The afternoon before the Jason Stockley verdict, as St. Louis was finalizing plans to police downtown protestors and Missouri Governor Eric Greitens was dispatching the National Guard to St. Louis, Forward Through Ferguson and community nonprofits were meeting with the equity think tank PolicyLink. The agenda: to discuss how to make the Ferguson Commission report recommendations a reality.
It has been two years since the Ferguson Commission released its report “Forward through Ferguson,” following months of public input, expert discussion and evidence-based study. The report made a number of recommendations to reduce racial inequity in the St. Louis region.
Facilitator Rebecca Bennett, of Emerging Wisdom, welcomed participants of the September 14 discussion and framed the context of the “radical collaboration” as they delved into policy systems change work.
David Dwight, strategy catalyst, and Charli Cooksey, interim lead catalyst of Forward Through Ferguson, began with a slide presentation of demographic disparities and systems inequity in St. Louis, brought into national focus by the 2014 Ferguson Police killing of unarmed teenager Michael Brown.
“Racial inequity hurts all of us,” Dwight said, as he cited data from the University of Missouri St. Louis.
“The St. Louis region leaves almost $14 billion on the table of our regional economy because of gaps in income by race,” he said. “Just imagine if you also were to look at gaps in education, in housing, in a variety of sectors and see how that is hurting us as a region.”
Forward Through Ferguson is working on a shared regional vision, St. Louis 2039, which marks 25 years after the Michael Brown killing.
“Why 2039? Researchers and foundations have found that it takes a generation for a region to see transformative change aligned to equity,” Cooksey said. “Also, this long-term vision powers us to innovate; we’re not hindered by who we are today and circumstances that are challenging us right now.”
Participants used postcards to share their visions of how to get to St. Louis 2039 – a racially equitable St. Louis. Forward Through Ferguson is planning a launch event in the Spring of 2018 to reveal a regional action plan involving three strategies – sustainability, policy and systems change, and racial equity capacity, to work on over the next three years.
The goal, Dwight said, is simple: “to realize racial equity.”
Their effort will include feedback of community members and resources available as a Promise Zone; looking at boards and tables and commitments toward policies; identifying areas where there might not be existing momentum for Ferguson Commission-identified areas that are essential to racial equity; and meeting with existing partners, stakeholders or public officials across the region to get them engaged.
“When I talk about equity, we’re talking about just and fair inclusion into a society which all can participate, prosper and reach their full potential,” said Michael McAfee, president at Oakland, California-based PolicyLink. “And we lead with racial equity because we believe if you can get beyond the issue of blackness in America, communities will stop being so toxic for everyone.”
McAfee said leaders in organizations must decide if this change work is really what they want to do, and if so, pick one or two areas to focus on.
McAfee commended the wide range of vocations, ages, races and ethnicities represented in the room. Some of the grass root organizations, nonprofits and foundations at the discussion were the St. Louis Regional Health Commission, AHEC, Ready by 21, Integrated Health Network, St. Louis Mental Health Board, City Gardens Montessori School, Brown School at Washington University, For the Sake of All, Alive and Well St. Louis, St. Louis Community Foundation, Fox Foundation, Missouri Jobs with Justice, Crossroads, Beyond Housing, Youth in Need, University of Missouri St. Louis Extension and East Side Aligned.
McAfee said these same conversations about equity are taking place in cities all over the country; however, some are struggling just to get groups to come together to talk about issues of race, justice and equality. He said the St. Louis region has the opportunity to take the lead in addressing these issues.
“The issue of Ferguson is the issue all over the country,” McAfee said. “You all are sitting at the epicenter of being able to do some things that you can’t do in other places. Coming from here, that Midwest sensibility, that ability to talk across lines, the ability to be able to bridge the gap between black and white is the unresolved business that we can show the nation how to do.”
McAfee reminded the audience that state governments can preempt the ability to make progress locally. State lawmakers reverting St. Louis’ minimum wage increase came to the minds of some in attendance.
“In many cases, states have found out ways to be even more oppressive when cities wake up: ‘We’re going to do it at the state level, so we can control and crush,’” McAfee said.
When asked for an example of a place that has successfully made equity changes, McAfee said the California Alliance for Men and Boys of Color.
He said they look “at every bill through a racial equity lens” and decide what to take up and what to fight against, then mobilize people to push for their agenda. In six years, he said, they’ve passed over 50 bills that have been signed into law “that specifically focus on stopping some oppressive behaviors related to black and brown kids disproportionately.”
Ferguson Commission report has 189 policy calls-to-action to bring about racial equity. For more information, or to read the complete report, visit ForwardThroughFerguson.org.
