For consumers, businesses, organizations and governments alike, annual budgets typically reflect not only line items but priorities as well. As A. Philip Randolph reminded us more than 50 years ago with the release of the “Freedom Budget”, such documents reflect the morals of our nation. Esp…
I have been involved in politics or civil rights since 1963.
I first met Alderman Sam Moore in 2007, when I was a freshman building preservationist tilting at windmills as much to learn how to tilt as to strike the windmills. Moore had just taken office and had pressed the city’s Land Reutilization Authority to demolish some 39 vacant historic buildin…
I admire St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner’s strategic moves to turn the tables on a cadre of powerful, well connected individuals she believes are complicit in a coordinated, racist conspiracy aimed at forcing her out of office.
According to the Thursday, February 13, edition of the Monitor, East St. Louis Superintendent Arthur Culver said, “We expect our teams to conduct themselves in a manner that will protect the safety of athletes, officials, coaches, and spectators at sporting events. We regret that our cheerle…
Should student leaders receive harsher punishment over acts of youthful indiscretion, while officials and politicians receive mere slaps on the wrists or awards for their alleged actions or actual convictions? That question arose from what has become a local high school altercation gone wron…
Barack and Michelle Obama are the most beloved couple that has ever graced the White House. The character, honor, and discipline of Barack Obama is beyond reproach. Michelle's status as a first lady is also above reproach, as shown by her grace, intelligence and character as a wife, mother…
Since 1976, every American president has issued a proclamation making February a month of celebrating the amazing contributions African-American men and women have made to our nation’s landscape. As the first black woman to be appointed district director for the Small Business Administratio…
Once again, the White House Budget Proposal slashes funding and programs that many low- and -moderate income consumers rely upon.
Throughout my political career, I have believed in second chances. I believe that people can change. I believe that your past shouldn’t get to define you.
The recent acquittal of President Trump by the U.S. Senate has paved the way for an expansion of his anti-immigrant policy agenda.
As Missouri’s legislative session opens, this is a great time to discuss closing the pay gap, a public policy issue deserving urgent attention. Also known as Equal Pay for Equal Work, it addresses the fact that men, particularly non-Latino white men, make more money than women doing the same…
Should student leaders receive harsher punishment over acts of youthful indiscretion, while officials and politicians receive mere slaps on the wrists or awards for their alleged actions or actual convictions? That question arose from what has become a local high school altercation gone wron…
The recent acquittal of President Trump by the U.S. Senate has paved the way for an expansion of his anti-immigrant policy agenda.
This open letter was submitted by the undersigned 31 residents of St. Louis County.
I cast my first presidential vote in 1972, and I’ve never not voted. I’ve never consider voting for a Republican as a matter of principle: we believe completely different things about the role and purpose of government in civil society. It doesn’t mean we can’t coexist, as long as I have eno…
Once upon a time in Washington, Congress enacted the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act that also created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). For the first time, a federal agency was charged to be the consumers’ financial cop on the beat. In its first four years, CFPB received 35…
When I was accepted to medical school coming out of Tennessee State University I knew very little about the long, arduous process ahead of me. Much like the community of HBCU collegiate faculty, family members, friends, and folks from my church home who were invaluable cheerleaders along my…
There are two questions for me to answer as a juror in the impeachment trial of President Donald J. Trump: whether President Trump is guilty of abusing his power as president for his own political gain and whether he obstructed Congress in their investigation of him.
In 1998, the women’s unit of the Organization for Black Struggle read a piece by feminist bell hooks as part of our political education session. It totally changed our outlook about being black women. Inspired, we named ourselves Sistahs Talkin’ Back. I’ve been thinking about hook’s “Talking…
In 2020, much of the hard-won rights championed by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. are under attack by the very governments charged to enforce both laws and regulations. Especially for Black America, rollbacks of much-needed programs jeopardize access to basic life needs such as nutrition, safe w…
A city divided. Tear gas. Flamethrowers. Angry faces screaming from crowds. Hate-filled, pain-filled marches. Suffering. All accumulating into one, unforgettable summer of hate.
