte is back at it with Got Lyrics! The monthly open mic and spotlight series will continue on the first Thursday of the month. The Independence Day edition will feature none other than the talented poetical blactor Sir Ervin Williams III – who will be performing a few scenes from his one man show “Messenger.” Do I even need to say it’s going all the way down at The Inspot? Of course not. Doors open at 8 p.m. the show kicks off at 9:15.

Simply Sexy at Soho. Speaking of Mo Spoon and Mocha Latte…they have teamed up with Topher Jones to present the Independence Day edition of Simply Sexy set at Soho. It goes down on July 5 and this month they are celebrating the independent women! Lady Bosses Deerra Nikkol of Eyekon Clothing and artist Sunni Mix will be celebrating their b-days – and ladies are

before 10:30

free

p.m.

Ono, Kelo and Innocent hanging out at the office Friday night enjoying the drink specials at the Heineken Night of the Stars event at the Office Friday night

It was a memory lane moment as Radiance, Tavonda, Jamie and Candace commemorated the 10th anniversary of their graduation from Lindenwood University @ The Coliseum

Ace, Kel and DSalt came through to support the Social Media Awards Friday night @ The Rustic Goat

NBA baller Brad Beal was home celebrating his birthday with his brother Bruce, Soho and William H Saturday night @ Soho

Stylist and designer James Monroe with his lovely models waiting to serve @ Blacque Séance’s Antiquity Fashion production Sunday afternoon

Mr. and Mrs. Jason Spain are still in the honeymoon phase as they celebrated their recent wedding vows and hung out with friends Friday night @ EXO

It was all about the Eye candy as Marissa and Ashley represented for team EC at the Snapback and Bad Chicks edition Friday night @ The Loft

Brandi and Kenyonna jumped at the chance to rub elbows with the one and only Vivica Fox @ The Heineken Night of Stars Party Friday night @ The Office

New Orleans rapper Juvenile had the Loft on lock when he performed thanks to a special presentation that teamed Loosecannon SLIM and Phil Assets Thursday night

Shasta and McArthur were excited to get a taste of some throwback New Orleans hip-hop thanks to a performance by Juvenile Thursday night @ The Loft

Photos by Lawrence Bryant

Obesity in Children

For the last several years I have placed my oldest daughter in a rigorous swim camp here in the city. Every year I have had to endure the endless complaints and huffs/puffs.

“Why me?”

“I don’t want to go!” she said each time.

However, as I have mentioned on several occasions, my old-fashioned southern upbringing allowed me to look at that child and declare with authority akin to a four star general that she had no voting power in the matter. It had been settled. Further conversation was unnecessary at that point.

For what my short-sighted child could not comprehend was that her mother understood the obesity epidemic that had been plaguing minority communities all too well. Her mother understood that if she did not make deliberate interventions into the lives of her children that they too would be walking down a medical disaster path. Her mother also knew that about a third of the teens living in Missouri were either overweight or obese.

classiied as obesity. Similar to adults, obesity can increase the child’s risk of developing hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, and endocrine abnormalities such as menstrual irregularities. In addition, socially, obese children are often bullied which may then result in social withdrawal and eventual depression. I am sure many of us remember those children growing up who were always picked last for kickball, never got asked to dance, and who had very few friends. I think we often underestimate the stigma that obesity has on the lives of our children.

citizens live. These areas have minimal access to quality fresh fruits and vegetables but are home to many minimarts that sell mostly processed foods high in salt and sugar. Unfortunately, these are the places that children often frequent for their after school snack. Children not only are choosing the high caloric food options they are also spending greater than two hours daily couched in front of the television, computer, or video game. Those days when children actually played games such as double Dutch and freeze tag are mostly over. It is so rare to see children actually outside running, jumping, or skipping.

grasp the various concepts taught during that time. The clarity simply is not there. Thus, not only is a lack of exercise in the school fueling the obesity epidemic but it is also fueling the academic disparities our children face as well.

A BMI, body mass index, greater than the 95th percentile in a child is

Denise HooksAnderson M.D.

