St. LouiS AmericAn
‘This is something I was called to do.’
– Mayor
By Sylvester Brown, Jr.
St. Louis American
The St. Louis American had the opportunity to interview St. Louis City Mayor Tishaura O. Jones at her campaign office on Southwest Avenue on Tuesday. The one-on-one discussion included Jones perceptions of rumors, misconceptions, alleged “failures” and her plans for re-election heading into the March 4 “ranked preference” primary including Alderwoman Cara Spencer, Recorder of Deeds Michael Butler and Republican Andrew Jones.
St. Louis American: Some say you’ve had a somewhat spectacular first term; $300 million in street safety infrastructure; $150 million dedicated to economic empowerment; homicides down by 40%; youth-involved shootings down by 50%; millions in home-buying, housing development and beautification programs...yet some of your opponents in this race claim you haven’t done enough. How do you respond?
See JONES, A6
Larry Thomas, a historic pioneer Black partner with Edward Jones before his retirement, affirmed his love for St. Louis during his Lifetime Achiever in Business Award acceptance speech. “I love this place, and I will continue to stay very much engaged,” he said during the 23rd Annual Salute to Excellence In Business on Feb. 20, 2025, at The Ritz Carlton.
Honorees at Business Salute commit to paying success forward
By Kenya Vaughn
The St. Louis American
More than one of the five individuals recognized for their contributions to the corporate and nonprofit industries at the St. Louis American Foundation’s 23rd Annual Salute to Excellence in Business luncheon mentioned trees.
“We need to be willing to plant trees, knowing we will never be able to sit under their shade,” said Beyond
Housing President and CEO Chris Krehmeyer, who received the Excellence in Community Impact Award. It was a message nearly identical to one shared later in the program by Entrepreneur of the Year Rodney Boyd. What was striking about the aligned messages was that Boyd’s remarks were also featured in a video prepared weeks before the lun-
cheon, which was held Thursday afternoon at The Ritz-Carlton St. Louis. “It isn’t important that people remember Rodney Boyd – it really isn’t,” Boyd said. “It is important for me to build the kind of infrastructure around planting some trees and building some bridges so that 50 or 60 years from now – when my name is forgotten and just on a headstone
No-excuse absentee voting still available
Mayoral primary on March 4
By Alvin A. Reid St. Louis American
n You must be 17 and ½ years old to register and 18 years old by Election Day to vote.
Voters in the Tuesday mayoral primary are reminded that they will not receive a party ballot. For the second time since Proposition D was passed by city voters in 2020, all candidates are listed as nonpartisan. In the “ranked preference” balloting, voters can vote for as many candidates as they choose, and the two candidates with the most votes for each office will move on to the general municipal election on April 8, according to the St. Louis Board of Elections Commissioners The deadline to register to vote in the March 4 primary has passed. However, prospective voters should take action to register by March 12 to vote in the April 8 election. You must be 17 and ½ years old to register and 18 years old by Election Day to vote. You must be a St. Louis resident
Parade still ‘postponed’ for now
n Annie Malone, which has struggled to raise enough funds to stabilize its finances, has called off its 2025 May Day Parade.
Photo by Wiley Price / St. Louis American
St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones being interviewed by St. Louis American reporter Sylvester Brown at her campaign headquarters in South St. Louis Tues. Feb. 25, 2025.
Photo by Taylor Marrie / St. Louis American
Tishaura O. Jones
Soul great Jerry
‘Iceman’ Butler passes at 85
Singer Jerry Butler died on Thursday, Feb. 20. He was 85. He was known for hits such as “For Your Precious Love,” “Only the Strong Survive” and “Make It Easy On Yourself.”
Butler’s niece, Yolanda Goff, told the Chicago Sun-Times that Butler died Thursday at his home in Chicago.
He was a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and a three-time Grammy Award nominee. Along with childhood friend Curtis Mayfield, he helped found the Chicago-based The Impressions. He sang lead on their breakthrough hit “For Your Precious Love.” In the late ‘60s, he joined the Philadelphia-based production team of Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff They worked with him on “Only the Strong Survive,” “Hey Western Union Man” and other hits.
Is Drake dismissing several allegations in UMG suit?
Last month Canadian rapper Drake
filed a defamation of character lawsuit against Universal Music Group for distributing Kendrick Lamar’s diss track, “Not Like Us.”
According to HipHopDX, UMG claims Drake has agreed to withdraw key allegations made in his suit.
The hip hop news and gossip site said that in a letter to the court filed on Friday (February 21), UMG lawyer Rollin A. Ransom asks for a pretrial conference currently scheduled for April 2 to be delayed so that the court would have time to consider Universal’s motion to dismiss the case entirely, which the company must file on or before March 17.
The letter also reportedly says, without explicitly stated what they are, that specifics from the case might change.
“[P]ursuant to separate correspondence, Plaintiff has agreed to withdraw certain key allegations in his com plaint,” the letter reportedly said.
Voletta Wallace, mother of Notorious B.I.G., passes at 72
Voletta Wallace, who protected the legacy of her rap legend son after his untimely passing,
died on Friday (Feb. 21). She was 72 years old.
A former early childhood educator, she committed herself to cementing her son’s place in hip hop after Chrstopher “Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace was gunned down at the age of 24. Voletta Wallace transformed his $10 million estate to one reportedly valued at more $160 million. The growth is attributed to savvy business decisions related to her son’s intellectual property – from merchandising to film production. She reportedly died of natural causes.
‘RHOA’ star Porsha Williams’ ex detained by ICE
Several outlets have reported that Simon Guobadia, the estranged husband of “Real Housewives of Atlanta” star Porsha Williams, has been detained by ICE. Guobadia, who was born in Nigeria, is currently being held at Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, according to U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s records, obtained by Us Weekly on Friday, February 21. His status is listed as “in ICE cus-
tody,” meaning he is being held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The detainment comes amid President Donald Trump’s mass deportation plan, which he signed into effect earlier this year upon his return to office. Williams responded to the situation via Instagram. “It’s disheartening to see my estranged husband make choices that have led to this outcome,” Williams said. “At this moment my priority is moving forward with my family.”
Diddy’s lawyer steps down Anthony Ricco, a lawyer for Sean “Diddy” Combs,’ removed himself from Combs’ legal team.
In a motion for withdrawal of counsel filed in New York on Thursday, Ricco said “under no circumstances can I continue to effectively serve as counsel for Sean Combs.”
The notice added that discussions had been had with lead counsel Marc Agnifilo and Ricco before the motion was filed.
Combs, 55, remains locked up at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center in New York. He is awaiting trial on for sex trafficking and racketeering charges.
Sources: Allhiphop.com, HipHopDX. com, TMZ.com, Instagram, CBSnews.com, Chicago Sun-Times
Don’t tell me you reject DEI when you live in a White House built by Black hands.”
- Georgia Sen. Rafael Warnock’s rebuke of President Trump
A youth’s mission to feed unhoused, change lives
By Ashley Winters
The St. Louis American
Paris Williams, 11, is on a mission to help the unhoused.
This dynamic pre-teen established the Paris Cares Foundation when she was six years old and has distributed over 10,000 care packages to those in need. Her charitable work at a young age has not gone unnoticed.
The city of St. Louis declared January 18, 2025, as Paris Cares Day to honor her dedication and impact on the community. Her story of kindness, perseverance, and the unique power of young people making a difference has led to appearances on Good Morning America, KSDK, iHeart Radio, KMOX, as well as the American Girl website.
“After my first outing in donating, I knew I wanted to continue this community service work,” Williams said.
“So, I started my foundation to help as many people in need as possible with the support of others.”
Williams believes just because someone has fallen into hard times doesn’t make them less deserving or unworthy of human dignity.
“Sometimes people make mistakes, or unfortunate circum-
stances put them in difficult situations,” Williams said.
She says when she is downtown donating items to the unhoused community, they have been kind to her and very appreciative. The Paris Cares Bag is filled with food, and the foundation provides three options for care packages: the Paris Cares Bag, the Paris Cares Birthday Box, and the Paris Cares Box. All include everyday essentials.
The foundation also accepts donations. Recent gifts included 300 Bombas socks, 300 toothbrushes and more than 300 meals.
