On Monday, February 24, the Peace Be Still coalition will hold two parallel marches in St. Louis and East St. Louis to kick off a week of advocacy for peace. Each march will be held on the city’s respective Martin Luther King Boulevard. Both marches will occur at night.
“A coalition of community-based organizations, churches, night club owners, barbers, rappers, singers, former gang members and drug deals have banded together to call for a week of peace,” they announced in a press release.
“Martin Luther King Boulevard was chosen because it bears the name of Dr. King, but it was also chosen because that’s where the gunshots are taking place,” said James Clark, vice president for Community Outreach at Better Family Life and one of the co-organizers of the marches.
“That’s where the heroin is being sold. That’s where our people who are trapped in addiction walk. It was chosen because it has all of the social ills present that we must stop ignoring. And we chose it to do it at night, because that’s going to take some bravery.”
As part of Black History Month, the coalition will reflect on Dr. King’s legacy through an “aggressive call” for nonviolence for the final week of February. Organizers are calling for individuals to embrace strategies for promoting peace, both internally and externally.
First, they request that people open each day with prayer and meditation. Then, they lay out guidelines for more peaceful interactions: speaking to people you pass, helping those in need each day, and avoiding arguments and debates. Finally, they suggest that participants “embrace heritage and accept current internal challenges.”
Clark is leading the effort with Marty K. Casey, actress and owner of the Show Me Arts Academy. Other organizations involved include Feed the Families Inc., iHeartRadio, the City of St. Louis, CrimeStoppers, the Spirit of St. Louis professional basketball team, and churches on both sides of the river.
“The larger vision here is to tie this call for peace into Black History Month,” said Clark.
He said that while the Civil Rights Movement addressed external challenges, the anti-violence movement he envisions is more geared towards addressing violence within the black community. These marches will be part of a larger effort to reflect on violence, Clark said – “what we do to each other and how we do not support each other. And we cannot leave that to another generation.”
Casey highlighted the importance of bringing together several sectors of the community to address violence.
“We understand that the only way we’re going to bring the community together is by coming together with all organizations, all hands on deck, at a table that’s big enough to include everyone,” she said. “It’s really about being inclusive.”
As the owner of an arts academy, Casey’s vision of that inclusivity requires that children be just as engaged as adults. This march, she believes, could teach young people the importance of mobilizing for a cause.
“I believe that’s something that has to be taught,” Casey said. “This would be a missed opportunity if we didn’t bring them to be a part of this march.”
One of those children, she said, is a nine-year-old gun violence survivor who will be speaking at the St. Louis march and receiving an award for his advocacy from Jefferson City.
“His mother was shot and killed in August 2016, [when] he was 5 years old,” Casey said. “His mother was shot and killed in front of him. This young man, now, has been an advocate for the community, and we need to know him, we need to support him, to stand up with him. We need to unify because of him.”
Clark and Casey hope to use these marches to galvanize people away from research and towards action.
“We’ve studied the crisis long enough. The root cause of crime and violence is poverty. That’s what 15 years of research has taught us,” Clark said.
“It would take five generations to address poverty, at least five generations. We don’t have five generations. But what we can do is, St. Louis can make a decision: we’re going to take a deep dive, we’re going to invest in the future in a substantial way. That’s where we are right now. We’re at a very critical crossroads.”
