COAL initiative University works to connect with a younger audience
Alumna returns MSU graduate comes back as coordinator for diversity
Perfect team
Men’s soccer continues season’s winning streak
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M I S S O U R I S TAT E U N I V E R S I T Y
VOLUME 113, ISSUE 7 | THE-STANDARD.ORG The Standard/The Standard Sports
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2019
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Springfield hosts Ozarks Pridefest CONNOR WILSON Staff Reporter @Connor4Wilson
On Oct. 12, downtown Springfield was filled with a variety of rainbow-colored flags to celebrate an event that’s been held in Springfield for over 20 years. Hosts of this year’s Greater Ozarks Pridefest said each year the turnout grows larger and larger. Last year there were over 4,500 people in attendance. This year, they’re estimating there were 6,000. “I’m pretty sure there were more people here before it started than our busiest point last year,” Krista Moncado, executive director for the GLO Center, said. “It’s really overwhelming in a super positive way.” Moncado said she never planned on organizing something like Pridefest or being executive director of the GLO Center. Back when she started coming out, she lost almost all of her support from friends and family. To replace that, she began volunteering at the center. When she started volunteering and becoming more active in the community, Moncado knew she wanted to keep moving forward with it. “Whatever way I can do that, if that’s Pride, if that’s talking to a parent on the
phone who’s kid came out as trans and doesn’t know what to do or where to go, or if it’s doing training for school teachers,” Moncado said. “I’m going to do whatever it takes to help make our community thrive.” The GLO Center is an LGBTQ community center in Springfield that hosts Pridefest yearly. Since 2012, Pridefest has been held in Park Central Square. Moncado said the first year they held the festival downtown, the city was supportive, and she doesn’t think there could be a better place. Decorating the square were a variety of booths, ranging from selling apparel with flags and other forms of support, to two women holding signs that read “Free mom hugs.” Springfield resident Karen Hayden set up a booth with two chairs — one for her, and an empty one for anyone who wanted to talk — next to a sign reading “I am here to listen.” Hayden said she felt a strong need to listen to people since 2017 when she lived in Columbia. “There are people who had things to be said, and no one to hear them,” Hayden said. “I just knew I was supposed to do it.” u See PRIDE, page 2
SYDNIE HAMBURG/THE STANDARD
Attendee of the Ozarks Pridefest poses for a picture in Park Central Square.
JAYLEN EARLY/THE STANDARD
Professor Lyle Foster delivers the keynote speech at the community remembrance held at Park Central Square on Oct. 2. The event was hosted by the Remembrance Coalition to honor three African American men who were lynched on the square in downtown Springfield in 1906.
‘Work of memory is a work of justice’ Community honors lives lost during lynching era KAYLA CURRY Staff Reporter @kaylalcurry Three black men were lynched in downtown Springfield on Oct. 2, 1906. As a result, many members of the black community fled in fear, never to return. Over 100 people from the Springfield community gathered at Park Central Square on the 113th anniversary of the lynching to honor Horace Duncan, Fred Coker and William Allen with the unveiling of a historical marker in the form of a commemorative plaque. The Springfield Community Remembrance Coalition, along with Mayor Ken McClure, organized the remembrance in collaboration with the Equal Justice Initiative, an organization working with communities around the nation to commemorate and raise awareness of the lynching era between 1877 and 1950 by erecting historical markers. Keynote speaker and Mis-
souri State University sociology professor Lyle Foster galvanized the crowd in his speech, shouting impassioned words and urging the community to join him in not “sugarcoating” history. Foster said he grieves the loss of the three men who died at the square, as well as for those who left the city. "I grieve for our community— for what we could have been if these three young men had lived to make their full contribution," Foster said. "I grieve for each one of us for what we could have been as a city if the diversity, the richness, the potential of those who left and the reputation of our city and our region had not become what it was for decades. Who might have come? “So this is a difficult moment, and we’re not going to whitewash it. We’re going to talk about it. We’re going to experience it and hopefully, by God’s strength, we can move on from here." Foster took an inclusive
approach to his speech, calling for reconciliation for marginalized communities in Springfield, including multi-racial communities and LGBTQ communities, earning a round of applause and cheers from the crowd. A common theme running through the speeches was the importance of recognizing even the worst parts of history. Gabrielle Daniels, EJI representative, spoke at the remembrance reminding listeners that, “our histories live among us today.” “We can’t live in a vacuum and pretend the contemporary issues we have today only happened in our time,” Daniels said. “Work of memory is a work of justice.” Although the lynching occured over 100 years ago, Daniels said communities have “failed to participate in the work of repair, remembrance and reconciliation.” Janelle Treat, a Central High School senior, said she attended the event to learn
JAYLEN EARLY/ THE STANDARD
Remembrance attendees join hands and take part in a moment of silence to honor the three African American men who were lynched.
more about the history of the town she grew up in. She believes the racial injustice that u See REMEMBRANCE, page 8
Student uses veteran scholarship to continue studies at MSU KAITLYN STRATMAN Photo Editor @kaitlynstratman
Sophomore Ian Tucker walked into Sport Clips for a free haircut and ended up with free college tuition. The 22-year-old biology major went to Sport Clips for a haircut with his dad on Veterans Day, where he noticed a poster from the Veterans of Foreign Wars, a nonprofit organization in place to serve veterans. The poster advertised college tuition assistance with the VFW’s Sport Clips Help A Hero Scholarship. Tucker qualified for the free haircut as an Army veteran, and decided to see if he would qualify for free tuition as well.
He wrote his 300-word essay and, to his surprise, received his scholarship offer the next day. “I thought, ‘this has got to be fake. You’re not going to pay for all of my schooling,’” Tucker said. Even after visiting the VFW headquarters in Kansas City, Tucker wasn’t fully convinced of the scholarship’s legitimacy until his account balance confirmed that his tuition was paid for. Tucker enlisted in the Army after high school, signing a 3 ½-year contract. He said he always wanted to serve, and the education benefits were important to him. Tucker worked in artillery as a 13M, or a multiple launch rocket
Submitted by Ian Tucker
system crewmember, where he Tucker wanted to attend Misrode in the trucks and shot souri State University after his rockets after receiving a fire contract ended, but could not command. afford to go to college. Because
Tucker saved his GI Bill for medical school, he would have had to pay out of pocket for his college tuition. “With the scholarships, I can afford it,” Tucker said. “It has taken off the huge financial burden of having to pay for school ... knowing that I have this GI bill and that I’m going to go to medical school, and that’s going to be free. So it’s just pushing me to want to do better here, so that I can get into a medical school.” Tucker does not plan to go back to the Army, but he is a member of the Individual Ready Reserve, which means he may be called back to duty in the future. Right now, his sights are set on his education. “He’s got that determina-
tion,” Ian Tucker’s father, Jim Tucker, said. “He’s not wasting it, he’s really putting it to good use.” The VFW’s Sport Clips Help a Hero Scholarship gives up to $5,000 to recipients to cover college tuition and fees. The scholarship covers Tucker’s 2019 spring and fall tuition, and he plans to apply for a third time this spring. Ian Tucker came to MSU in the spring of 2018 with 37 credits from the Army. As each semester is paid for, Tucker is one step closer to graduating. “It was always pretty much his destiny. Since he was little he talked about it,” Jim Tucker said.
u See TUCKER, page 8