“It makes me feel just really happy to know that I am helping someone and one day I might be able to change the world,” Williams said.
“It just makes me really happy to know that I helped care for someone else.”
Her parents have been on the journey with Paris since she began her mission to help those less fortunate.
Alicia Suber, Williams’ mother, said during a KMOX interview “She really had a plan.”
“She executed it, and she comes up with new ideas to, kind of, keep us going and to keep the community going rallying around her. So, I’m so proud of her.”
When Willians was in kindergarten, her teacher, Mrs. Yeitkee, read One Boy’s Magic to the classroom. The book is about a boy discovering his magic power in giving and helping the homeless.
That story inspired Williams to start feeding the homeless in her area. She passed out 35 Paris Cares bags on her first food drive.
“Since then, my efforts have grown tremendously,” Wiliams said.
Being able to help others is a source of great pride, she said. “Sometimes, one random act of kindness can give someone hope that things will get better.”
Paris Williams, 11, displays the proclamation from the city of St. Louis that designated January 18, 2025, as Paris Cares Day. Williams established the Paris Cares Foundation when she was 6, and the foundation has distributed over 10,000 care packages to those in need.
Williams hopes to inspire more kids to get involved in their community. She wants to have a community service day inviting all youth to participate.
“I want to show them how easy it is to help, whether by hosting a coat drive, food drive, or toy drive,” said Williams. She suggests starting small, by donating toys and clothes. St. Louis data shows there are 760 year-round, city-funded shelter beds.
An additional 147 beds can open during brutally cold conditions, according to the city’s website. An alarming report shows Black residents are nearly four times as likely to experience
PRESENTED BY:
homelessness as white residents.
Black residents are the most likely to experience homelessness, at a rate of 32 emergency housing recipients per 1,000 residents. If rates of homelessness were equitable, there would be 3,401 fewer Black residents in need of emergency housing services.
Also, the city historically relies on an annual point-intime count of people experiencing homelessness. The new data shows that 2,057 people self-identified as homeless in May 2024.
Williams has received support from the Finesse Volleyball Academy, where she is participates in the sport.
Her future goals are to continue growing her foundation, doing well in school, keep playing volleyball, and just enjoy being a kid. She plans to attend college and become a doctor.
“One day, I hope to open a shelter,” Williams said.
“A nice one, with private rooms, beds, showers, and resources to help the homeless get back on their feet.”
FRIDAY, MARCH 14, 2025
CHASE PARK PLAZA ROYAL SONESTA
6-9 PM
EVENT AFTER PARTY 9-10 PM
Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri invites you to join them for the sweetest event in town as they celebrate the achievements of local Girl Scouts and community leaders. Enjoy Girl Scout Cookie-inspired desserts, followed by a seated dinner and program. All proceeds support their girl development programs.
To reserve your table or ticket, scan the QR code or visit girlscoutsem.org/dessertfirst
Photo courtesy of Paris Cares Instagram
Endoresment Commentary
Re-elect Mayor Tishaura O. Jones
Re-elect Mayor Tishaura O. Jones
Following tumultuous elections last year in August and November, St. Louis voters, in soft early voting, seem exhausted prior to the Tuesday March 4, 2025, elections to determine candidates for the general election on April 8.
Political scientists say that voter fatigue can cause voter absenteeism. This is a result of the public being asked to vote too often on too many issues without easy access to trusted information.
The outcome of the upcoming non-partisan primary elections, which will use approval voting, will decide who will be the two candidates for the office of mayor and comptroller, and the 1st, 3rd, 7th, and 11th Ward Board of Aldermen seats in the April 8 general election.
The three other odd-numbered ward aldermanic candidates are running without competition.
Given the current political climate in Washington, D.C., and Jefferson City, the importance of our local elections is even more critical.
The challenges to make the city better for all of its current and future residents are myriad and complex. It requires competent, visionary leadership that brings the requisite experience and seasoned leadership needed to address these challenges.
Many of the city’s problems are deeply rooted and will not be solved by well-crafted rhetoric and one-sided media coverage.
Successfully addressing the city’s future will depend on many factors in addition to the performance of its elected officials. However, their capabilities will be critical to needed collaboration between government and needed private investment.
Notwithstanding some of the unwarranted negative coverage of the city’s downtown, there are encouraging signs from some well-respected national developers working with local developers interested in the Millennial Hotel, the ATT Building and properties on once-vibrant Washington Avenue and many other areas of downtown.
While incumbent Mayor Tishaura Jones faces three opponents, it is widely felt that 8th Ward Alderwoman Cara Spencer is her almost certain opponent in her bid to be the first Black mayor to be re-elected.
Recorder of Deeds Michael Butler and businessperson and perennial candidate Andrew B. Jones are the other contenders for the office.
Comptroller Darlene Green, who assumed office in 1995 and is seeking an
8th term, faces some highly unusual serious competition from former Alderwoman and outgoing state Rep. Donna Baringer and Celeste Metcalf, a business consultant and workforce diversity official.
Spencer is stressing heavily popular voter-concerned issues like the conditions of city streets, snow removal, trash pickup, pedestrian safety and population loss. Her candidacy is being enabled and even propelled by robust campaign donations spearheaded by controversial Clayco CEO Bob Clark, whose firm is based in Chicago.
We also remember Bob Clark’s role in delaying the downtown Convention Center expansion. It cost the city $100 million and millions of dollars in lost convention business because of the delay in construction.
Clark has also been aligned with Paul McKee, a developer disliked by many on the northside for his much-maligned business practices in that part of the city and his audacious, disrespectful labelling of his now-closed urgent care center after the highly esteemed Homer G. Phillips Hospital that closed in 1979.
We think that election campaigns, fairly reported, are vital to a public conversation about how to re-build a better city for all. There are still historic racial divisions in this old city.
Despite some daunting issues, St. Louis remains the center of this region, which remains Missouri’s most vibrant, consequential metro area.
While many other Midwest cities have already capitalized better on their assets before us, we still have the basic strengths needed to create a better version of ourselves.
The Jones administration has already helped improve our competitive position by starting initiatives needed in infrastructure, services, and community if we are to thrive in the future.
The future debate in the campaign after the primary will decide who is best qualified to lead the city into a better future.
We think that Shane Cohn, who ran unopposed last time in the 3rd Ward deserves re-election.
We feel based on actions, not words, that it is our current, now more-seasoned mayor who brings real life experience in leading our city. Importantly, she is not beholden to the aspirations of dubious outside interest groups.
Your vote is your voice.
On next Tuesday March 4, we encourage a vote for MAYOR TISHAURA JONES.
Dodging the truth
By Ben Jealous
It was February 14. But what nearly 400 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) employees got that day were not Valentines. They were pink slips.
The firings touched critical roles in EPA offices across the country, including dozens of scientists at the agency’s Chicago office.
That same wave of civil servant layoffs ensnared about 3,400 US Forest Service employees and roughly 1,000 employees of the National Park Service (NPS). You might be struggling to make sense of a decision to institute big cuts at an agency tasked with managing forests and preventing and fighting wildfires immediately following some of the most destructive wildfires this country has ever seen.
An examination of these mass firings also shows that senselessness and sloppiness – and utter inefficiency – are hallmarks of Trump and Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Further illustrating that sloppiness: across agencies, some of the most egregious terminations of vital workers had to be rescinded days later.
the park and people in it,” Vince said.
And the layoffs hit other popular sites like Grand Canyon National Park, and Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania, where visitors received notice their reservations had been indefinitely canceled.
The total personnel costs for the federal civilian workforce are only 4.4% of our federal budget. Foreign aid – which has been at the top of the headlines since Trump and Musk decided to decimate USAID – has only ranged between 0.7% and 1.4% of the budget since 2001.
Nate Vince, Yosemite National Park’s locksmith, was also fired on Valentine’s Day. He explained in a post on Instagram that he was just three weeks shy of the end of his one-year probationary period, after apprenticing for four years under the park’s previous locksmith.
He also noted Yosemite is the size of Rhode Island with “more locks than a small city,” for everything from a federal court to administrative buildings, gun safes, and more.
