Fate is often a cruel and ironic two edged sword. I witnessed such, along with area TV viewers, as Illinois State Trooper Nicholas Hopkins was killed in a shootout as his SWAT team attempted to execute a search warrant in East St. Louis recently.
In “Before the Mayflower,” a classic black history text by Lerone Bennett, he writes: “Few ships before or since have unloaded such a momentous cargo.” The ship in question was an English pirate ship. That ship, in the summer of 1619, had stolen its “cargo” from a Portuguese vessel. The Port…
featured
A 59-year-old Uruguayan woman, who does not speak English, alleges that she was kicked and assaulted into unconsciousness by two male St. Louis Metropolitan Police officers while on a Greyhound bus on August 28.
featured
New fuel has been thrown on the dumpster fire of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department’s unconstitutional policing of Stockley verdict protests this time two years ago, in particular the notorious and brutal kettling arrests on September 17, 2017. The new fuel comes in two civil suits…
The League of Women Voters of Metro St. Louis is planning a massive voter registration effort, with volunteers at 54 area libraries from 10 am to 2 pm on Saturday, September 28. Sites include all county and consortium libraries in St. Louis, most libraries in St. Louis city and St. Charles C…
The recent demise of Norman R. Seay is another great loss to our communities’ legendary civil rights leadership team. He was a true warrior for freedom, equality and civil rights whom I stood with many times as we confronted the bigotry and oppression of segregation in St. Louis. He was a tr…
featured
More than 340 St. Louis Metropolitan police officers are named in a class-action lawsuit filed todayagainst the individual officers and the City of St. Louis, alleging the unlawfully pepper spraying, beating and “kettle” arrests of more than 120 people on Sept. 17, 2017.
featured
Norman Seay, a longtime civil rights leader, volunteer and advocate for Alzheimer’s disease research, passed away today, Tuesday, September 17, 2019 in St. Louis. He was 87.
In 1976 Alex Haley’s book and wildly popular television miniseries “Roots” spurred national interest in African-American family history. James Dent Walker, one of the few African-American researchers at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., in the 1970s, helped Haley with his family res…
Financial-services firm Edward Jones and its associates have contributed more than $1 million to the Arts and Education Council for the third consecutive year. The donations will support the Arts and Education Council’s programs and services that benefit more than 70 arts organizations and c…
featured
Three pieces of white poster board gave perspective to the alarming rate in which our region’s children are being tragically lost.
As this country continues to experience a crisis in affordable housing and homelessness the Trump Administration’s release of its proposal to reform housing finance falls short of many of the important principles outlined by the Democratic Caucus for fair, balanced, and comprehensive housing…
NACA (Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America), the nation’s largest HUD-certified, non-profit housing counseling and community advocacy organization, is hosting homeownership event September 19-22 at the Lumiere Place Hotel, 999 North 2nd St. in St. Louis.
President Trump is conducting his trade war with China as if it were a zero-sum game, but it's not. It's a negative-sum game. Both sides lose.
Metro Transit will implement its new MetroBus Service Plan – which will impact every bus route in the City of St. Louis and in St. Louis County – on Monday, September 30.
Most consumers would likely agree that consumers should get what they pay for. If a product or service fails to deliver its promises, refunds are in order. That thinking guided the Obama Administration’s decision to address false promises made to student loan borrowers.
United Food and Commercial Workers Local 655, which represents more than 5,500 Schnucks employees throughout the St. Louis region, has agreed to a new 3-year union contract with the hometown grocery chain.
One group, a group with the most power to compel compliance, seems almost exempt for discussion of sexual abuse of women and almost exempt from full prosecution: police officers.
There is an October 30 deadline for grant proposals for tenant organizing from the Deaconess Foundation in memory of the Rev. Buck Jones, the late United Church of Christ minister.
“The biggest movement and shift that we’ve seen in this culture is simply because of the victims. When victims and survivors are coming to the legislative bodies and they’re telling their stories and they’re appealing, we’ve seen movement,” said U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath (D-Georgia), mother of 1…
(St. Louis Public Radio) - Families are nearly settled into 41 new three-bedroom homes recently completed in Pine Lawn.
On a 2017 segment of “On Being with Krista Tippett,” civil rights icon and mentor to many Ruby Sales recounts the moment she learned to look beyond physical devastation and ask a deeper question that, when answered, has the ability to cut to the source of brokenness and pain: Where does it hurt?
St. Louis Comptroller Darlene Green called upon Mayor Lyda Krewson and Board of Aldermen President Lewis Reed to support a supplemental appropriation for Cure Violence of up to $2 million.
featured
August 9 was such a towering milestone in the St. Louis region – five years after the Ferguson Police killing of Michael Brown – that not much public attention was paid to another anniversary two days before. August 7 marked one year since Wesley Bell crushed incumbent St. Louis County Prose…
I was born on January 31, 1983 in St. Louis to a single mom. My father was away, giving his mother, Arnita Pitts, sole responsibility of making sure my siblings and I knew the importance of discipline and education.
featured
The St. Louis American Foundation will honor eight outstanding educators from area schools as awardees at the 2019 Salute to Excellence in Education on Saturday, September 21 at the America's Center Ballroom.
featured
We have been disappointed, thus far, in Gov. Mike Parson’s public and private remarks when addressing the epidemic of gun violence in St. Louis. So we have drafted some remarks we believe that he should make publicly.