Because obesity rates have tripled over the last three decades, irst lady Michelle Obama championed childhood obesity as her signature platform in 2010. Her “Let’s Move” campaign focuses on healthier foods in the schools and at home, childhood activity and providing support to parents. Both the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians support Ms. Obama’s initiative.

Ms. Obama also brought needed attention to the vast array of “food deserts” in which so many of our local

Your Health Matters

A bi-monthly special supplement of the St. Louis American

JULY 4 - 210, 2013

Your Health Matters provides up-to-date information, from an African-American perspective, about one of the most important subjects in evryone’s life – their personal health.

Donald M. Suggs, President and Publisher

Kevin Jones, Senior Vice President, COO

Dina M. Suggs, Senior Vice President

Chris King, Editorial Director

Denise Hooks-Anderson, M.D. Medical Accuracy Editor

Sandra Jordan, Health Reporter

Debbie Chase, Director of Health Strategy & Outreach

Onye Ijei, Barb Sills, Pamela Simmons, Sales

Michael Terhaar, Art/Production Manager

Angelita Jackson, Cover Design

Wiley Price, Photojournalist

Furthermore, during educational budget deicits, physical education time is usually always irst on the list for elimination. Children spend less and less time exercising their bodies as compared to the time they spend sitting behind a desk preparing for a standardized test. However, this method has yet to improve any test scores. John Ratey, M.D., author of A User’s Guide to the Brain and an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard states, “Exercise is really for the brain, not the body. It affects mood, vitality, alertness, and feelings of well-being.” Therefore, it is counter intuitive to expect children to sit for six to eight hours a day and be able to fully

This crisis in our community will not be eradicated overnight. It will take each of us making conscious decisions on behalf of our children. For example, turning off the television and having our children eat dinner at the table with the family is a great irst step. Research shows that children that eat structured meals as a family unit are less obese. In addition, joining a sports team is not just about wanting to be the next Lebron James. It is about exercise. The local boys and girls clubs have a variety of teams such as basketball, football and dance which have minimal joining fees. And how about just good old fashioned neighborhood play? As parents, we simply need to make sure our children are getting as much activity as possible and in the words of Malcolm X: “by any means necessary!”

Yours in Service, Denise Hooks-Anderson, M.D. Assistant Professor SLUCare Family Medicine yourhealthmatters@stlamerican.com

Quick, simple ways to prevent most common form of cancer

By the American Academy of Dermatology

Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer diagnosed in the United States, with one in five Americans expected to develop a form of skin cancer in their lifetime. Fortunately, there are simple steps people can take to reduce their skin cancer risk.

“The easiest way to prevent skin cancer is to protect your skin with clothing,” said board-certified dermatologist Zoe D. Draelos, MD, FAAD, consulting professor at Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, N.C. “Keep a wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses near your door so you can put them on before you go outside. Wearing a long-sleeved shirt and pants also can help protect from the damaging rays of the sun.”

The AAD says apply sunscreen every day when you are going to be outside, even on cloudy days, apply sunscreen to all skin that will not be covered by clothing. Reapply approximately every two hours, or after swimming or sweating. Use a broad-spectrum, waterresistant sunscreen that protects the skin against both UVA and UVB rays and that has an SPF of at least 30. Use one ounce of sunscreen, an amount that is about equal to the size of your palm. Thoroughly rub the product into the skin. Don’t forget the top of your feet, your neck, ears, and the top of your head.

Additional tips for preventing skin cancer:

• Seek shade. Remember that the sun’s rays are strongest between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. If your shadow is shorter than you are, seek shade.

• Use extra caution near water, sand or snow as they reflect and intensify the damaging rays of the sun, which can increase your chances of sunburn.

• Get vitamin D safely. Eat a healthy diet that includes foods naturally rich in vitamin D, or take vitamin D supplements. Do not seek the sun.

• Consider using a self-tanning product, if you want to look tan, but continue to use sunscreen with it.

• Don’t use tanning beds. Just like the sun, UV light from tanning beds can cause wrinkling and age spots and can lead to skin cancer.