“Without a locksmith I’m deeply concerned for the safety and security of
As they gut key agencies and the federal workforce, what are some examples of where this administration is focusing our tax dollars? Well, there is the $200 million international ad campaign by the Homeland Security Department, personally requested by Trump, “thanking” the president for his immigration and border policies. And, of course, there are the massive tax cuts for America’s very wealthiest that are really the crown jewel of the Trump-Musk agenda.
The great John Lewis, who would have turned 85 this past Friday, wrote “When you see something that is not right, you must say something. You must do something. Democracy is not a state. It is an act, and each generation must do its part to help build what we call the Beloved Community, a nation and world society at peace with itself.”
That act of democracy must not happen only in election years. It is up to all of us to hold power accountable, keep sounding the alarm, and keep speaking out for justice for all.
Ben Jealous is the executive director of the Sierra Club and a Professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
Are you getting what you voted for, Missouri?
By Janice Ellis
Missouri Independent
The Missouri legislature has been in session for over six weeks, and now is the time to become engaged and remain vigilant.
Are legislators’ priorities the same as yours? Are you pleased with their actions so far?
If not, make your sentiments known, especially to those you voted for.
There are multiple ways to do that, from making a telephone call, writing a letter, sending an email or scheduling a personal visit. You can also elicit others who share your views or concerns — friends, family, neighbors, political action groups, news publications, etc. — to join you in getting your elected officials’ attention.
Many issues being debated are primarily politically motivated or driven by special interests. Take the focus on DEI programs, for example.
While the Trump administration is determined to remove every DEI program in departments and agencies that receive federal dollars, Governor Kehoe, through an executive order, banned all DEI programs in state agencies.
Did you vote for the governor and your representative because one of their first priorities was to eliminate DEI programs? Did they even campaign that it would be?
What about their other legislative priorities that are emerging in addition to getting rid of DEI programs?
Criminalizing certain drag shows that could be witnessed by children, and providing tax credits for parents who choose to home school or send their children to private schools — are these issue areas that stand to harm or benefit most Missourians?
Wouldn’t it make more sense to focus on ensuring the support of the many foster children who may be at risk for sexual abuse and other harmful conditions? What legislative initiatives are being pursued to improve student performance and achievement in public schools, and to blunt the impact should the Trump administration eliminate the Department of Education?
The governor said in a press release: “Our state agencies must operate under a framework that ensures fairness, equal opportunity, and merit-based decisionmaking.”
“This order reaffirms Missouri’s commitment to a constitutional, colorblind approach that serves all citizens fairly.”
Has Missouri or this nation ever been color-blind and operated under a framework that ensures fairness, equal opportunity for all its citizens based on merit?
Hardly.
Did DEI programs significantly reduce or eliminate discriminatory practices against Black people?
Certainly not.
Just look around in your workplace, your school, your neighborhood, in the broader landscape and many other areas of American life. What do you see? What has been your experience?
What recourse is available to Black Missourians when the governmental agencies, whose services they pay for and rely on, are comfortable marginalizing and discriminating against them?
What about major legislative actions and bills that could impact a large segment of Missourians, such as farmers? Agriculture is the number one industry in the state. Yet farmers stand to be harmed by a bill being proposed to increase taxes if they participate in solar or wind energy production. In a time when alternate forms of energy are in demand to fight climate change, why penalize farmers who are trying to provide it?
What is being done to address or mitigate the potential harm other DOGE random, erratic, irrational dissolution, or funding cuts for programs will have on many Missourians?
While the Trump administration claims that they will not cut Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare, there is a proposal circulating in Congress to cut the federal contribution to the states’ expanded Medicaid programs. Millions of recipients will be negatively affected. You voted for your representatives for one or more reasons. Are their actions meeting your needs and expectations?
If they are not, we only have ourselves to blame. In the future, what will we do about it?
Missouri Independent columnist Janice Ellis analyzes educational, political, social and economic issues across race, ethnicity, age and socio-economic status.
Nathan B. Young (1894-1993)
Guest Columnist Ben Jealous
In 2020, the JJK Foundation, University of Illinois., Donald Danforth Plant Science Center and Lansdowne UP, joined forces to create the Jackie JoynerKersee Food, Agriculture, Nutrition Innovation Center. Landsdowne and the JJK Foundation recently received respective grants to increase the tree canopy in their neighboring communities.
JJK Foundation, Landsdowne land grants for trees
St. Louis American
A pair of non-profits with roots in the Metro East, the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation (JJKF) and Lansdowne UP, have been awarded subgrants by The Morton Arboretum’s Chicago Region Trees Initiative (CRTI).
The JJK Foundation will receive $499,632.94 and Landsdowne $ 280,120.50 to plant trees throughout their respective communities to ‘increase the tree canopy, improve forest health, and create or enhance community forestry programs,” according to the Morton Arboretum
Together, the respective organizations will plant over 1,000 trees in East St. Louis over a 3-year period.
Trees not only help to mitigate flooding and reduce pollution; studies show that they can also improve mental and physical health.
The JJKF will plant over 800 trees including native species and fruit trees within 70 acres, helping to beautify post-industrial land and create a model for food system resiliency.
“When we invest in our community and nurture our environment, we create a legacy of hope and opportunity that empowers every generation to dream bigger and achieve more,” said Jackie Joyner-Kersee.
“Lansdowne UP and the JJKF worked together on securing these grants knowing the great contribution a healthy tree canopy can provide to our community. By working together in neighboring footprints, we compound the benefits we all receive,” said Mark Mestemacher, Lansdowne UP president.
The Lansdowne UP subgrant will take place in the 20-acre Lansdowne Park housing development, a former abandoned site that has been developed to offer market rate housing in East St. Louis.
A proper Target for a Black boycott
By Julianne Malveaux
African Americans have about $1.6 trillion in buying power, and we are the ultimate consumers, disproportionately spending on beauty and personal care, apparel and footwear, and entertainment and technology. There are reasons for all of this, many rooted in enslavement and exclusion, but the reasons really don’t matter. We spend rather than save, we spend to compensate for structural challenges, we spend because it makes us feel good. When we feel good, we buy. When we feel bad, we buy. New job, we buy because we want to look good. Lost job, we buy because we “need” casual clothes. We buy.
We patronize those who oppress us. Consider Elon Musk, the owner of former Twitter, now X. We’re all in with that platform, generating hashtags and sales platforms. To be sure, many a movement has been ignited through the Twitter platform, including Black Lives Matter. It is time to kiss Twitter, or X, goodbye.
More importantly, African American people must use our dollars strategically, which is why I welcome the Rev. Jamal Bryant’s call that we “fast” from Target during Lent. Target was one of the first corporations to back off DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion). The Rev. Bryant has it right. Should we fund our own oppression by patronizing a company that has turned on us?
Already more than 50,000 people have agreed to join the fast. You can sign up, too, at targetfast.org.
This “fast”/boycott will only be successful if the organizers cause Target pain. Bryant says Black people spend $12 million a day at Target. Refusing economic engagement with Target could cause the company quite a blow. But who’s counting?
If we can’t document that this “fast” made a difference, we render the boycott tactic impotent. Lots of people are throwing terms like “boycott” around, but if they don’t hurt, they don’t matter.
Our most successful boycott was the Montgomery Bus Boycott. After Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to yield her seat to a white passenger, the Montgomery Black community rallied around her and did not ride buses for more than a year.
They were legally and physically attacked, but they persisted and prevailed for more than a year. Their victory led to a Supreme Court decision to desegregate public transportation. It worked, not because the bus company yielded, but because they were losing money — about $30,000 a day in today’s dollars, or more than $11 million during the 381-day boycott.
Boycotts are only effective if they are coordinated, impactful and surgical. The word boycott, bandied about, is ineffective. A boycott that hurts the oppressor is successful. Jamal Bryant and his allies are to be commended for calling for this “fast” from Target.
In the face of many calls to boycott Target, some of the Black entrepreneurs featured in the stores have asked that Black consumers consider them as they boycott. Most of their products are available online. Black people aren’t boycotting innovative Black businesses, we are boycotting an oppressive retailer.
Historically, we had the “Don’t Buy Where You Can’t Work” campaign. We must revive that revolutionary energy. When we support those who are retreating from DEI, we are funding our own oppression. Julianne Malveaux, a former college president, is an economist, author and commentator based in Washington, D.C.