A broad coalition of women clergy, community and elected leaders are gathering the community to grieve, lock arms and call for action at a Mother’s March to End Gun Violence from to noon to 2 p.m. on Saturday, September 14 starting in Fairgrounds Park corner of Kossuth and Grand.
Officials hosting the St. Louis Crime Summit for the St. Louis region on Tuesday, September 10 did not include any elected prosecutors. Despite the overwhelming message sent by St. Louis city and county voters through the election of Wesley Bell and me as top prosecutors, neither of us was i…
“Only the Educated Are Free: The Journey of Michael Middleton,” produced by the University of Missouri, will premiere 7 p.m. Friday, September 13 at the Missouri Theatre, 203 S. 9th St. in Columbia.
A fundraiser will be held to raise money for St. Louis Detective Luther Hall’s medical expenses 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, September 15 at Flamingo Bowl, 1117 Washington Ave. The donation for this event is $20 in advance and $25 at the door. Food, bowling and pool are included.
The conference theme is the Impact of Incarceration on Women & Children when Missouri Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE) host its annual conference from 10 am to 4 pm. Saturday, September 28 at the Bellefontaine Recreation Center, 9669 Bellefontaine Rd.
A coalition of organizations is holding a town hall to urge public officials to take power away from special interests and big donors in government and give more power to voters.
featured
(St. Louis Public Radio) - Eddie Hill IV never showed up for the fifth grade. The 10-year-old was shot and killed enjoying his summer vacation from his front porch in the Lewis Place neighborhood, which borders the Central West End.
featured
Michelle Sherod – longtime staffer for former U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill – is entering the race for the open seat to represent Missouri’s 5th Senate District, where state Senator Jamilah Nasheed (D-St. Louis) is term-limited.
A community report-back on the Cure Violence assessment of St. Louis will be held 6 p.m. Thursday, September 12 at the Deaconess Center for Child Well-Being, 1000 N. Vandeventer Ave., sponsored by the Coalition Against Police Crimes and Repression.
United Way of Greater St. Louis announced a 2019 annual campaign goal of $76.25 million. Last year, more than 100,000 individuals and 2,000 businesses donated to United Way to collectively raise a record $76 million for people in a 16-county region throughout Missouri and Illinois.
featured
The sound of African drums echoed around Harris-Stowe State University. The Class of 2023 marched in two lines, with bright, smiling faces, across the HSSU campus as they officially began their academic journey. Athletics, administrators and faculty, clad in their regalia, welcomed the proce…
For the past 12 years, it has been my honor to serve on the St. Louis County Library District Board of Trustees with pride and diligence. I have witnessed the library grow to become the busiest public library in Missouri and be recognized locally and nationally for its innovative programming…
There is an October 15 deadline to apply for funding assistance for African-American heritage programs through the Missouri Humanities Council. The mission of this heritage program is “to support partner organizations whose work increases our understanding of the African American experience …
(St. Louis Public Radio) - The St. Louis Board of Education took the brunt of the frustration about gun violence that has taken the lives of a dozen children in the city from residents, parents and school staff Thursday night.
The El Paso and Dayton massacres brought the total of mass shootings in the U.S. since January to 253, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The archive tracks mass shootings of incidents involving at least four people being shot. My reaction to the wails of grief and desperation is we know…
Ernest Ross Jr., 79, passed away peacefully July 10, 2019, survived by his wife, Linda Hancock Ross. Ernest was born August 20, 1939, in St. Louis to Ernest “Jack” Ross and Myrtle Cecelia (Monroe) Ross.
Justin Timothy Thacker, MS. RD-LD, CSCS, HFS, CES, USAW, USAPL, CF-1, age 38 of St. Louis, died on Friday, August 30, 2019, in St. Louis.
Cynthia J. Fuller, a retired educator of the University City School District died Thursday, August 8, 2019 due to complications of acute kidney failure. She was 92 years old and a longtime resident of University City. Born in Parsons, Kansas, Mrs. Fuller was reared in St. Louis in the Ville …
featured
Going to the football jamboree at Soldan High School on Friday, August 23 was a “reward” for eight-year-old Jurnee Thompson’s good behavior during her first two weeks at school.
If we feel trapped in an endless cycle of police killing civilians under often complex circumstances with many people disbelieving the inevitable police assertion that the shooting was justified, we should. In fact, we are all trapped in a version of the prisoners’ dilemma. We are all, in a …
The flowing script of an 1847 Jesuit missionary ledger page shows a matter-of-fact accounting of four payments, totaling $300, that one Matilda – a 34-year-old "colored servant" – made to buy her freedom from her Jesuit owners. The heading notes that she should pay directly to St. Xavier Cat…
Our region recently recognized the 5th year anniversary of Michael Brown’s killing and the subsequent turmoil that placed the St. Louis region at the epicenter of chaos and disorder.
Recently, Bill McClellan penned a column about me titled “The Shadow Mayor of St. Louis strikes again.” The longtime Post-Dispatch columnist was referring to an op-ed I wrote here in The St. Louis American last week.
featured
Flynn Park Elementary School in University City has been on a journey these past three years, said Principal Nicalee Wilson. And it’s one that’s best illustrated through a story.
Commented