• Check your skin for signs of skin cancer. Your birthday is a

great time to check your birthday suit. Checking your skin and knowing your moles are key to detecting skin cancer in its earliest, most treatable stages.

“It’s critically important for people to see their board-certified dermatologist

The AAD says apply sunscreen every day when you are going to be outside, even on cloudy days, apply sunscreen to all skin that will not be covered by clothing.

if they notice a mole or skin lesion that is changing, growing or bleeding,” said Draelos. “Skin cancer can be easily treated if detected early.”

For more information, visit SpotSkinCancer.org.

Photo by Wiley Price

HealtH Briefs

Prayer can lead to cooperation, forgiveness in relationships

Praying for a romantic partner or close friend can lead to more cooperative and forgiving behavior toward the partner, according to a new study recently published in the journal Personal Relationships

“This set of studies is the very first to use objective indicators to show that prayer changed actual behavior, and that this behavior was apparent to the other partner, the subject of the prayer.” said Frank Fincham, eminent scholar and director of the Florida State University Family Institute.

In addition, observers found those who engaged in partner-focused prayer exhibited more positive behavior toward their partners compared to those who did

not pray for their partner.

Fincham and coauthors reported on the results of five separate studies on prayer’s effects on relationship behavior. Among the findings:

• Participants who prayed more frequently for their partner were rated as less vengeful in discussing something the partner had done to upset or annoy them.

• Partners of participants who prayed for them noticed more forgiving behavior than the partners of participants who were assigned to set aside time each day to think positive thoughts about them.

• Participants assigned to pray following a partner’s hurtful behavior were more cooperative with their partners compared to participants assigned to engage in thinking about God.

• Participants who prayed for a close relationship partner on days in which conflict occurred reported higher levels of cooperative tendencies and forgiveness than on days when conflict occurred and they did not pray.

“These findings highlight the potential benefit of using partner-focused prayer, where culturally appropriate, in clinical settings or in relationship education

programs,” the researchers wrote. “In the United States, some 90 percent of people say that they pray at least occasionally, and prayer is a form of spiritual activity common to all the Abrahamic traditions, including Judaism, Christianity and Islam, with strong parallels in other religious traditions, such as Buddhism, Hinduism, and Shinto,” Fincham said. “Yet we know very little about its role in romantic relationships. This is the first time that objective indicators have documented the impact of prayer in such relationships.”

The findings are titled, “Shifting Toward Cooperative Tendencies and Forgiveness: How Partner-Focused Prayer Transforms Motivation.”

Flu during pregnancy may quadruple child’s risk for bipolar disorder

Pregnant mothers’ exposure to the flu was associated with a nearly fourfold increased risk that their child would develop bipolar disorder in adulthood, in a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. The findings add to mounting evidence of possible shared underlying causes and illness processes with schizophrenia, which some studies have also linked to prenatal exposure to influenza.

“Prospective mothers should take common sense preventive measures, such as getting flu shots prior to and in the early stages of pregnancy and avoiding contact with people who are symptomatic,” said Alan Brown, M.D., M.P.H, of Columbia University and New York State Psychiatric Institute, a

grantee of the NIH’s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). “In spite of public health recommendations, only a relatively small fraction of such women get immunized. The weight of evidence now suggests that benefits of the vaccine likely outweigh any possible risk to the mother or newborn.”

Brown and colleagues reported their findings recently in JAMA Psychiatry. Bipolar disorder shares with schizophrenia a number of other suspected causes and illness features, the researchers note. For example, both share onset of symptoms in early adulthood, susceptibility genes, run in the same families, affect nearly one percent of the population, show psychotic behaviors and respond to antipsychotic medications.

Distracted walking while talking injuries soar for cell phone users

More than 1,500 pedestrians were estimated to be treated in emergency rooms in 2010 for injuries related to using a cell phone while walking, according to a new nationwide study.

The number has more than doubled since 2005, even though the total number of pedestrian injuries dropped

during that time. And researchers believe that the actual number of injured pedestrians is actually much higher than these results suggest.