Photo courtesy of University of Illinois
Julianne Malveaux
Mayor Tishaura O. Jones: Well, these things take time. A lot of things that are wrong with St. Louis are things I inherited from previous administrations. You can’t change 70 years of neglect in four years.
American: In a recent commentary we published, you wrote that ‘approximately $30 million has been dedicated to help North St. Louis businesses and non-profits with stabilization, expansion, building renovation and other improvements.’ No other mayor in the history of St. Louis has ever made such an investment. Why do you think that news is not heralded as much by the mainstream press or your opponents?
Jones: I’ve also heard people say, ‘we shouldn’t invest in North St. Louis at all ‘or ‘why should we invest in vacant lots in North St. Louis?’ Well, we invest in vacant lots in the central corridor, and no one seems to have a problem with that. I think it’s an imperative-a moral imperative-for us to invest in North St. Louis to make sure that everyone has an opportunity to thrive and achieve whatever they want, no matter where they live in this city.
American: You and Police Chief Robert Tracy have been trying to beat back efforts for state control of our police force. The homicide and gun-related statistics are down. What do you say to those who insist accountability for police misconduct might be better served from a state-controlled perspective?
Jones: If they think that the state will hold police
Finding their ‘wade’
accountable in a better way that we have in St. Louis, then I have a bridge to sell them. This chief has done a great job of holding officers accountable for misconduct. Also, if a state-controlled police department was the model for safety in our country then more police departments would be controlled by the state or Kansas City (which is under state control) would be the safest place on earth.
American: You’ve been continuously dogged
by the city’s reaction to the January 5th snowstorm and its aftermath. It’s not just criticism about how long it took to remove the snow and ice, at least one of your opponents (Spencer) insinuated that you were indirectly responsible for a weather and traffic-related death of a North side resident. What’s your response to the snowstorm and that particular incident?
Jones: Well, I think my opponent is playing politics with the snowstorm and that poor woman’s life. If she could do better,
she should have come to us with suggestions. She did not.
Secondly, I would say we don’t control the weather. We’ve used the same playbook to remove snow as previous administrations and then, again, it’s about resetting expectations. The city has never plowed residential streets because our plows are too big and could bury cars in the snow or damage them. Now, going forward, any good leader would try to take stock and do better the next time. And as you saw, the next two snows, there were no problems.
American: In one of your most recent missives, you wrote: “My opponent is not campaigning to be a mayor for the people. She spends her time raising money from special interests: big developers and wealthy folks who know how to “play the game.” What do you specifically mean by “the game?”
Jones: It’s the game where wealthy developers and millionaires put money into candidates and expect something in return. If you look at my campaign disclosure forms, you’ll see I’m funded by people and by unions which are the salt
Grant
Continued from A1
before it was slated to begin.
Annie Malone, which has struggled to raise enough funds to stabilize its finances, has called off its May Day Parade, scheduled for May 18. The annual parade has been the organization’s primary fundraiser.
SLDC has allotted an additional $10,000 from its sponsorship fund to Annie Malone if the organization chooses to hold the parade. The organization has not raised the necessary funds to do so and is calling for more donations.
“Annie Malone thanks SLDC for the $1 million grant towards much-needed building renovations for its headquarters,” said Angelia Bill, a spokesperson for Annie Malone.
Deion Broxton, vice president of communications and public affairs for SLDC, said, “It’s a coincidence the SLDC Board approved this grant just days after Annie Malone announced the parade was cancelled for 2025.”
“The money comes from the North City Grant Program. We know that
of the earth. I don’t have any millionaire developers in my pocket nor are they asking me for something in return. But when you give a five or six-figure check for somebody, you’re expecting something in return, which we’ve seen on the national level. Our mayor’s office is not for sale!
American: So, are you saying there are strings attached to the more than $111,000 developer Bob Clark donated to Spencer’s campaign?
Jones: Absolutely, there are strings tied to that. We’re about to upgrade our airport. That’s a $3 billion dollar project and Bob Clark is a developer. Do the math.
American: I’ve noticed that you’ve received the type of scrutiny that none of your predecessors received in office. When (former) Mayor Franscis Slay traveled overseas, the media treated it as standard city hall business. But your trips are scrutinized.
Jones: Right. Or I have to prove my receipts to make sure it’s city hall-related even though I paid for my trips myself. That’s a choice that I made. I pay for myself, or the
Annie Malone is going through a tough financial period right now, but we hope that this million dollars will help with the building, and it will also encourage other people to help out as well.”
Annie Malone originally applied for $15 million, but the SLDC worked with the organization to revise its application so it could receive a smaller sum rather than be rejected.
The SLDC has to spend the remaining $37 million allotted to the North City Grant Program by the end of 2026 and is in the process of awarding the rest of the money to local organizations.
The program is funded by money from the American Rescue Plan Act passed during the Biden administration in 2021.
Annie Malone launched a capital campaign called “Annie Malone: 136 Years of Impact — Join US in Changing Lives.” It calls for a million people to donate $136 each.
Last week, the agency called on “corporations, philanthropists, and community leaders to rally behind this mission, knowing that next year, the parade will come back stronger and better than ever before.”
sponsoring organizations sometimes pay for them. People dismiss the money I have brought back as well. A lot of money that we have received on the federal level is a result of my direct advocacy with these department heads and cabinet secretaries.
American: How do you respond to Spencer’s claim that you were on some kind of junket with lobbyists during our first major snowstorm?
Jones: No, no…I went to D.C. for the US Conference of Mayors, and I also brought money back from that trip…we got a $10,000 grant for our office of new Americans so, no,I was not traveling with lobbyists.
American: Last question: Is this campaign exhausting or frustrating for you.
Jones: Absolutely! But I try not to let it get to me because I volunteered for this work. This is something I feel like I was called to do and because it’s a calling, it doesn’t always feel like work.
Sylvester Brown Jr. is the Deaconess Foundation Community Advocacy Fellow.
“It’s very simple,” said John Bowman, president of the St. Louis County NAACP and former Annie Malone board member. “Please step up. Let’s not wait on budget cuts to affect this organization; let’s make sure we take care of our own needs in our community.”
While Broxton used the word “cancelled” in regard to the parade, Lee continues to say it has just been “postponed.” Should a benefactor step forward to save the parade, which estimates say would be about $250,000, it could still take place in May. Lee noted last week that she and fellow board members are discussing perhaps hosting another “less expensive” community, fund-raising event later this year. According to an Annie Malone press statement, with “rising inflation, housing instability, and increasing food insecurity, families need more support than ever before. As the need continues to grow, we must shift our focus to raising the critical funds that help stabilize and strengthen our community.”
Sylvester Brown of the St. Louis American contributed to this report.
Photo by Wiley Price / St. Louis American
The Elite Academy girls perform to “Wade in the Water” for their Black History program Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025 at New Paradise MB Church in Jennings.
The truth about the North City Corridor grant plan
By Tishaura O. Jones
The City of St. Louis cannot succeed if half of it is left to fail. For decades, previous administrations have failed North St. Louis through a lack of investment, attention, and concern. Once thriving neighborhoods like Walnut Park have lost families, small businesses, schools, and vibrancy.
Those of us who were born and raised here don’t have to read a book or see a documentary to understand this decline. I saw it with my own eyes. My grandparents’ home in Hamilton Heights, which used to be my family’s centerpiece of love and laughter, is now a vacant lot.
When I became mayor in 2021, we started the hard work of reversing these decades of disinvestment. I worked with the Board of Aldermen to appropriate more than half of St. Louis’s American Rescue Plan
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– people will be sitting under those trees, enjoying the shade, eating the fruit and traveling across those bridges to get wherever they need to go.”
Boyd could not have known what Krehmeyer would say in his remarks – and Krehmeyer could not have known what Boyd was going to say in his video. The serendipity of it all made the root of their messages even more impactful for the sold-out audience that included elected officials, community leaders in business and nonprofit sectors and some of the brightest of this region’s most influential change agents.
“It gives me great hope to know that there are people looking out for us,” said 5 On Your Side morning anchor and sports director Rene Knott, who served as master of ceremonies for this year’s Business Salute. “That there are people willing to give back to their communities – which brings us here today.”
Krehmeyer, Boyd, Michelle Tucker, Dr. Jeremy Williams and Larry Thomas renewed the commitment of giving back to the region that led them to be recognized.
