Now that Anthony Cage is, at least momentarily, famous – his bloodied face outside the Donald Trump campaign rally in St. Louis on March 11 has gone around the world and appeared on the cover of the New York Daily News – he has the same message that he was sharing at the rally.
“Trumpism must be stopped in its tracks,” Cage, 50, told The St. Louis American. “It’s 2016, not 1916. We just elected our first black president. How can we elect Trump, a man who preaches hatred?”
Cage contacted The American, at the suggestion of his friend and mentor Brother Anthony Shahid, because he wanted people to know that his protest at the Trump rally was non-violent. “At times we got loud and boisterous, but we voiced our displeasure peacefully,” Cage said. “We were practicing our constitutional freedoms of speech and assembly.”
He said his assailant “sucker punched” him without provocation. This happened just after Trump, whose speech from inside the Peabody Opera House was being broadcast to the overflow crowd on the steps and sidewalk, said “something over the mic that got his supporters excited,” Cage said.
“I was just standing still,” Cage said. “Somebody tapped me on the shoulder, and when I turned he sucker punched me. Of course, I tried to defend myself. We were on the ground when I was tackled by law enforcement.”
Cage said he was handcuffed, told he was under arrest for assault and then placed in an ambulance, before the police were told by witnesses that he was the victim.
“People were telling police they had the wrong person, that I got attacked,” Cage said. “That same individual had been agitating three or four different fights.”
The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department said the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office issued warrants for Shawn Morehead, a 54-year old male of the 8400 block of N. Broadway, for Assault 3rd Degree on a Law Enforcement Officer and Resisting Arrest.
However, when Cage saw Morehead’s mugshot, he said that was not his assailant. A photograph of his assailant tweeted by journalist Sarah Kendzior has been shared with police and prosecutors.
Interestingly, given Cage’s claim that his assailant was “agitating” the crowd – that he was an agitator – the apparent Trump supporter who assaulted Cage is a black man.
Cage declined ambulance service and was taken by friends to Christian Hospital, where doctors told him his nose was severely bruised but not broken. His mouth was swollen, but no teeth were chipped. He said he is still sore, though mostly from being pounced on by police officers.
“The police officers did not beat me up,” Cage said. “I have seen some people say that. That is not true. The only thing the police officers did that was unnecessary is one put his knee on my neck when I was already subdued and not resisting. That was excessive force.”
The Trump rally protest was not Cage’s first rodeo, though it was his first experience of violence at a protest. He said he moved to Ferguson shortly after the police killing of Michael Brown Jr. (after 14 years in neighboring Dellwood) and participated regularly in Ferguson protests.
“Though never anything violent,” Cage said. “And I would never loot.”
He most recently appeared in The American peacefully protesting the Ferguson City Council. He held up a “Stop the Karr-uption” sign at a February 2 meeting, punning on the name of Stephanie Karr. Karr is Ferguson’s contract attorney from the Clayton firm of Curtis, Heinz, Garrett, and O’Keefe, which has contracts with more than a dozen St. Louis County municipalities. Cage said he became aware of her role in Ferguson through reading The American.
Cage said he first organized a protest in the mid-1990s. At the time he said he was working at Value City Furniture when the store manager mocked the idea of interviewing any black staff for a promotion before promoting a white colleague with less experience. Cage said he got nine workers to protest with him on weekends before the store manager resigned and an African American was hired to replace him.
Since then, Cage has been active with the United African Peoples Organization. With that group, he said, he has protested at countless job sites where they noticed a lack of minority participation in the work force. He said he participated in the 1999 shutdown of I-70 over minority inclusion issues.
“I’ve been out here awhile,” Cage said. “Just nobody ever heard of me.”
That is, until now. And now he is prepared to make the most of his moment in the spotlight.
“My face is postered all over America,” Cage said. “I am the new poster child for ‘Stop Trumpism in Its Tracks.’ I have no doubt that if Trump is elected he will throw this country back 200 years.”
Cage wanted to make it clear that he is a voice for unity. He said he wore black and white to the Trump protest to symbolize the unity of blacks and whites in America. “I preach righteousness and togetherness,” he said. His home church is Mt. Airy Missionary Baptist Church, where the pastor is Rev. Darnell Jones.
Cage already has been internet-famous long enough to see the trolls come after him and claim that he is a jobless hoodlum. In fact, he said his worst past offense is a traffic ticket, and he holds two jobs. He is a coordinator for the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis’ Save Our Sons program, and he cleans offices at night.
He is the proud, single parent of five children, ages 11 to 28. He said his four older children all graduated from high school, have jobs, are registered voters and vote regularly.
Cage himself is a registered, regular voter. He visited The American on Super Tuesday, proudly wearing not one but two “I Voted” stickers (though he only voted once). He declined to say who got his vote.
“I am a Democrat,” Cage said. “I do like Bernie Sanders, and I do like Hillary Clinton. I’d like for them to be the ticket.”
