About a decade ago, a headline in the St. Louis Business Journal caught my eye: “Mayor Slay needs to build new racial bridges in city.” Dave Drebes, a young, white professional, was the author.
I first met Dave back in the late 1990s when he was active in the group Metropolis and St. Louis had its first black mayor, Freeman Bosley Jr. Back then Metropolis was a racially diverse group of young, optimistic and enthusiastic cheerleaders for city life.
It rebuked the class-veiled question of where you went to high school and took on social and political issues that tackled the obstacles to attracting and retaining young people who were leaving St. Louis at a rate higher than the national average. Their motto was “The city is back. Back the city.”
As I re-read my saved copy of that 2004 article, I thought about two things: whether Mayor Slay was aggressively giving leadership to racial bridge-building and if young people were still leaving the city because of its antiquated worldview that stifles racial equality and youthful innovation.
St. Louis has often ended up on the list of the most segregated cities. And while those are tallied mainly on the housing patterns, the impact goes far beyond housing. It touches schools, media, crime, city services, social and cultural activities as well as employment. They are symptomatic of racism and the attitudes, policies and practices that emanate from it.
I maintain that the two white mayors who’ve served the longest have not only missed opportunities to show leadership in a city where there’s literally a racial divide (see the BBC’s “Delmar Divide” documentary), but who have been active participants in perpetuating the persistent racial divisions on several levels.
Protecting and preserving white supremacy doesn’t have to come by way of hooded men burning crosses. In 2014 the penchant for preservation of the white status quo is the same, it just manifests itself in more subtle and sophisticated ways. The outcome is the same: separate and unequal.
The Business Journal article gave several examples of this lackluster leadership. When the 2000 U.S. Census showed an increase in the city’s African-American population, Mayor Slay’s 2001 redistricting map reduced the number of black wards to 12 and added another white ward for a grand total of 16 white alderpeople to maintain a hearty white majority. Drebes cited the mayor’s firing of Percy Green as the head of contract compliance, his attack on public education and the abuse of police as other factors that fueled racial mistrust.
Drebes’ advice to Slay was to “step out of his South Side shell” and find ways to lead “St. Louis out of its pattern of racial politics.”
Instead, the mayor went on to demote Fire Chief Sherman George, the first African-American fire chief, to run interference with police local control, to help bring in the demolition team of Marsal and Alvarez that brought our school district to its knees and the list goes on and on.
It’s the kind of plantation politics that progressives of any race find backward and repulsive. Keeping fresh, talented city dwellers who want to work in a city with a robust economy and a participatory democracy continues to be a challenge.
As to whether we are still losing bright, young, city dwellers, the answer is a resounding “yes!” That demographic is a part of the overall continued exodus from the city that has been happening for decades.
As we celebrate the 250th birthday of St. Louis, there needs to be benchmarks for the next five, 10, 15, 20 years with a transformational goal of developing a city that’s financially viable and racially inclusive. As Drebes said, let’s lay a real foundation for racial understanding and honest power sharing.