“Now that I’m retired from Edward Jones, many have asked, ‘Are you leaving St. Louis?’” said Thomas, who received the Lifetime Achievement Award for his fourplus decades of service at Edward Jones. “My answer is unequivocally, ‘No. I love this place’, and I will continue to stay very much engaged.”
He proved the opening remarks true, which were given by his former employer Edward Jones, who served as the title sponsor for the
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Act (“ARPA”) allocation in disinvested neighborhoods in North St. Louis. So far, we have started a wide range of projects, including demolishing blight, building housing, paving streets, supporting small businesses, reducing violence, and investing in our people and our communities.
The North St. Louis Small Business and NonProfit Grant program is an ARPA project that has attracted a lot of attention. Approximately $30 million is being used to help North St. Louis businesses and non-profits with stabilization, expansion, building renovation, and other operational support and improvements.
One of the biggest challenges with the North St. Louis Small Business and Non-Profit Grant program has been managing expectations. While $30 million is a historic amount to invest on the North side, the program received over 700 applications with
23rd Annual Salute to Excellence In Business.
“In addition to being a tireless champion for the St. Louis community, he has been a pioneer in helping shape the financial service industry for more than three decades,” said Everett Johnson, principal of operations for Edward Jones. “As the first Black general partner for Edward Jones, he has made it possible for many of us to walk through the doors that he has opened.”
There was also a call for diversity and inclusion – which could be seen as an act of defiance based on the current political climate – from the honorees and co-presenting sponsors: The Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, The Regional Business Council and Greater St. Louis Inc.
“The purpose of Greater St. Louis Inc. is to get St. Louis growing inclusively, inclusively, inclusively,” said Interim CEO Dustin Allison. “We tried doing it the other way. It didn’t work out, did it? We must make room at the table for the people and the voices who haven’t always had a seat.”
It was a sentiment expressed by Krehmeyer as he accepted his reward.
“In order for our region to be everything that we want it to be, it has to invest in the people and places that have been left behind for far too long,” he said.
Corporate Executive of the Year, Dr. Jeremy Williams made a case for diversity as an operational advantage – and a critical element for success.
“My experience is that if you are working in innovative spaces, you are better off if you have a combination of different ways of thinking, different backgrounds and different experiences,” said Williams, who is Head
to vote in the city election. In-person, no-excuse absentee voting continues through Monday, March 3 at the following locations: Buder Library, 4401 Hampton; Carpenter Branch Library, 3309 S Grand ; Divoll Library, 4234 N Grand ; Kingshighway Branch Library, 2260 S Vandeventer ; Schlafly Library, 225 N Euclid ; St. Louis City Election Board, 300 N Tucker; Walnut Park Library, 5760 W Florissant Hours for the St. Louis City Election Board are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturday, March 1 Hours for all other no excuse absentee voting locations are 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday. Polls will open at 6 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. on Election Day, March 4.
There are also dozens of citywide polling places where any city voter can cast their ballot on
$500 million in funding requests. That means less than 6% of applicants are going to receive the funding they wanted. If an applicant applied for $100,000 to renovate their storefront and only received a $25,000 grant, they would have to find $75,000 from another source to obtain city funding. Quite frankly, $30 million is still too small to reverse decades of disinvestment.
The second challenge with this program is the misconceptions surrounding the approval process. The media has reported on several businesses that received conditional grant awards without explaining what a conditional grant actually means.
Articles about grant recipients “in line” and “still slated” for funding refer to businesses that
have not been awarded grant money. Those businesses were conditionally awarded. In other words, they were preapproved. When you buy a house, you have to first get preapproved pending further background checks and vetting, but you can’t move in that day. It’s the same with this program. Preapproval doesn’t mean these businesses have money in-hand. It means they still need to be vetted.
Per funding agreements that awardees sign, grant money can only be used for eligible uses such as operational support, which includes payroll, mortgage, rent, and or utilities. Grant recipients are required to keep receipts and produce them if asked by SLDC.
After announcing conditional awardees, SLDC continued investigating
applicants to ensure they met the program eligibility requirements and verify the accuracy of information in their applications. Based upon this vetting, some conditionally awarded grants have been rescinded, and others are still being vetted.
By far, the biggest challenge to the North St. Louis Small Business and Non-Profit Grant program is the sentiment that North St. Louis doesn’t deserve investment. An opportunistic mayoral candidate recently posted a negative article about the program, and commenters felt comfortable saying the quiet part aloud: that they don’t think North St. Louis is ready or deserving of real investment.
But they’re wrong.
North St. Louis deserves a generational commitment and that requires us to get this right. An accounting firm recently released an audit of the program and we continue to review grant applications for com-
pliance. We also launched a transparency portal so the public can view every grant application. We understand the frustrations businesses are feeling. Some have to find additional money to complete their projects, some have to continue to have to answer SLDC questions about their applications, and some did not receive funding. SLDC plans to make final funding recommendations for conditionally approved recipients this month. Any grant funds that are rescinded will be reallocated to other applicants. We will work to put this money into the community where it can do the most good for the future of our City. I will not let opportunistic politicians and special interests stop my commitment to investing in North St. Louis.
of Climate LLC, Digital Farming and Commercial Ecosystems for the Crop Science division at Bayer. “Diversity is a driving force for better business outcomes.”
Non-Profit Executive of the Year Michelle D. Tucker promised more of herself in moving the region forward. She asked the audience to do the same.
“We make things happen together,” said Tucker, who serves as President & CEO of The United Way of Greater St. Louis.
“I know you all are committed to the community – and I thank you for that.
I’m going to ask one more thing of you. Find one more thing that you can commit to, grab a hold of it and make a difference. Because right now people need our help.”
Her ask was some-
March 4 regardless of their registered precinct. Missouri voters must provide identification to obtain a ballot. These forms of ID include:
• A nonexpired Missouri driver or non-driver license;
• A nonexpired military ID, including a veteran’s ID card;
• A nonexpired United States passport; or
• Another photo ID, issued by the U.S. or the state of Missouri, which is either not expired or expired after the date of the most recent general election.
thing that Krehmeyer had already said he has every intention of fulfilling. He said his motivation comes from a George Bernard Shaw poem that was left on the office door by his predecessor when he took over Beyond Housing 33 years ago. He shared an excerpt that he paraphrased.
“The more I live, the harder I work. Life is no brief candle, but a splendid torch that I have to hold for this moment,” Krehmeyer said. “I want to make it burn as brightly as possible until I hand it off to the next generation.”
Those words have sustained him as he continues his work for the greater good of the region.
“I still have some fuel left in the tank – and I plan to keep planting a whole bunch of trees,” Krehmeyer said. “I hope you guys will join me.”
Photo by Taylor Marrie / St. Louis American
Michelle D. Tucker, United Way of Greater St. Louis president and CEO, emphasized the importance of the community coming together to help others after receiving the Non-Profit Executive of the Year Award during the 23rd Annual Salute to Excellence In Business on Feb. 20, at The Ritz Carlton. Joining her on stage were Raven Whitener, St. Louis American Foundation and Special Events director, and Michael McMillan, Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis president and CEO.
Tishaura O. Jones is mayor of the City of St. Louis
Tishaura O. Jones
People’s Health, Hopewell make history with merger
‘We are going to have 360-degree care’
Mark Sanford, Executive Vice President of Betty Jean Kerr People’s Health Centers and Amanda Luckett Murphy Hopewell Center announcing the merger to provide integrated health services, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday Feb. 21,2025 at it’s Delmar location. They also announced a new building in the works for the merged company.
By Namratha Prasad
St. Louis American
After 14 years of talks and organizing, Betty Jean Kerr People’s Health Centers and Amanda Luckett Murphy Hopewell Center officially merged in November of 2024. On Friday, celebrants gathered as a thick green ribbon was cut to highlight the historic event.
Both People’s Health and Hopewell Centers respectively provide wrap around services for those struggling in the community to access physical
and mental health care. As a merged health center, services provided to St. Louisans include therapy, dental, ancillary, and social services, and more.
City Health Director Mati
Hlatshwayo Davis said she is thrilled to see the merger come to fruition
“after so many years,” and that essential services will be provided in a time when federal funding for clinical services is getting more difficult to receive.