“If current trends continue, I wouldn’t be surprised if the number of injuries to pedestrians caused by cell phones doubles again between 2010

and 2015,” said Jack Nasar, co-author of the study and professor of city and regional planning at The Ohio State University.

“The role of cell phones in distracted driving injuries and deaths gets a lot of attention and rightly so, but we need to also consider the danger cell phone use poses to pedestrians.”

The study found that young people aged 16 to 25 were most likely to be injured as distracted pedestrians, and most were hurt while talking rather than texting.

The study appears in the August 2013 issue of the journal Accident Analysis and Prevention.

Researchers used data (from 2004 to 2010) from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System, a database maintained by the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC), which samples injury reports from 100 hospitals around the

country. These reports are used to estimate total injury occurrences at emergency rooms across the country.

The data involved injuries related to cell phone use for pedestrians in public areas.

Nasar said the problem with distracted pedestrians is likely to get worse as more people get cell phones and spend more time not just talking; also for playing games and using social media tools.

Nasar said he believes the best way to reverse these numbers is to start changing norms for cell phone use in our society is to start with parents.

“Parents already teach their children to look both ways when crossing the street. They should also teach them to put away their cell phone when walking, particularly when crossing a street.”

Food & Fact: Diet Influences Your Cancer Risk

Dr. Adam Carlisle, resident physician, Department of Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, discusses this month’s cancer prevention topic in the 8 Ways to Stay Healthy and Prevent Cancer series.

What did you eat yesterday? Why did you choose to eat those foods? Most Americans today are choosing calorically-dense meals because they are convenient, cheap, and familiar. But this is not the food that will help us live longer and feel better. To change the food we eat, we must realize the need and then believe in our ability to change. Certain foods have been shown to increase cancer risk, while others actually help prevent cancer.

A healthy diet may vary from person

to person depending on their family history and medical problems, such as heart disease or diabetes. For example, the Japanese have an increased risk of developing throat cancer because the Japanese diet is traditionally composed of a large amount of smoked fish. For most Americans, however, obesity is a significant risk factor for developing cancer. One of the best ways obesity is controlled is by eating a diet high in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.

The nutritional benefit of food can be broken down into two main groups: macronutrients and micronutrients. The three macronutrients are proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. They provide the energy as measured in calories. However, if we consume more energy than we use

during normal daytime activities (like walking, lifting, being physically active, etc.), the excess calories are stored as fat leading to obesity and an increased risk of many types of cancer, including: breast; colon; kidney; uterine; and esophageal cancer. Micronutrients are the vitamins and minerals in food that are beneficial for your health. One subgroup of micronutrients called antioxidants can prevent cancer and are commonly found in naturally bright-colored fruits and vegetables. For more tips on how to prevent cancer by eating healthy, visit: Eight Ways to Stay Healthy and Prevent Cancer: http://www.8ways. wustl.edu CDC Healthy Eating Guide: http://www.

cdc.gov/healthyweight/healthy_eating/ index.html

And read our Healthy Diet ad in this week’s Health Matters section!

The Program for the Elimination of Cancer Disparities (PECaD) at the Siteman Cancer Center is working to eliminate local and regional disparities in cancer education, prevention and treatment through community outreach, research and training. To learn more about cancer or to get involved with PECaD, call 314-747-4611, email PECaD@wudosis.wustl.edu or write to us at SCC-PECaD, Campus Box 8100, 660 S. Euclid Ave, St. Louis, MO, 63110. Look for future articles in HealthMat-

ADA encourages personalized frequency of dental visits

The American Dental Association recommends regular dental visits, at intervals determined by a dentist, that take into account the patient’s current oral health status and health history.

This in light of findings in a new study, “Patient Stratification for Preventive Care in Dentistry,” published in the June 10 issue of the Journal of Dental Research. In the study, researchers from the University of Michigan School of Dentistry explored the link between long-term tooth loss and frequency of preventive dental visits in adults with and without three risk factors for periodontal disease: smoking, diabetes and interleukin-1 genetic variations. The study concluded that individual risk

factors help to dictate the frequency of cleanings needed per year to help prevent periodontal disease. Based on data analysis, researchers speculate that highrisk patients would likely benefit from more frequent dental visits, while lowrisk patients may see the same benefits from only one cleaning per year.

