Activist and attorney Eric Vickers passed away yesterday (Friday, April 13). He was a constant frontline soldier in the struggle for civil rights and equity in the region. Vickers was among those involved in a 1999 morning rush hour shutdown of I-70 that resulted in more than 100 arrests. Participants of that protest included The Rev. Al Sharpton.
Vickers returned to that same highway 15 years later in 2014 to protest the death of Michael Brown, one month after the unarmed teen was killed in Ferguson on August 9. Brown’s death led to months of nonstop unrest in the region and sparked a global conversation on the broken relationship between blacks and law enforcement.
“His death has sparked a movement to change the oppressive conditions under which black youth live, including being targeted by the police,” Vickers said at a press conference for the protest a few days before the action.
He was then speaking as a member of the Justice for Michael Brown Leadership Coalition.
“I think we all have an obligation to play a role in this movement,” Vickers said.
Vickers movement work stretched decades.
As an attorney, he represented St. Louis Minority Contractors in the 1990 federal lawsuit that resulted in the 1990 consent decree that required 25 percent of all city contracts be awarded to minority-owned businesses and 5 percent to women-owned businesses.
He also served as Chief of Staff for State Senator Jamilah Nasheed.
“Eric Vickers was a catalyst for change. He was an activist, getting involved in protest and politics at an early age. He knew the world could be a better place if only we’d fight for it,” Nasheed said in a statement. “And that’s what he did his entire life. From the streets of St. Louis to Wall Street, he fought for minorities, women, the underprivileged and the voiceless. He was firm in his beliefs, but he also understood the value of compromise and working together for the greater good. He had a true heart of an activist.”
Vickers was a regular contributor to The St. Louis American, where he often spoke on inclusion, equity, race, politics and activism.
“Historically, African Americans dominated many of the skilled construction trades, as it has been estimated that prior to Reconstruction, 100,000 of the 120,000 skilled construction workers in the South were black,” Vickers wrote in a 2005 commentary entitled, “The spirit of Rosa Parks and the illusion of inclusion.” A 2001 disparity study conducted on St. Louis – a majority-black city and home to the Dred Scott legacy – demonstrates how completely that has changed. That study, which analyzed the city’s construction contracts for the period of 1995 through 1999, exposed that of the approximately $448 million spent by the city on construction projects, African Americans received only 5 percent of the prime contracts and just 11 percent of the subcontracts.”
In 2009, Vickers reflected on the major protest campaigns in the region on the ten-year anniversary of the famous I-70 shutdown.
Below is an excerpt from the column, entitled “Activist-attorney reflects on anniversary of I-70 shutdown.”
“Six major protest campaigns over the past 20 years have come to define the minority inclusion movement in this town.
The December 1989 Federal Court Consent Decree in the lawsuit filed by the Minority Contractors Association established the City of St. Louis’ law and M/WBE program requiring 25 percent minority and 5 percent women participation on all City contracts, which still exists as the standard bearer for inclusion in the metro area.
The minority contractors campaign against the banking community to end discriminatory business lending – including the November 1996 protest on Wall Street, in which minority contractors chartered a TWA Jet to fly over a hundred protestors to New York – ultimately resulted in a $100 million lending commitment to the minority community.
The July 1999 I-70 Highway Morning Rush Hour Shutdown Protest involving Rev. Al Sharpton, where over 100 protestors were arrested, resulted in the establishment of the Construction Prep Center (CPC) that has now matriculated and placed hundreds of minorities into the construction industry.
The spring 2003 campaign against Metro transit for minority inclusion on the $500 million MetroLink Project resulted in Metro agreeing to increase minority inclusion by, among other things, establishing separate goals for minorities and women on the project and breaking it down into smaller parts to enable minorities to bid as general contractors.
The spring 2005 campaign against IDOT for lack of minority inclusion on the McKinley Bridge and I-64 projects then in progress resulted in, among other things, the establishment in East St. Louis of a construction training program modeled on the Missouri CPC.
The fall 2005 Rosa Parks Initiative targeted and obtained inclusion on 11 major construction projects in the St. Louis area totaling over $3.6 billion over a five-year period, including the MODOT I-64 Project and the New Mississippi River Bridge Project.
In recent MODOT/IDOT Roundtable meetings over achieving minority inclusion on the New Mississippi River Bridge project, I have been impressed by the number and eagerness of a new generation of minority and women entrepreneurs who have been attending and raising important but familiar issues.
I think it important for them to know the history, including the history that need not be inefficiently repeated, in order that they can bring the freshness of their ideas and approach as the next layer in the movement.”
A visitation for Vickers will be held on Saturday, April 14 at Darul-Islam Masjid, 517 Weidman Rd., Ballwin, MO 63011. Funeral Prayers will begin at 1:30 p.m. at the same address. The burial will take place at 2:30 p.m. on April 14 at Lakewood Park Cemetery, 7330 Mackenzie Rd., St Louis, MO 63123.