“At a time where we’re seeing
shutdowns of clinics, at the time when we just saw another Walgreens in our community shut down, [they are] able to say, ‘we’re coming together,’” Davis said of People’s and Hopewell.
“We’re going to have comprehensive care. We are going to have 360-degree care. And especially underscoring the importance of both primary care and mental and behavioral health, for me, means everything.”
Ronald Griffin, People’s Health
See MERGER, A9
Preventing overdose deaths in Blacks
By Tracie Gardner and Daliah Heller
On Dec. 8, 2024, the air was crisp as Kimberly Douglas made her way to her son Bryce’s gravestone in National Harmony Memorial Park in Landover, Maryland. It had been nearly 18 months since she lost the 17-year-old to a fentanyl overdose. On this day each year, known as Worldwide Candle Lighting Day, families light candles honoring loved ones gone too soon, like Bryce. This day of remembrance is a stark reminder of the urgent need to prevent similar tragedies. The pain of the day Kimberly lost her son is seared into her soul. She worked at her home office in Bowie, Maryland in the early afternoon. Bryce was home early from school and napped in his bedroom, just one room away. When Kimberly found him unresponsive, she frantically searched her home for naloxone, a medicine that reverses an overdose and prevents death. In her panic, she couldn’t find it. It wasn’t until later, through tears of grief and disbelief, that she discovered the naloxone — in Bryce’s pocket. He had it all along. This country’s overdose epidemic has generated a large and active ecosystem of advocacy groups, support organizations, and grieving parents. But Kimberly finds she is often the only Black parent engaged. She has started her own Facebook group, Black Moms Against Overdose, seeking a safe place for Black families who lost a loved one to overdose. She prays more Black parents will step forward, join the fight, and be part of the solution. Over the past five years, a staggering half million people overdosed in the United States. But recent reports suggest a steady upward trend over two decades is reversing. The latest
See DEATHS, A9
Drug screening inequity for minority youths
By Anissa Durham Word In Black
When a teenager arrives at a trauma center after a car crash or sports-related injury, the immediate priority is to save their life. The doctors stabilize them, run tests, and prepare a treatment plan. But somewhere in the flurry of activity, a decision is made — one that has less to do with their medical condition, and more to do with who they are.
New research shows Black, American Indian, Hispanic, uninsured, and female adolescents are more likely to be screened for drug and alcohol use at pediatric trauma centers across the country than their white peers. With drug overdoses being the third leading cause of death in adolescents in 2022 surpassing car accidents and gun violence, some say the disproportionate screening of minority youths isn’t necessarily the problem.
n New research shows Black, American Indian, Hispanic, uninsured, and female adolescents are more likely to be screened for drug and alcohol use at pediatric trauma centers across the country than their white peers.
Trauma center staff might decide to do a blood screen of a teen because they need to make sure any medications they administer don’t conflict with drugs or alcohol. No patient consent is needed. And there are no specific guidelines providers are required to follow when deciding whether to screen adolescent trauma patients.
Health care providers who decide to screen a pediatric patient for substance
See SCREENING, A9
Following arrival by ambulance to a trauma center and treatment, Black, Native American, Hispanic, uninsured and female adolescents are more likely to be screened for drug and alcohol use than their
peers, according to a new study.
Photo by Wiley Price / St. Louis American
white, male
Tracie Gardner
Image courtesy of St. Louis Fire Department
Daliah Heller
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Centers COO, said the difference between the merged health center and other providers in the St. Louis region lies in the immediacy of the patient’s care.
“If you come to behavioral health and you have a dental problem, we can see you the same day without any barriers. If you go to behavioral health and you have a prep problem, you can be seen the same day without any barriers,” Griffin said.
With the merger also comes a sense of togetherness for both staffs of the respective centers. Griffin said the separation could be felt because of the different logos attached to their nametags. Now the staff can come together to provide more services for their patients.
“They had a different name, so they always felt ostracized, not just on the behavioral health side, but the primary care side,” he said.
“It was almost like a stepbrother and sister type mentality. Now we’re fully integrated. We’re better together, and that’s the initiative that started back in September of last year.” Betty Jean Kerr, the founder of People’s Health Centers, passed away in 2020. The St. Louis American previously reported Kerr was a nurse, who led her life “with the heart of a nurse in everything she did.”
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and alcohol use, take blood and urine samples to test for any range of cannabis, opiates, amphetamines, methamphetamines, MDMA, and alcohol.
Dr. Jordan Rook, a general surgery resident at University of California, Los Angeles says the tests commonly exclude synthetic opioids, which currently drive the surge in drug overdose deaths.
Rook spearheaded the research to identify where providers are going wrong when screening injured pediatric patients. After analyzing data from more than 85,000 adolescent patients, Rook and his fellow researchers found that nearly 25% of youth from marginalized communities were screened for alcohol use and about 22% were screened for drug use.
When she retired in 2007, the board of directors selected her son, Dwayne Butler, as the acting CEO of the centers. Davis said she remembers Kerr as a trailblazer and wanted to use the day of the ribbon cutting to pay tribute to her legacy.
“Betty Jean Kerr was literally ahead of her time; a Black woman, entrepreneur and nurse who decided that [People’s Health Center] was essential for
her people and for this community. For her son to now be heading it, to have Hopewell, founded by the incredible Dr. Amanda Luckett Murphy, it’s just a beautiful day, and how apt that is during Black History Month,” she said.
Griffin said he hopes the community will support the newly-merged center and non-profit, as a means to sustain their services in the future, as federal funding and grant
money are slashed from the clinic’s budget.
“Funding is being under assault, so there may not be monies in the future. Some in our area may not be able to bounce back from that,” Griffin said
“Because Mr. Butler was a visionary, He has made a sustainable way for us to be okay without the grant funding. But make no mistake about it, if the community doesn’t
“That’s where some of my concerns with the guidelines come into place. It’s kind of left up to the providers to determine how they want to do the screening,” he says.
“Do they have a system where all patients get an interview-based screen? Or do all patients get a biochemical screen, or do they leave it up to the providers to make that decision?”
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data from the CDC shows a 17% decline in deaths from September 2023 through August 2024. Over the past decade, however, deaths have skyrocketed in Black and Indigenous populations and now overdose rates have begun to diverge by race. A recent analysis of CDC data from the O’Neill Institute shows that through 2023, in many states, while deaths were leveling off and even declining among white populations, they were
still rising in Black and Indigenous populations. Why have Black communities not experienced the same decrease in overdose deaths? Through our work nationwide, we found that critical preventive information and resources often don’t reach Black communities. We see two main problems: first, information and resources are not promoted or distributed effectively in Black communities, and second, fallout from America’s destructive war on drugs still affects Black communities.
For example, access to lifesaving medication,
To get a better idea of which adolescents are being screened, Rook analyzed data using a method to control for reasonable factors that would influence a provider’s decision to do a biochemical screen.
“What was left over
naloxone, can reduce overdose deaths. But efforts to expand naloxone distribution have not reached sufficiently Black and Indigenous communities. A modeling study shows overdose deaths among Blacks and Hispanics would dramatically decrease if their access to naloxone was at the same level as whites. Collaboration with community leaders by local and state governments and local health providers can ensure access to naloxone is equitable and will save lives. Despite the reality that levels of drug use
were these inequitable patterns of screening,” he says. “That’s where I become concerned that providers are selecting patients they deem to be higher risk for substance use disorders and active intoxication.”
are relatively uniform across racial groups, the opioid-driven overdose crisis has been widely represented as predominantly impacting white communities, leaving Blacks less informed. Drugs popularized in hip-hop culture, like Percocet and lean (codeine), aren’t cast as opioids. Many people are unaware that ingredients such as fentanyl are widespread in the drug supply, increasing risk across the board.
As a visible advocate, Kimberly fights stigma by providing Black families a space to grieve and take action. Rallying Black voices into this work is
come out and support us, then we won’t be here to support them.”
Griffin said he hopes the center will be able to serve the community for years to come, knowing clinics with services such as those provided at the People’s Health centers are necessary for the St. Louis community to thrive.