The ADA encourages people to work closely with their dentists to identify any potential risk factors that would determine the need for and frequency of follow up visits to enhance the outcomes of preventive care.

For more information on the ADA’s recommendations for healthy teeth and gums, visit mouthyhealthy.org.

Together we can help children ride safely

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for children, yet nearly 80 percent of all child safety seats are improperly installed.

We offer free hands-on training in car seat installation from a certiied child passenger safety technician.

To request a child passenger safety presentation for your community group or staff responsible for transporting children, call 314.286.0957.

“Our staf found the training helpful. hose who already knew a lot about car seats learned something, and newer staf learned more, too.”

Teresa Hayner, MSW, LCSW Director of Community Services, Good

Shepherd Children and Family Services

Profiling PeoPle in HealtH

Name: Salena A. Cecil

Position/Where:

Breast Health Navigator at Northwest Healthcare/ Christian Hospital in North St. Louis County

Career Highlights:

In this role, I assist patients after an abnormal mammogram finding that might require a biopsy or surgery. If they are diagnosed with breast cancer, I hope to continue to develop and foster a relationship that continues throughout treatment. I serve as a resource for patients for education, financial assistance, support groups, and communication with other members of the healthcare team. In the very near future, I will also begin doing well-woman exams through the Show Me Healthy Women program at Christian Hospital as well. This program provides free breast and cervical cancer screenings for eligible women.

I have been a nurse for eight years now. I have spent six of those years working in oncology with BJC. I graduated from UMSL in 2012 with a nurse practitioner degree in women’s health. I am certified and licensed as a Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner (so I’m looking forward to being able to apply my training as a nurse practitioner to my role as Navigator)

Education:

Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Truman State University Masters of Science in Nursing University of Missouri-St. Louis

Personal:

Member of Shalom Church City of Peace

Member of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc.

Member of Chi Eta Phi Sorority, Inc., a Black Nursing Sorority Married with a two-year-old daughter

St. Louis Connection:

I am not from St. Louis.

My father is retired US Army so I traveled a lot in my childhood. Both of my parents currently live in Clarksville, Tennessee, which is where he retired, so that is what I call home.

My husband and I moved here to St. Louis in 2007. He is a vocal music at Jennings Senior High School.

Journey to success:

I love patient education and working in women’s health. My overall ambition is expand my role as Nurse Navigator to include components to practice as a Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner and essentially use my nursing experience to give back to the community, especially in areas of women’s health that largely effect women of color (minority women) such as breast cancer.

I haven’t had many obstacles to overcome besides working on a master’s degree and trying to raise a little one. That was challenging, but I made it through!

Women at greater risk of COPD;

half don’t know they have it

Women are 37 percent more likely to have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) than men and now account for more than half of all deaths attributed to COPD in the U.S. The American Lung Association’s latest health disparity report, “Taking Her Breath Away: The Rise of COPD in Women,” examines the nation’s third leading cause of death and its increased prevalence among women in the United States.

More than seven million women in the United States currently have COPD, and millions more have symptoms but have yet to be diagnosed. The number of deaths among women from COPD has more than quadrupled since 1980, and since 2000 the disease has claimed the lives of more women than men in this country each year.

“What we now know is that more women than men in this country are dying from COPD—and nearly half of women currently living with COPD don’t even know they have it,” said MeiLan Han, M.D., medical director, Women’s Respiratory Health Program at the University of Michigan Health System, and national spokesperson for the American Lung Association’s report. “It’s what we do with this knowledge that will help determine the fate of millions. Leadership in public health and health care at the national, state and local levels must urgently confront this deep-rooted and deadly disease head on.”

COPD is a progressive lung disease

with no known cure that slowly robs its sufferers of the ability to draw lifesustaining breath. Only heart disease and cancer kill more Americans than COPD does. Smoking is the primary cause of COPD, but there are other important causes such as air pollution.

