Recently, I’ve had the honor and the pleasure of being in the lives of 90-ish year-old Black women. We’re all related by blood. Three of the women are biologically related; the others share the ancient blood of an African people running through our veins. What I’m learning about their lives and their views about life would be difficult to put into a classroom curriculum. You have to experience them in the environments unique to them. I’ve witnessed the 95-year-old St. Louis American in a similar light.
At 95 years young, it’s hard not to take The American for granted. For some, it’s the only newspaper they’ve ever known, and for many, it’s the only newspaper they truly trust. We all must do our part to ensure that The St. Louis American will be here for generations to come…
I’ve learned—and continue to learn- much about life from the stories of my aunts and mother. One aunt lived to be 101 years old. The other matriarchs’ stories are being captured through the Phoenix Project, an intergenerational project that will scarcely scratch the surface of their remarkable journeys.
I see The St. Louis American newspaper as multiple, interlocking entities united to create a rare and unparalleled role for itself: to tell the story of the African-American community. This is both simple and complicated. This means multiple stories from a diverse group of people living in different spaces with similar challenges. Challenges exist like racism, like economic inequalities, like health disparities, like being treated as sub-humans.
The extraordinary lens the newspaper has developed of the community takes in the glory, the pain, the humor and the progress. It is a process much like plant photogenesis in that it takes a story–whether words or images—then puts more light and energy into it to project the sharpest, fullest version of the original.
When you read an edition of The St. Louis American, you’ll know who got a promotion. You’ll know what elected official had a misstep or which one got stepped on. You’ll know what our health issues are and how to address them (right now, we’re obese). You’ll know who’s showing off their baby bump; you may not be interested, but other readers are.
There’s so much packed into each edition. We’ll know what concert is coming to town. We’ll know how governmental policies are impacting our families. We’ll find out whose memorial service is coming up. We’ll be informed of the newest Black business to support. We’ll celebrate the achievements of our young people. And we get to read the rebuttal from someone the newspaper targeted.
It’s all there—in every issue for the last 95 years.
The role of the Black Press is more important today than it was in 1827 when visionaries created Freedom’s Journal, the first publication designed exclusively for and about Black folks – “to plead our own cause” because for “too long others have spoken for us.”
The commitment of the remaining Black Press is steadfast. It is to inform, challenge, expose, defend, advocate, document, analyze and inspire. Its awesome responsibility is to unapologetically lift up our struggles and triumphs. The American has definitely pled our cause and spoken for us.
At 95 years young, it’s hard not to take The American for granted. For some, it’s the only newspaper they’ve ever known, and for many, it’s the only newspaper they truly trust. We all must do our part to ensure that The St. Louis American will be here for generations to come, helping us to weather the storms and to celebrate our many realities.
See the entire St. Louis American’s 95th Anniversary Special section.