“We have an obligation to the community that supported us for the 54
Dr. Lorraine KelleyQuon, senior author of the report and an associate professor of clinical surgery, says while on one hand adolescents of color are more likely to be screened for substance and alcohol use, not enough adolescents from other demographics are being screened.
“I’m in the prescription opioid and substance use space, I can tell you people do not think of children when they think of the opioid epidemic,” Kelley-Quon, who works at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and the University of Southern California, says. “People aren’t used to thinking about that when they think about pediatric health.”
And, she says, it’s challenging to find support for adolescents who are uninsured or on Medicaid.
The stigmatization of substance use is common within health care settings, and Rook worries this could keep injured adolescents who may be struggling with substance or alcohol use disorder from seeking treatment. A
crucial to turning back the tide on overdoses and pushing against calls for harsher penalties. The misguided drug policies of decades past have created lingering damage that Black communities still struggle to overcome.
Naloxone is easy to use and available for free from most local health departments and from a growing number of community partners in cities and towns across the country. It is also available for purchase over the counter at any pharmacy.
years that we’ve been in existence,” Griffin said.
“They supported us, so now it’s our turn to continue providing the best, comprehensive, collaborative health care that we possibly can, to meet their needs without a problem or a barrier to access.”
Namratha Prasad is St. Louis American Comcast NBC-Universal Fellow Reporter
positive drug or alcohol test result could make it easier for providers to blame a young patient for what happened to them.
“Our job is to take care of the patient, no matter how they got there, and provide them with the best care possible,” Rook says. “There’s a push these days to make trauma care more humanistic and remove these stigmatizing biases.”
To make things more equitable, she says, providers should screen all adolescents who come into a trauma center for drug and alcohol use. Doctors should also provide young people who are struggling with substance use disorders with interventions and referrals.
“When a child comes in after an injury, this is a moment in their life where you could change the trajectory of their decisions,” Kelley-Quon says. “If you’re not screening for substance use and referring people, you’re missing that moment to make a lifesaving intervention.”
The key to saving a life with naloxone is administering it as soon as you recognize any sign of an overdose. Anyone who is in community with someone who uses drugs — family, friends, local businesses, neighbors, and associates — can be activated and prepared to help. Every overdose death is a preventable tragedy. With naloxone in hand, you can save a life. Tracie Gardner is the executive director of the National Black Harm Reduction Network. Daliah Heller is VP of Overdose Prevention Initiatives for Vital Strategies. This article was first published by the Washington Informer.
Betty Jean Kerr People’s Health Centers and Amanda Luckett Murphy Hopewell Center who have merged to provide integrated health services, had a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday Feb. 21,2025 at it’s Delmar location.The event, themed
‘Marching Forward Together: A Celebration of Hope and Wellness,’ marks a significant step in expanding healthcare services for St. Louis residents.
Photo by Wiley Price / St. Louis American
CLASSROOM SPOTLIGHT
Photo by Cathy Sewell
SCIENCE STARS
AFRICAN-AMERICAN PHYSICIST:
Joe Johnson
Joseph A. Johnson III was born in Tennessee in 1940.
He received his bachelor’s degree in physics from Fisk University in 1960. Johnson later attended Yale University, where he earned his master’s degree in 1961 and his doctorate degree in 1965. While there, Johnson was a Danforth Fellow and a National Science Foundation (NSF) Fellow. A “fellow” is a postgraduate student that is employed by the university to complete research and to teach. While at Yale, Johnson became interested in fluid dynamics.
What Is Density ?
Have you ever wondered why some small items weigh more than larger items? It’s all about the density. Density is the mass of an object relative to its volume. Objects with a lot of matter in a certain volume have a higher density, while objects with a small amount of matter in the same volume have a low density. Consider this example. If you have an empty milk gallon and fill the container with pennies, it will be quite heavy and will have a greater density. If you fill the same milk gallon with cotton balls, which are light, it will have a lower density.
If you have a bowl of water, you can try adding items, such as a quarter, a pencil, and an egg, to see if they sink or float. If
SCIENCE CORNER SCIENCE EXPERIMENT
In this experiment, you will observe density in motion. The colors placed in a jar will separate by density of the liquid. Different liquids have different densities (mass per volume) and therefore, different weights. The heaviest liquids will sink, the lighter liquids will rise to the top.
Materials Needed:
• Food Coloring • Rubbing Alcohol • Water
• Dish Soap (colored) • Canola or Vegetable Oil • Clean Jars or Glasses for Mixing • 1 Pint Canning Jar • Funnel Procedure:
q Make a prediction: which liquid has the greatest density: dish liquid, rubbing alcohol, water, or oil? Place them in order from heaviest to lightest. In this experiment, you will test your prediction.
w Place 1/4 cup of dish soap in the one pint canning jar. Helpful tip: Pour liquids slowly and through a funnel.
e Mix 1/4 cup of water with food coloring of your choice.
MATH CONNECTION
Density is mass divided by volume. Therefore, mass is density multiplied by volume. Use these formulas to complete the questions.
Problem 1: You have a rock with a volume of 15cm3 and a mass of 60g. What is its density?
Problem 2: You have a different rock with a volume of 20cm3 and a mass of 60g. What is its density?
Problem 3: In the two examples which rock is heavier?
This special Newspaper In Education initiative is made possible, and delivered to classrooms through the St. Louis American Foundation and its NIE Corporate Partners:
an item has a density greater than the water, it will sink. If the density is less than the water, it will float. If you add a teaspoon of salt to the water and stir it to dissolve it, you have increased the density of the water. If you have an item that did not float, keep adding salt to the bowl of water to see if you can make it float.
For More Information: Watch this video online—www.brainpop.com/science/ matterandchemistry/measuringmatter.
Learning Standards: I can read nonfiction text to gain background information about density.
Using the funnel, slowly pour the water into the jar on top of the dish soap.
r Next pour 1/4 cup of vegetable oil into the jar on top of the water and soap. Pour this slowly and carefully so that you don’t disturb the other layers any more than necessary. The vegetable oil is difficult to mix color into, so leave it in its natural state.
t Finish up by mixing red food coloring into 1/4 cup of rubbing alcohol and then carefully pouring this solution into the jar. This will leave you with four layers in the jar. They will be mixed up a bit from the pouring action, so set the jar aside in a well lit area where you can watch the layers begin to separate.
Discussion Questions: Was your prediction correct? Which liquid had the greatest density? Which liquid had the lightest density?
Learning Standards: I can make a prediction and test the accuracy. I can follow sequential directions to complete a task.
Which is lighter?
Problem 4: In the two examples which rock is more dense? Which is less dense?
Learning Standards: I can add, subtract, multiply, and divide to solve a problem.
Johnson conducted research at Sikorsky Aircraft Company and Bell Laboratories and has worked for NASA. He taught at Yale University, Southern University, Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), and Rutgers University. He was named the Herbert Kayser Professor of Science and Engineering at the City College of New York. His research has focused on plasma turbulence and new methods for examining turbulence in physics. He co-founded the Advisory Council of the Edward Bouchet-Adus Salam International (EBASI) Center for Theoretical Physics Institute. This organization helps to continue the advancement of physics in Africa.
In 1990, Johnson became a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) and was named a member of the Third World Academy of Sciences. He has received an honorary doctorate from Fisk University and the 1995 Edward Bouchet Award from the American Physical Society. Johnson is a member of Sigma Xi honorary scientific society and the Naval Research Advisory Committee. Between 1988 and 1990, he served as president of the National Society of Black Physicists (NSBP).
Discussion Questions: Dr. Johnson is the winner of the Bouchet Award. Who is Edward Bouchet? Why is he important to the physics community? Dr. Johnson has done research on plasma turbulence. What kind of turbulence are you familiar with? What does it mean if something is turbulent?
Learning Standards: I can read a biography to learn about an African American who has made strides in the fields of math, science, and/or technology.
The Shape of the Final Scores:
Locate the Sports section of your newspaper. Record all of the final scores shown for a particular sport.
Arrange the final scores in order from least to greatest. Calculate the mean, median, mode, and range of the numbers. Discuss your results.
Relevant Information: Find an interesting news story to evaluate. Read the story and identify the main ideas. Number the main ideas in order of importance. Explain why you chose that order.
Learning Standards:
I can add, subtract, multiply, and divide to solve a problem. I can determine the main idea. I can use specific details to defend my opinion.