The report identifies an interplay of risk-factor exposures, biological susceptibility and sociocultural factors contributing to COPD’s disproportionate burden on women.

Among key findings:

• Since COPD has historically been thought of as a “man’s disease,” women are underdiagnosed and undertreated.

• Women are more vulnerable than men to lung damage from cigarette smoke and other pollutants.

• Women younger than age 65 are more vulnerable to COPD.

• Women have more frequent disease flare-ups—a sudden worsening of COPD symptoms that is often caused by a cold or other lung infection.

• Effective treatment of COPD is complicated, and women don’t always get the kind of care that meets their needs.

• The quality of life for women with COPD is impaired at an earlier age, and is worse overall than that of men with similar severity of disease.

Students learn about success via academic medicine

WUMMA, the Washington University Medical Minority Association, recently conducted a professional development lecture featuring guest speaker Courtney Houchen, MD, chief of the digestive diseases and nutrition section and the Frances and Malcolm Robinson chair at the University of Oklahoma Health Center.

Dr. Houchen’s lecture, Climbing the Ladder of Success in Academic Medicine: Life Lessons to Keep You on Track, focused on the choices he made that contributed to his successes. The Brooklyn, NY, native reminded attendees to publish their work and seek grant support early. He also discussed the importance and benefit of having mentors.

“Dr. Houchen was a fellow at Washington University School of Medicine. He understands where we are in our training and was able to provide incredible insight into the challenges that we may face as well as the steps that we should take as we advance in our respective careers,” said Darrell Gray, II MD, a gastroenterology fellow at Washington University School of Medicine.

WUMMA is more than 100 members strong and promotes health awareness through community service. It cultivates diversity and supports professional development among undergraduate students, medical students, resident physicians and faculty at Washington University, Barnes-Jewish Hospital and St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

Sat. July 13, 9 a.m. – 5p.m., Cardinals Care Health Screenings, UMSL Millennium Student Center. AAFA-STL volunteers will provide information about asthma, allergies and food allergies. For more information, email alebb@aafastl.org.

Sat. July 20, 8:30 am-10 a.m. & 11 a.m. – 12:30 a.m., Comprehensive Stroke Screening ($20) & Lecture by SSM Neurosciences Institute, May Center, 12303 DePaul Drive, Bridgeton, Mo. 63044. By appointment for $20, screening includes blood pressure, carotid ultrasound (noni-invasive test of blood flow in the neck arteries), cholesterol (fasting preferred), blood sugar (glucose), and consultation with nurse specialist. Free lecture is at 10 a.m. Screenings are most appropriate for those ages 50+, as well as those with a family history of stroke or who have been diagnosed with high blood pressure or arterial fibrillation. Space is limited and appointments are required. Call toll-free 1-866-SSMDOCS (1-866-776-3627) or register at ssmhealth.com/ neuro.

Sat. July 27, 9:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. –CHIPS Health and Wellness Center 13th Annual Prayer Breakfast, Clyde C. Miller Career Academy, 1000 N. Grand Blvd., St. Louis. For more information, call 314-6529231, x. 20; email mroach@chipsstl.org or visit www. chipsstl.org.

Health Calendar

Sat. Aug. 3, Lupus WolfRide GranFondo 56- or 112Mile Bike Ride, Bolm-Schuhkraft Park, Columbia Ill. For more information, call 1-800-9LUPUS6 or visit www.wolfride.com.

Fri. Aug 9, Sat. Aug 10, 7:30 p.m., The Bright Side of Life, annual student musical revue for JDRF, Pillsbury Chapel and Dale Williams Fine Arts Center, Missouri Baptist University, One College Park Drive, St. Louis, 63141. Features 39 student actors, singers and dancers from 20 area schools (grades 3 - high school); features songs from such classic Broadway musicals as Hairspray, King and I, Memphis, Little Shop of Horrors, Sound of Music and Children of Eden. For more information on this free event, visit www. archcitytheatertroupe.org.

