This is arguably the most problematic, violable and dangerous time in the country’s history
The Souls to the Polls movement encourages African American church attendees to get out and vote. The churches that promote this movement cannot, because of their 501-c-3 status, endorse candidates. They can, however, emphasize the gospel of social and economic justice and preach the gospel …
The Oprah Winfrey interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle was a bombshell for many. The way biracial Meghan was being treated by The Royals was no surprise to most of us. And some of us knew that sistah-girl was not likely to put up with it for long. A few thought out loud that Meghan …
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When I joined The Normandy Collaborative, less than a year ago, I worried that there wouldn’t be an appetite for true reform. My question during the interview process was whether the Normandy Schools Collaborative Board had a commitment to bold change. They assured me that they did and hav…
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The threat is real. The vote is under attack. Two narratives are duking it out: voter fraud vs. voter protection. What’s becoming a tit for tat in a high stakes match must end in a resounding victory for voting rights. It should be more permanent than the Voting Rights of 1964.
President Joe Biden has nominated extraordinary women of color to high-level jobs in the Biden-Harris administration. Many of them are being attacked and smeared by the far right. That’s why People For the American Way has launched the #HerFightOurFight campaign.
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Since 1987, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has celebrated Women’s History Month to recognize the role women entrepreneurs play in building and strengthening our local and national economies. Women have transformed the face of entrepreneurship across America in both urban and ru…
It is time for a maximum push for a new minimum wage.
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Over the past year, COVID-19 and its variants have plagued the globe taking lives and interrupting normal activities in virtually all areas of life. For Black America, already plagued with steep health, income and wealth disparities, coping with the pandemic has been even more painful.
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Ghana has always been dubbed the “Gateway to Africa,” and rightly so. From its geographical location on the West Coast to its warm greetings from the people, even down to the relatively low instances of civil wars, Ghana has always welcomed those who visit. For people of African descent in A…
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The dust has almost settled from our first experience with approval voting, and we now know that St. Louis Treasurer Tishaura Jones will face 20th Ward Alderwoman Cara Spencer on April 6th to determine the next Mayor of the City of St. Louis. Many people on social media have framed this race…
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March is Women’s History Month, and this month is the perfect time to lift the Black women’s organizations that make such an essential difference in our lives. Last year, both the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) and the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women (NA…
My college education put me on the path to a career I love, one I had not imagined when I graduated from high school over 30 years ago.
Regarding the response letter from City Counselor Michael Garvin to the request for immediate access by local organizations to the City Justice Center, including my St. Louis City Public Defender office, language matters and informs. Mr. Garvin’s expression that the City “will indulge” those…
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It’s election time. Some people equate elections with political power. I see elections as just one way political power shows up. The struggle for Black political power is not only about who we elect. It has also been about creating the conditions that guide people to stand up to social, econ…
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When the weight of systemic oppression becomes too much to bear: People rise up.
The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said that “unity, does not mean uniformity.” Ever since the mayor created a Corrections Task Force to respond to the circumstances that led to the three protests, organized in a matter of a few weeks apart, and culminating on February 6 by detainees a…
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After repeatedly having their requests for basic human decency ignored and being subjected to the hellish conditions that exist in the St. Louis City Justice Center, detainees justifiably said enough is enough.
A month into a tumultuous start of a new year, a new year following the most chaotic year in America that any living person can remember, I am seeing signs that the work in the streets and in our hospitals and at our voting booths, are saying even in states no one thought we would have captu…
When I first saw the images of three gaping openings at the City Justice Center, I saw them as possible escape routes. If I was one of the detainees who knocked out the windows on Feb. 6 in protest of conditions, I think I would’ve jumped for safety and supported the demands from an unknown…
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America has only made one unique cultural contribution to the world, that’s jazz. Jazz is to America what democracy is to Greece.
Nobody needs to tell Black Americans that progress toward an inclusive democracy is often met with brutal resistance. We’ve learned the hard way that we can’t “let nobody turn us ‘round.” And right now, we need to send that message to the people we put in power in the White House and Congress.
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As we reflect on the 55th NFL Super Bowl in Tampa, Florida, amid the continued national spread of the coronavirus, I believe that the time has come for the close-knit group of team owners in the National Football League to take the necessary steps to open the door to African American busine…
There’s a large bureaucracy that actually runs the city of St. Louis, the real job of the mayor is to decide where the city needs to go and determine the best way to get there, adjusting the course as required by circumstances.
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Introducing Missouri senator to a predecessor who stood for justice
As President Joe Biden begins his term of office, the nation and much of the world are waiting and watching to see how his promises become policies and practices that relieve long-term and widespread suffering.
