As has been said many times, in many places, the American people achieved the unthinkable in 2008 by electing an African American to lead this nation as its president and commander-in-chief of the most powerful military in the world. Though Barack Obama’s lineage is as European as it is African, he has self-identified as a black man, married a black American woman and is recognized throughout the world now as a compelling symbol of what black people can achieve: namely, anything.
Anything, it seems at this point, except field a viable challenger to a mediocre, disappointing, scandal-plagued mayor in the medium-sized Midwestern city of St. Louis. For all of its symbolic power, and despite its convincing nationwide victory, the Obama campaign was unable to gain sufficient voter response in black St. Louis. This is one reason Obama did not win here. His margin of defeat in Missouri was almost unbelievably tiny, but there is a word in politics for almost winning: that word is “losing.” And St. Louis will also be a loser if the same lack of political engagement by blacks allows Slay to run unchallenged in 2009.
In St. Louis we did see a qualified and impressive African-American man, Daniel Isom, promoted to chief of police in 2008, and we expect positive practical and symbolic benefits of his leadership. We do not, however, think the ascension of Chief Isom should encourage anyone to overlook the cowardly and divisive way that Mayor Francis G. Slay undermined Fire Chief Sherman George and finally promoted another black man, Charles Bryson, to demote him. We have not yet recovered from that historic and symbolic setback for qualified African-American leadership at the highest level in this city.
We also are not so naïve as to overlook the fact that forces other than his impressive qualifications are at play in Isom’s promotion. Isom was promoted at this precise moment in part because Slay and his fellow police commissioners know that a major federal investigation into the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department is ongoing. Having Isom at the helm during these stormy times, which are expected to get stormier before they calm down, serves as a diversionary tactic. Behind this able black man is an ugly fact: that the police board that oversees the police department policing this majority-black city has only one African-American member out of five n Julius Hunter, who has been mute about the particular concerns of the African-American community. Furthermore, on a board that is otherwise appointed by the governor, the city’s only elected representative is the disappointing mayor, who has earned little trust in our community.
We take great pride and have guarded optimism as our nation prepares to inaugurate Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States in these troubling times. But it is with grave concern that we ponder the caliber of our local political leadership, questioning who will emerge with the needed courage, vision and zeal for public service to help our city realize its considerable potential for inclusion and economic progress.