This was not an exoneration, it was a spineless perpetuation of a dangerous cover-up. Republicans in the U.S. Senate turned a blind eye to the facts, refused to allow witnesses and documents that would have uncovered the whole truth, and surrendered congressional oversight to an amoral presi…
In the last election, voters in every state senate district approved Amendment 1 – also known as Clean Missouri – to increase fairness, accountability, integrity and transparency in Missouri politics. Thanks to Clean Missouri, our state constitution now includes nonpartisan redistricting ref…
I must have been 14 years old when I was arrested for shoplifting in the St. Louis Galleria Mall. I was a young boy from North St. Louis, we were poor and I wanted to have what other kids had. The encounter with police was terrifying, but what I remember most clearly are the judge’s words: “…
Political leaders who trade in falsification and distortions seem to ignore the fact that lying to the people they serve or deceiving others is wrong. So I wonder why U.S. Senators Roy Blunt and Joshua Hawley (R-Missouri) are so vigorously defending President Donald J. Trump despite the over…
We have a short-sided view of funding important functions provided by our state. It has been my lifelong experience that no one likes to pay taxes and more often than not feel that they are over-paying and that others pay too little. I have tried to listen to as many points of view as possib…
Nearly 52 years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. marched with striking sanitation workers in Memphis, who were demanding higher pay, safe working conditions and the right to a union. “It’s a crime in a rich nation for people to receive starvation wages,” he said. Those were Dr. King’s final d…
With the recent news of the release of the Close the Workhouse campaign’s 2.0 report, City Resolution 205, and growing public official support, I wanted to voice why this needs to happen and share my first-hand account.
In the early 1970s Detroit elected Coleman Young, its first black mayor. In an effort to diversify the disproportionately white Detroit Police Department, Mayor Young passed a residency requirement. A residency requirement makes it so those applying to work in the city must reside in the cit…
The resolution of issues like school closings typically starts with some type of branding campaign complete with, slogans, comforting language which conveys compassion and leadership, as well as the closures being labeled as the soundest financial decision. With respect to Saint Louis Public…
In the last election, voters in every state senate district approved Amendment 1 – also known as Clean Missouri – to increase fairness, accountability, integrity and transparency in Missouri politics. Thanks to Clean Missouri, our state constitution now includes nonpartisan redistricting ref…
As a body of men and women of color employed as criminal justice practitioners, the members and Board of Directors of the National Association of Black Law Enforcement Officers have, since their inception, consistently taken an active stance against police brutality, racially discriminatory …
I began my governmental career in March 1977 when then St. Louis Mayor John Poelker appointed me to the Community Development Agency Commission. I was 28 years old. My governmental service officially ended January 27, 2020 when Missouri Governor Mike Parson appointed Pamela Westbrooks-Hodge …
Two important federal financial regulators are planning how the future financial needs of low-and-moderate income (LMI) communities will be met. In an effort to “modernize” the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) on December 12 the board of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) …
In 2006, George Alvarez was charged with assaulting a prison guard while awaiting trial on public intoxication. He knew he didn’t do it — the guards actually jumped him — but the 10-year mandatory minimum sentence at trial scared him so much that he pled guilty. Little did he know that the g…
The Bible reveals to us, in Proverbs 22:1, that “a good name is more desirable than great riches.” That’s a lesson the East St. Louis Township Supervisor Alvin Parks is learning the hard way.
“The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy,” said Martin Luther King Jr. “Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. T…
The 2020 census is this year’s most empowering and democratic event for the United States.
I recently moved to St. Louis (in June 2019) after graduating from Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta. I was shocked at how prevalent the disparities in the region were. Many of my peers had a hard time believing what I was being exposed to. So I created a video as a way to display the …
What happens in the world has as much impact on African Americans as everyone else, yet there has always been an African-American school of thought that says foreign affairs is white folks’ business and we put our agenda at risk when we engage on that issue. Nothing could be more wrong.
On August 19, 1979, I woke up at my home across the street from Homer G. Phillips Hospital to helicopters flying overhead. To my surprise, the St. Louis Police Department had surrounded the hospital. The streets of The Ville neighborhood were barricaded for four blocks in every direction. Ph…
“When the United States uses military force, the American people and members of the United States Armed Forces deserve a credible explanation regarding such use of military force. The War Powers Resolution requires the President to consult with Congress ‘’in every possible instance’’ before …
Spoken on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives in support of H.Con.Res 83, a War Powers Resolution he co-cosponsored, limiting the president’s military actions regarding Iran.
The world we exist in today is a sad reminder of what the prediction was of “rumors of war" in Matthew 24:6: “And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.”
For the last several months the columns I’ve written have had something to with the 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary, and I’d now like to bring some closure to at least this part of that process. I referred to this part of process like preseason NFL football: it has nothing to do with wh…
A new year is supposed to usher in hope and new possibilities. Sadly, there is little in the St. Louis region’s history that exudes the promise of change. I am the eternal optimist only because I put my faith in everyday people, not the corrupt and incompetent people who thrive off power and…
Retired Congressman William L. “Bill” Clay submitted this piece in response to news reports that developer Paul McKee Jr. plans to use the name “Homer G. Phillips Hospital” for a new, small urgent-care clinic. “It is apparent that many in the St. Louis community are unfamiliar with the histo…
Thirty-seven-year-old former South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg is an openly gay military veteran, Harvard graduate and Rhodes Scholar who speaks eight languages. He has gained attention as the youngest amidst the current slate of Democratic candidates. But it’s his ongoing struggle to…
Like many years, 2019 was one of challenges and hope for St. Louis and our nation.
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