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…

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.

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. 

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.

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."

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.

“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…

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.

Few people love the Electoral College. For good reason: it is a relic of Union governance acquiescing to Confederate demands and originally designed to squash any hint of Black electoral influence.However, in this recent 2020 election, it was the Black vote that dominated the Electoral Colle…

Yes, that's right!  The 2020 Presidential election has not yet ended!Why do we say that?  Because the Georgia Senate runoff contest is still underway -- two seats are at stake and voters must make their voices heard!The runoff process can disenfranchise traditionally underrepresented communi…

In a local clinical pastoral education program, I experienced the director as racially insensitive. She talked about how if she were an African American mother and had an African American son, she wouldn’t know how to deal with what was happening today.

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris made a brilliant choice in opening her remarks at the Democratic presidential ticket’s victory celebration with a quote from civil rights icon and former Georgia congressman John Lewis: “Democracy is not a state. It is an act.” 

Growing up in Lomé, the capital city of the Togolese Republic in West Africa, we voted for a president. The incumbent, who was always Eyadema, always had an opponent. Eyadema always won, and his opponent always lost. Eyadema always declared victory before the votes were all counted. 

As the year nears an end and a new year prepares to begin, this is a time to pause and reflect. November is Native American Heritage Month, a time to reflect on the God-given rights we have, those we must protect and the voices of our ancestors. Each presidential election cycle happening the…

"You know what/ They don't have enough voter suppression tactics to stop this movement,” said Keith Mayes, professor of African American studies and African American history at the University of Minnesota.

Pot Bangerz activist chefs, Cathy "Mama Cat" Daniels and Tim Costello, toast the Biden/Harris victory and chill on the riverfront in downtown St. Louis on Saturday, November 7, 2020.

After four exhausting years of President Donald Trump and four excruciating days of vote counting, the election was called for President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on Saturday. Hallelujah!

As a non-partisan organization, the National Urban League does not endorse political candidates or encourage voters to choose one candidate over another. As a historic civil rights organization devoted to economic and social justice for African Americans, we have an obligation to combat raci…

As Dushanne Stokes said, “When dealing in lies listen more to what is not said than what is said.” For Missouri voters like myself, that’s exactly what we need to do when we vote on Amendment 3.

“We have to accept that foreign powers seize upon these divisions because they are real — because racism remains the United States’ Achilles’ heel. Indeed, it is, and always has been, a national security vulnerability — a fundamental and easily exploitable reality of American life that belie…

In a few short days, this election will be over. In a few short days, the hard work of two long years will draw to a close, and the United States will decide what we want the next two, or four, or 10 years to be like. It’s been said countless times before, but that’s because it’s true: this …

Joining the governance board of a local nonprofit can be one of the best ways to make a significant impact in our community. Although it’s been more than a decade ago, I recall my first board experience like it was only yesterday.

“The Supreme Court doesn’t have an army, and it has no power of the purse. Its power comes from the fact that the public accepts its decisions, even when it disagrees with them. The Supreme Court has of course always been a political institution, but if it’s going to retain its public legiti…

Last week, I woke up laser-focused on introducing a new workout routine into my day. As a busy leader with minimal down time, I knew I had to quickly craft a step-by-step action plan to ensure my workout goals would be achieved. So that is exactly what I did.

It is very unfortunate that President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump have contracted the coronavirus. It caused panic among White House aides, politicians, and others who have had close contact with President Trump and his aide Hope Hicks recently who also contracted the virus. Th…

“Yet the harsh fact is that in many places in this country men and women are kept from voting simply because they are Negroes. Every device of which human ingenuity is capable has been used to deny this right,” President Lyndon Baines Johnson said in 1965.

On a typical October day, my evening might include late meetings at the office, dinner at a local restaurant with my husband, then catching up on the latest news. But, like many of you, the past six months have only offered occasional use of words like “typical” or “normal.” Our routines hav…

I am an avid basketball enthusiast. Like so many people, each night, I am glued to the t.v. set watching the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Eastern and Western conference playoffs. In a few days I will be also watching the Finals.

“The rallying cries that have been echoing throughout the nation have been once again ignored by a justice system that claims to serve the people,” said Benjamin Crump, attorney representing Breonna Taylor’s family.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Sitting here staring at the image of 16th Street in Washington D.C., I can only view it with pride. The reason is because I am hoping that the events of the last couple of months, along with these words leading right up to the White House, is an indicator of future systemi…

Late Sunday afternoon in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Jacob Blake was the victim of another disgusting act of police brutality. Within full view of his three children seated in the backseat, Blake was shot seven times in the back while walking away from police officers and opening his car door.

This week, the Republican National Convention convened and devolved into a series of scare tactics meant to rile up President Trump’s base and be so outrageous that the rest of the country looks away from his and other Republican officials’, like Governor Mike Parson’s, disastrous, bumbling,…

We are a group of Brown School students writing to express our concern about the planned return to campus. Although we all wish that we could safely return to campus, we believe it is in the best interest of the students and the St. Louis community for the Brown School and Washington Univers…

We need Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to condemn the armed militias that killed two people in Kenosha yesterday while working in tandem with local police. These militias are domestic terrorists looking to incite a race war. “Protecting private property” is just cover for their agenda.

Many of us have had to either delay or completely forgo our summer vacations. Instead of suffering from cabin fever, as St. Louisans, we are fortunate to have many things to re-explore responsibly from our restaurants to our hotels to attractions and more. I have so many favorites in St. Lou…

Aristotle often linked the politician to a craftsman. The analogy is vague because politics, in the strict sense of legislative science, is a practice of practical knowledge, while a craft like architecture or medicine is a form of productive knowledge. 

Since George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis Police officer on May 25, school districts across the United States have taken decisive action to protect the wellbeing of their students by cutting ties with local police departments. 

In the middle of a pandemic, the so-called leaders who are supposed to guide us through this deadly virus – one that is disproportionately infecting and killing Black Americans, capitalizing on years of systemic inequalities – are spending their time trying to lock up kids, attacking Black p…

Since we are facing a rise in the COVID-19 virus in the St. Louis and Metro East areas, we need to follow health experts’ recommendations. These include wearing face masks, maintaining social distance (remaining 6 feet apart), and washing our hands frequently.

One hundred years after the 19th Amendment granted women the right to vote, we have an opportunity to not only look back at the stories of the suffrage movement, but to contextualize that history, re-examine it, and connect it to the lives of women today. 

I am from St. Louis, 15 years old and a sophomore attending Riverview Gardens High School. Learning about our African culture is my passion for my future. Triumphs and tragedies that are going around in my environment play a big part in me. 

When the Continental Congress appointed Benjamin Franklin as the first Postmaster General, our nation had not yet been founded. The Bill of Rights would not be drafted for another 16 years. Yet nearly two and a half centuries later, the United States Postal Service’s ability to provide every…