Like a “phoenix rising from the ashes,” the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis and the Salvation Army opened the Ferguson Community Empowerment Center on Wednesday, July 26 at the site of the burnt-out QuikTrip convenience store, which became a symbol of racial unrest after a Ferguson Police officer killed an unarmed black teenager in August 2014.
The grand opening also kicked off the 2017 National Urban League Conference, which is being held in St. Louis on July 26 to 29 with a record-high attendance of about 4,000. Kitty Radcliffe, president of Explore St. Louis, expects new local expenditures from the conference to top $7 million.
“We have come to St. Louis because we want to shine a bright light on how many of you are working and have worked every day for the past three years to convert anger into action,” Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League, said at the grand opening. “To take the tragedy that occurred and, from that tragedy, try to shape a new beginning for this community – many cities, big and small, across America I hope take note.”
The old QuikTrip was looted, burned and spray-painted with “R.I.P. Mike Brown” during the unrest following Michael Brown Jr.’s shooting death by then-Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson on August 9, 2014. The QuikTrip Corporation remediated the site and then donated the property, at 9420 W. Florissant Ave., to the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis.
“This is a historic moment,” said Michael McMillan, president and CEO of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis.
The Urban League co-owns the building – a two-story, 13,500-square-foot facility – with the Salvation Army, and both will offer services out of the center.
The new facility will house the Urban League’s Save Our Sons workforce development program, which provides job training and placement services for African Americans and other young men in Ferguson and North St. Louis County.
The Salvation Army will provide help with after-school tutoring, financial assistance for rent and utilities, and emotional and spiritual care for individuals reentering society after incarceration. Its Pathway to Hope program, which helps families break free of poverty, will also be offered at the center.
“Together we’re responding to racial inequality and human distress experienced not only in Ferguson but across our nation,” Commissioner F. Bradford Bailey of the Salvation Army said at the event. “The center is a gathering place, dedicated to listening to people where we can learn and act together.”
In addition to the Salvation Army, the center also will have offices for Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and University of Missouri-Extension. Provident and Better Family Life plan to hold community events and offer resources there occasionally.
“He decided to think big with partners and friends – not alone.” –Marc Morial, on Michael McMillan’s leadership to create the Ferguson Community Empowerment Center
The construction project employed a historic number of minorities with about 75 percent of both the workforce and business contracts on the nearly $4 million project, according to Kwame Building Group, an employee-owned local company that was the construction management group. Simms Building Group was the main contractor on the project, and most of the subcontractors were small businesses.
“Michael McMillan began as president just as the Ferguson uprising began and that’s a daunting challenge – especially coming on the heels of a great legend, James Buford – to take over this strong affiliate under those circumstances,” Morial said. “Michael moved immediately with a vision that said, ‘Let us address many of these underlying challenges our community faces.’ He decided to think big with partners and friends – not alone.”
Michael F. Neidorff, president and CEO of Centene Corporation and board chair of the National Urban League, said Ferguson became a national symbol of systematic racism and social injustice in 2014.
“Unfortunately, what happened in Ferguson could happen to any number of communities across this nation,” said Neidorff, who also is co-chair of the 2017 conference in St. Louis. “While we recognize solutions to systemic issues, unfortunately, take time, we do believe that we have taken meaningful strides to begin to overcome the issues endemic to the problem.”
For more information about the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis and its programs, visit https://www.ulstl.com/ or call 314-615-3600.