Sundays, 10 a.m. – Alcoholics Anonymous Group 109 meets in the 11th floor conference room at Christian Hospital, 11133 Dunn Road at I-270/Hwy. 367. This is an open meeting for alcoholics, drug addicts and their

family and friends.

Mondays, 7 p.m. – “Tobacco Free for Life” support group – free weekly meetings at St. Peters Mo. City Hall. Supported by SSM Cancer Care; RSVP initial participation to 636-947-5304.

Tuesdays, 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. – Alcohol and Drug Informational meeting, Christian Hospital, Professional Office Building 2, Suite 401. For information, call 314839-3171.

Wednesdays, 6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. – STEPS

Schizophrenia Support Group

This nationally recognized program provides education and support for those with schizophrenia. Group is facilitated by an experienced STEPS nurse. For more information, call 314-839-3171.

First Thursdays, 10 a.m. – Family Support Group by NAMI St. Louis, The Alliance on Mental Illness at Transfiguration Lutheran Church, 1807 Biddle Street. No registration needed; no cost. For more information, call 314-962-4670.

Free psychiatric and chemical dependency evaluations are confidential at the Christian Hospital Center for Mental Health. Call 314-839-3171.

Paying less for medical equipment supplies through Medicare

Q: What is the new program beginning in July in certain areas across the nation where Medicare beneficiaries will pay less out of pocket for certain medical equipment and supplies if they purchase them through Medicare contract suppliers?

A: From the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS):

For years, Medicare and its beneficiaries have been paying too much for durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies (DMEPOS). To reduce costs and the fraud resulting from excessive prices, CMS introduced a competitive bidding program in nine areas of the country in 2011. People with Original Medicare who live in Competitive Bidding Areas – or CBAs - will pay less for certain DMEPOS items and services such as wheelchairs, oxygen, mail order diabetic supplies, and more. Competitive bidding for DMEPOS is proven to save money for taxpayers and people with Medicare while maintaining access to quality DMEPOS items.

The program has already been hugely successful, reducing money spent for equipment included in the program by over 42 percent in its first year of operation. Now the program’s benefits are coming to you, and there is some important information you need to know. Expansion of the program began on July 1, and extends it to 91 new areas across the country, including Wichita, Kansas, St. Louis, Missouri, Omaha, Nebraska, Council Bluffs, Iowa and surrounding counties in these areas. People with Medicare in these areas will save an average of 43 to 47 percent on certain DMEPOS items.

Medicare is also implementing a national mail-order program for diabetic testing supplies which began July 1, and beneficiaries nationwide will save an average of 72 percent on these supplies. How the Program Works: Medicare generally pays 80 percent of the costs for durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies used in the home under Medicare Part B. The person with Medicare pays the remaining 20 percent. Under this program, suppliers of these types of supplies submitted bids for certain medical equipment and supplies that must be lower than what Medicare pays for these items currently. Medicare used these bids to set the amount it will pay for the competitively bid medical equipment and supplies and qualified, accredited suppliers with winning bids were chosen as Medicare contract suppliers.

The good news is that since Medicare’s payment amount to suppliers will be less, people with Medicare who use the equipment and supplies under the competitive bid program will have a lower co-payment too.

If you have Original Medicare, and your permanent residence is in a ZIP code that is part of a Competitive Bid Area, CBA, and you use items in one of the program categories, you generally must use a Medicare contract supplier to have Medicare help pay for the item. If you currently receive oxygen/oxygen equipment or rent certain other items from a non-contract supplier, you may be able to continue renting these items from your current supplier when the program takes effect, if the supplier decides to become a grandfathered supplier. All contract suppliers must comply with Medicare enrollment rules, be accredited, meet applicable licensing requirements, meet financial

How to find the ‘Quitter in You’

Need some support to finally kick the smoking habit for once and for all? St. Louis is one of several cities the American Lung Association’s and WellPoint are targeting with its latest stop-smoking campaign, The Quitter in You.

Once a smoker decides to quit, success is more likely if family, friends and co-workers give help and support.

standards and meet stringent quality standards to ensure good customer service and high quality items. Ninety percent of contract suppliers are already established in the competitive bidding area, the product category, or both. This means Medicare beneficiaries will be getting the same high quality products and services but at lower prices. And, small suppliers – those with gross revenues of $3.5 million per year or less – make up about 63 percent of the contract suppliers in the new markets.