As I watched the machinations of Donald Trump after losing, I thought about doing a column considering whether there are any limits of white privilege?
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After being attacked at the Arlo Hotel, Keyon Harrold Sr. asked, “when can a black man just be,”
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Jenna Ryan, a Texas real estate broker, took a private plane to Washington to participate with the mobsters and hoodlums who broke into the United States Capitol on Jan. 6.
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Forty-eight years ago, the Supreme Court recognized the fundamental freedom to abortion. But the promise of the Roe v. Wade decision has yet to be fully realized for so many. Black people, Latinx people, Indigenous people, people who are incarcerated, people who have immigrated, young people…
We celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day this year at a time when our nation has come to a fork in the road and the fate of our democracy depends on the path we take. Just 12 days removed from the insurrectionists’ attack on the Capitol that left six dead, and two days prior to the inaugurat…
I’ve often and very fondly referred to East St. Louis, in my columns, as “East Boogie” because of its 80-year history and reputation as the vibrant party central to the St. Louis and metro-east area, once populated by blocks of popular nightclubs, lounges and juke joints.
As we approach the eve of the MLK Birthday holiday these words from “A Tale of Two Cities,” Charles Dickens’ epic novel about the French Revolution came to mind: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times … it was a season of light, it was a season of darkness.”
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My friend Michael P. McMillan was a superb choice for The St. Louis American's 2020 Person of the Year. Though having Mike in St. Louis is like having Michael Jordan in the NBA – any year, he deserves the MVP Award. In 2020 Mike rose to our regional challenges as president and CEO of the Urb…
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Although a new year has begun, many American consumers and small businesses continue to feel a financial hangover from the challenges of 2020. As the global pandemic reveals a still-soaring American infection rate, the nation has also surpassed 350,000 related deaths, added more workers to t…
In recent days, we’ve seen the dying gasps of the Trump administration turn into tragic violence in Washington, D.C. There is much to say about that, and serious reckoning ahead when it comes to the causes and the solutions.
This past year has been a year to remember. The country endured the most openly corrupt and divisive administration in modern times. Our resilience and sanity was tested with the worst pandemic in 100 years. We discovered that our planet is deteriorating at a much faster rate than previously…
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One of the things that happens when you write an opinion column is when you get to the end of the year you write something about what were the most important events of that year, muse about what they meant and what they may mean for the new year. But I believe also when you’re writing in th…
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The current discussion on the proposed school closures hides the most fundamental truth we must address to build a school system that serves all children well: the St. Louis Public Schools are failing children, especially Black children.
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Since the coronavirus pandemic began, doctors, nurses and essential workers within the health care system have put their own lives at risk to care for others. Our collective gratitude goes out to each of them, and to all essential workers on the front lines of this global crisis.
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As we prepare to begin the year 2021, let us reflect on what this past year has meant. I am reminded of the words of the Apostle Paul, in his letter of perseverance to the Galatians: “Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up."
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Missouri made the Death Penalty Information Center’s 2020 annual report, and not in a good way. Missouri was one of five states — along with Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and Texas — that performed executions in 2020. Missouri also was the first state to execute someone during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis has been on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic, working to ensure the communities hardest hit by this deadly virus have some relief.
The response to news of Circuit Judge Thomas Clark II’s ruling was swift. Social media was a-blaze. The ruling to disqualify St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner from prosecuting the case of the gun-waving McCloskeys smacks of racism, white privilege and sexism.
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You never get the right answers when you ask the wrong questions, and you always ask the wrong questions when you don’t understand the problem.
Although the year 2020 has been dominated by continuing news coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic’s rising death toll that has now claimed the lives of nearly 300,000 Americans, it is not the only challenge facing the nation.
“Support for the majority-vote plan reinforced the moderate segregationist position. It did not remove anyone's right to cast a ballot, but it was commonly regarded as hampering African Americans — the stigmatized bloc voters — from making their votes count more effectively at the polls. In…
I can hardly believe this country refuses to take the pandemic seriously. The coronavirus is raging across this country with no slow-down in sight. With more than 14 million cases, and deaths barreling past the 300,000 mark, there’s still no national coordinated plan to contain the virus.
This week, just as the nation reached the tragic milestone of more than a quarter-million deaths from the coronavirus, the Centers for Disease Control revealed that Black, Latino, and Native American people are being hospitalized at nearly four times the rate of whites.
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A recent St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial listed some conditions that contribute to the high crime rate in some areas of St. Louis. These conditions include concentrated poverty, low performing schools, lack of jobs, lack of adequate city services.
