Calls for reparations renewal at Juneteenth

The United States celebrated its first federal Juneteenth holiday earlier this week, following President Joe Biden’s June 2021 proclamation declaring the day as a holiday. Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865 – more than two years and a half after the Emancipation Proclamation – that enslaved persons in Galveston, Texas, were informed that they were freed and the Civil War had ended. More than 150 years later, Juneteenth was finally recognized by the federal government, although only 17 individual states formally recognize the day as a paid holiday.

The Missouri legislature passed its historic bill, H.B. 2627, on its last day of regular session this year, but as of the date of print, Governor Mike Parson has still not signed the bill into law. The inaction, of course, means that Juneteenth will not be recognized as a paid state holiday until 2023. 

Also commemorated this Juneteenth was the Freedom Suits Memorial, installed in front of the St. Louis City Circuit Court to honor the more than 300 enslaved persons in St. Louis who filed “freedom suits,” or lawsuits against slaveholders to gain freedom through the legal system. Historians estimate that around 120 persons were successful with their petitions for liberation in St. Louis. Dred and Harriet Scott were two of those 300, and although their freedom suit was unsuccessful, the infamous Dred Scott v. Sanford U.S. Supreme Court decision of 1857 was undoubtedly a contributing factor to the start of the Civil War.

But federal holidays and memorials don’t begin to repair the generational traumas and economic harms forced onto Black Americans through the persistent government-sponsored institutions of slavery, Jim Crow, and every iteration between. Instead, civil rights groups and local leaders have begun to intensify their calls for reparations for Black Americans based on standards set by the United Nations: restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction, and guarantees of non-repetition.

Mayor Tishaura O. Jones has been one of the first elected leaders in Missouri to call for reparations for Black residents, and a 25-member coalition of community organizations has sent a formal request to the City to establish a commission to explore reparations. Jones previously supported two reparation funds established by the Board of Aldermen, one to “support African Americans who have been victims of the effects of slavery” and another to provide economic development funds to disinvested neighborhoods in St. Louis. At the state and federal levels, recommended legislative actions include housing grants, free tuition, and a livable minimum wage, as well as amending current laws for incarcerated persons forced to work without compensation (in other words: slavery) and reforming child welfare laws and their disparate impact on Black families. 

Civil rights advocates have also called for legislative reforms that address historic and current redlining, gentrification, and displacement to repair past harm caused by housing discrimination, and desegregation of public schools, scholarships and grants, and adoption of inclusive curriculum for discrimination in education.

Advocates have called upon President Biden to enter an executive order establishing a reparations commission at the federal level to study the possibility of reparations for Black Americans. Currently, there is not enough support in Congress for federal legislation to enact reparations.

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Following 15^th Ward Alderwoman Megan-Ellyia Green’s announcement to run for Board of Aldermen president, Alderman Jack Coatar (Ward 7) has decided to throw his unwanted metaphorical hat into the ring. Coatar, who was hired immediately by law and lobbying firm Spencer Fane after his 2015 election, has spent the bulk of his elected career targeting the unhoused and winning sweetheart development deals for his (other) employer’s clients. Even Coatar’s own law firm website bio says he “helps individuals and businesses navigate state and local governments” – something his voting record certainly supports. 

Meanwhile, former unsuccessful mayoral candidate and absentee Alderwoman Cara Spencer (Ward 20) continues to tease her own run for aldermanic president, posting a rambling non-answer to her social media on Tuesday. In her statement, rather than address the question of whether she’s running, Spencer instead pointed to the cost of a special election and some of the legal problems created by the passage of the citizen initiative, Proposition D. She then went on to heap praises onto interim board president Alderman Joe Vollmer (Ward 10) for “an excellent job to steady the ship” and noting his “fair, unbiased and communicative manner.”

Despite Spencer’s efforts, Vollmer announced his support for Coatar’s bid for board president on Tuesday. Although still unclear, the City Board of Elections has suggested that it will schedule a special non-partisan primary election to narrow the candidate field to the two finalists, who would then be on the November 8 general election ballot. The timing of Reed’s resignation missed the deadline to put the aldermanic president race on the August 2 primary ballot, forcing either a board president primary on November 8 or a special primary in the meantime.

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St. Louis County has released parts of grand jury subpoenas received as part of a federal investigation into the former jail administrator swept up in the same bribery scandal that forced three St. Louis City aldermen out of office. The subpoenas were received in September and January, related to 14 businesses that applied for one-time $15,000 small business grants, including four businesses owned by Muhammad Almuttan, the North St. Louis business owner identified as the “John Doe” in the federal indictments of former board president Lewis Reed and former aldermen Jeffrey Boyd and John Collins Muhammad.  

A review of the subpoenas reveals the identities of several St. Louis County businessmen and developers who received some of the $15,000 grants possibly connected to Tony Weaver, the former county “jail change management coordinator” who is accused of accepting bribes in exchange for political favors. Five of the fourteen businesses referenced in the federal subpoenas received grants through the funding program administered by St. Louis County, and the subpoenas were issued by the grand jury in September and January.

The release of the subpoenas marks the end of an embarrassing public fight led by St. Louis County Councilman Tim Fitch, the former St. Louis County police chief-turned-councilman who recently was drawn out of his district and has been spending his “lame duck” time watching his friends receive federal indictments for white collar crimes. Fitch, who himself recently hosted a fundraiser with federally indicted former aldermanic president Reed for the benefit of County Councilwoman Rita Heard Days, demanded the release of all federal investigation-related documents, including confidential records related to employees and former employees of St. Louis County. Never one to pass up the opportunity to waste public funds, Fitch even attempted to put the release of the records to a council vote on Tuesday.  

Neither Fitch nor Days mentioned Days’ fundraiser co-host Reed, whose name remained on all fundraiser materials through the day of the event. No efforts were made by Fitch or Days to distance themselves from Reed and the numerous allegations against him of bribery and white-collar crime.

St. Louis politicians should certainly be known by the company they keep.