The expanded program is expected to save Medicare more than $25 billion in the next ten years, and people with Medicare are expected to save $17 billion more in reduced out-of-pocket costs and premium payments.

For a list of Medicare contract suppliers in your area, visit www. medicare.gov/supplier/home.asp or by calling 1-800-MEDICARE (TTY users should call 1-877-486-2048).

If you or your friend has not fully created a mindset to quit, the ALA says for others try and see it from his or her side. For most smokers, cigarettes have been a steady companion for a long time. Some reluctance is normal and it doesn’t mean that you or your friend won’t be able to quit for good. A little supportive understanding goes a long way to overcome doubts.

Put it in black and white in your own words. The Lung Associations suggests listing the reasons for wanting to quit and set a target date to stop.

For encouragers, offer to help in any way needed, even if it’s just pep talk, a listening ear offering to join in a healthier alternative – like taking a walk.

For more information, call 1-800-LUNG-USA, EMAIL visit www. quitterinyou.org.

Racial, cultural diversity in cancer research helps reveal better answers

By Sandra Jordan Of The St. Louis American

Patricia Bowman of St. Louis is a cancer survivor who is recruiting other African Americans who have never had cancer to help answer questions that one day may make cancer a scourge of the past.

It is through participation the American Cancer Society’s third Cancer Prevention Study, known as CPS-3. With a particular interest in getting more minorities to take part in the research, the ACS Epidemiology Research Program wants to enroll at least 300,000 adults from various racial and ethnic backgrounds in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Participants must be between the ages of 30 and 65 with no personal history of cancer (this does not include basal or squamous cell skin cancer).

Oftentimes when you read or hear facts or figures about cancer and other

diseases, it seems that black folk get it first and worse.

Bowman said, “I questioned, ‘Why is that?’ After I found out what the study was about and they explained; we don’t participate.”

There is a way to change that.

“We don’t know a lot about any disease – that’s cancer or anything, because if we are not a part it, we are not a part of the research, we don’t know,” Bowman explained. “Of course it came up, ‘Don’t we have enough people participating to find out a way to get a cure?’ Sure, there are some things that are universal but there are some things that are just unique to African Americans, so if we don’t participate, they can’t find those things.”

And to remove the fear factor, Bowman reminds this research is nothing like the scandalous Tuskegee syphilis study of 1932 that left black men untreated for the disease for 40 years until

it became public.

This 20-year study seeks to better understand factors (lifestyle, environmental, genetic) that cause or prevent cancer to ultimately help eliminate cancer as a major health concern for future generations.

Study participants will be asked to read and sign a consent form, complete a survey, provide some physical measurements (such as waist size, weight, height, blood pressure, and heart rate), and give a small blood sample (similar to a doctor’s visit). At home, CPS3participants will receive periodic followup surveys and research updates through annual newsletters.

Bowman and other members of the Survivors Helping Survivors support group got involved in the effort to recruit participants for CPS-3 through the efforts of its leader, Sandra Johnson, a 17-year breast cancer survivor.

Johnson also made a case for

Survivors Helping Survivors meets every third Saturday 10 a.m. – Noon Jamestown Bluffs Branch St. Louis County Public Library

participation at Bethel Providence Christian Church in Florissant, Mo. and its pastor, Rev. Charles G. Pennington Jr., pledged his support.

“We will be having registration signups at our church and of course, we have to distribute information and put up posters to make it known to the people that enter and exit the church, Pennington said.

“I don’t see how this can hurt any … overall cancer research needs our support from the people from the study to the medicine aspect.”

Locally, the ACS is planning a big CPS-3registration event Saturday, July 13 at St. Louis Rams Park from 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.

For more information, call 1-888604-5888, email CPS3@cancer.org or visit http://www.tinyurl.com/ /ACSCancerStudy3.

Patricia Bowman Photo by Wiley Price