The St. Louis County NAACP recognized Lesley McSpadden, mother of Michael Brown Jr., during the branch’s fifth annual Jazz Brunch on Saturday, December 20. McSpadden, joined at the event by several members of the Brown family, was privately presented with a check for an undisclosed amount.
It was a small “love token” of their appreciation, said John Gaskin III, local NAACP youth leader and national NAACP board member, “to let her know that she’s loved and that the county civil rights organization is remaining true to the fight for justice for her and her family.”
The event was held at the Ritz-Carlton in Clayton – a short distance away from where a St. Louis County grand jury chose not to indict then Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson in Brown’s fatal shooting on August 9.
Money for the gift came from an outpouring of support from the community.
Gaskin said, “Ever since August they’re saying, ‘How can we get this to the Brown family?’ There are several things in our office that are being mailed to Ms. McSpadden, all types of stuff that people want them to have for Christmas.”
Ferguson Mayor James Knowles III and Councilman Dwayne T. James sat at a table on the opposite side of the room from the Brown family. Behind them sat St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar, whose department investigated the killing of Brown and policed the protests in August and November.
Knowles said he has known St. Louis County NAACP President Esther Haywood since his days as an intern in the state Legislature. Knowles said he received an invitation in the mail about a month ago and saw it as a way “to help bridge that gap and increase our outreach efforts.”
“The City of Ferguson has always been committed to being a progressive community,” Knowles said. “I think a lot of issues have come to the forefront since August – and those are things the city’s going to continue to work on moving forward.”
“We can’t only see each other in times of hardship,” Belmar said. “We’ve got to see each other in times of joy, otherwise we don’t build those relationships.”
Belmar said he worked closely with the NAACP during the weeks of unrest in Ferguson that stemmed from Brown’s death. “They really facilitated a lot of positive things for us,” he said.
KMOV’s Brittany Noble-Jones and “BAPs” reality TV star Gina Cheatham served as co-emcees. A portion of the proceeds from the event will benefit the ACT-SO Scholarship Program, as well as day-to-day operations of the branch, Gaskin said.
ACT-SO – short for Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics – is a yearlong national program for African-American high school students. More than 260,000 young people have participated in the program since its inception.
Gaskin said there’s a tremendous need for the program, which the branch re-launched regionally back in September. It has been well over 20 years since the St. Louis area had an ACT-SO program of its own, said general chairperson Andreal Hoosman.
“We’re way off on where we need to be,” Hoosman said. “We’re just hitting the ground running.”
Gaskin said the goal is to raise $100,000, which the branch hopes to reach when it hosts its golf classic Tuesday, September 1, 2015 at the Norwoods Country Club. For sponsorships, please call 314-477-9338
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