Five Tips for Building a Strong Financial Foundation
Managing your money wisely is the key to building wealth, achieving financial security, and creating opportunities for yourself and your family. When you understand how money works, you can make smart financial decisions, avoid pitfalls, and take control of your future.
In our world of economic disparities, financial literacy can help Black families and individuals close the wealth gap and build lasting stability. Whether you’re just starting out or improving your situation, these five essential tips will help you lay a strong financial foundation.
1. Create and Prioritize Financial Goals
Think about what you want to achieve – maybe it’s owning a home, paying off debt, or retiring comfortably. Write down your goals and break them into small, manageable tasks. Set weekly, monthly, and yearly goals, and track your progress. Your banker can help you define steps, like planning a down payment savings strategy for homeownership.
2. Track Your Budget and Expenses
A budget is your roadmap to financial success. Many budgeting apps can help you track your income and expenses, categorize spending, and identify areas where you can cut back. Keep an eye on subscriptions, like music and TV streaming services and Amazon Prime, which can add up quickly.
3. Build and Maintain an Emergency Fund
Unexpected expenses happen. Having an emergency fund provides a safety net during unforeseen circumstances, preventing you from relying on credit cards or loans. Aim to save three to six months’ worth of living expenses in an easily accessible account. Setting up automatic transfers from your paycheck can make saving for emergencies easier.
4. Make Your Money Work for You
Saving isn’t just stashing cash away — it’s about making it grow. Look for savings accounts with competitive interest rates and explore investment options like CDs, mutual funds, or ETFs, which allow you to benefit from compound interest and potential market growth. Seeking professional financial advice can help you maximize your savings potential.
Be a Tourist in Your Own Town
St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission
Fresh Fun for All
By Barry Draper
Put winter in the rear-view mirror!
No matter your age, interests or budget, you’ll find something to brighten your days in St. Louis this March.
For more ways to fill your calendar, visit explorestlouis.com.
Art in Bloom February 28 to March 2
Art in Bloom, the Saint Louis Art Museum’s annual celebration of flowers and fine art, remains one of the most arresting signature events in the region. With every iteration, dozens of works from the museum’s collection are imaginatively interpreted through floral designs by the area’s most talented florists. In addition to the lush displays, the festival includes special ticketed events, family activities, dining and shopping.
2025 State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Men’s Basketball AllSession Tournament March 6 to 9
Looking for a slam dunk next month? The State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Men’s Basketball Championship – affectionately known as Arch Madness – is a spectacular showcase for the league. Held in St. Louis for more than 32 seasons in a row, the games feature rip-roaring competition that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Make plans to attend the event at Enterprise Center, as all 12 teams will be battling for a trip to the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament.
Mary J. Blige: The For My Fans Tour March 12
St. Patrick’s Day Parade will take place on March 15, beginning at noon. One of the top St. Patrick’s Day parades in the country, it encompasses more than 120 units, including marching bands, floats and balloons. More than 250,000 spectators – donning festive green attire, of course – regularly attend. Beginning at Market and 20th streets, the parade will proceed east to its conclusion at Broadway and Clark streets. Festivities happen rain or shine, so gather your group, dress accordingly and meet us there!
Gentlemen of Vision: Best in the Midwest Step Show March 15
Founded in St. Louis in 2009, the top allmale high school step team in the country will perform at America’s Center’s Ferrara Theater on March 15. Every member of Gentlemen of Vision has successfully completed high school, and they’ve been accepted into a college, university, trade school or the U.S. Armed Forces, manifesting the organization’s motto: Changing the lives of young men, one statistic at a time. The Best in the Midwest Step Show is open to the public and promises to leave a lasting impact on audiences.
Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery
Mary J. Blige brings The For My Fans Tour to Enterprise Center on March 12, with special guests Ne-Yo and Mario. In a love letter to her fans, the “Family Affair” singer will pull out all the stops for the St. Louis concert. “When it’s all said and done, it’s never all said and done,” she wrote in an Instagram post announcing ticket sales. “I owe my fans a gratitude I can’t put into words, so I put it into a show.”
Animals Aglow Lantern Festival March 12 to May 11
The Chinese lantern festival Animals Aglow will return to the Saint Louis Zoo with dozens of towering lanterns and light displays this spring. Running from March 12 to May 11, Animals Aglow celebrates the culture, art and beauty of traditional lantern festivals that have been celebrated in China for centuries. This year, illuminated displays include a 100-foot-long tunnel of traditional Chinese lanterns, an interactive beehive topped with giant hummingbirds and the 12 Chinese zodiac signs, which guests can enjoy along with nightly cultural performances and specialty food and drinks. Animals Aglow will also spotlight wildlife from three regions – Africa, South America and the Arctic –as well as Chinese lanterns and folklore. 56th Annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade March 15
In downtown St. Louis, the 56th annual
March 21 to September 14
Made from the earth beneath our feet, Pueblo pottery is one of America’s most enduring art forms, and the innovative exhibition Grounded in Clay connects a remarkable group of Pueblo ceramics to contemporary Indigenous knowledge. Showing at the Saint Louis Art Museum, the exhibition features more than 100 clay works with a range of materials, treatments and forms. Dating from precontact to the present day, vessels and sculptures represent communities spanning from New Mexico’s Río Grande Pueblos to Ysleta del Sur in West Texas to the Hopi tribe of Arizona.
Tour de Dance March 27
Saint Louis Dance Theatre will present a progressive dance showcase featuring intimate dance vignettes from the 24/25 season’s repertoire on March 27. Performances will take place throughout the Grand Center Arts District, and each one will be paired with curated bites and cocktails, providing an incredibly immersive experience.
Pockets of The Big Easy March 28 to 30
STL Rhythm Collaborative will present Pockets of The Big Easy, featuring Al Holliday and The East Side Rhythm Band. The production, which reflects the history, culture and music of New Orleans, is a brand-new collaboration between the band and moSTLy JAZZ, aiming to share soulful originals alongside funk, R&B, swing and jazz classics from The Big Easy. As a bonus, every performance starts with Dancing in the Light, featuring students from Missouri Baptist University’s School of Performing Arts.
5. Manage Credit Cards and Improve Credit Score
Credit cards are useful financial tools when managed well. Pay credit card bills in full and on time every time to avoid interest charges and late fees. Keeping a low credit utilization ratio low and maintaining a healthy credit history can positively impact your credit score.
Columnist Barry Draper
Kim St. Clair’s DOC DASH helps keep traffic stops cool
Credits SCORE with key assistance
By Alvin A. Reid St. Louis American
In 2018, when her youngest child confessed her fear of being shot and killed by police, Kim St. Clair decided she could “either be paralyzed by the fear or inspired by it.”
She chose inspiration, and it has led to a successful small business that is designed to serve the community and law enforcement. She developed an organizational system that helps
drivers share important, non-visible information, including medical conditions or disabilities—to police and first responders.
St. Clair calls the system DOC DASH. The unit securely holds essential documents and is stored in the driver’s side door pocket. This placement eliminates unnecessary reaching or searching during a traffic stop, reducing tension and promoting smooth interactions.
Each unit comes with a decal,
placed on the lower left corner of the rear window, which alerts first responders that the driver is DOC DASH-trained, and that vital information is readily available.
DOC DASH especially comes in handy for drivers who may appear to not be able to understand questions and commands. It could be because of hearing impairment, language barrier or disability.
“Police could misinterpret my son as being a jerk,” St. Clair said of her son,
See DOC DASH, B2
Investing is key to closing wealth gap
‘It’s not a get-richquick scheme’
By Fred Sweets
The St. Louis American
When my father, N.A. Sweets, was the publisher of the St. Louis American, he taught his children the importance of investing in the stock market. As a teenager he taught me how to search for stocks of companies that advertised in our Black weekly. We recognized names like AnheuserBusch, Emerson Electric, Ozark Airlines and others. With my brother and sister, we would visit brokers to learn about purchasing stocks. He compared it to his betting on the horse races at Cahokia Downs. There were risks and rewards. That was way back in the day. Today, information about investing is at our fingertips on easy-to-use apps, allowing modest investments in fractional shares without fees. Studies outlined in this article offer reasons why Black investors may be missing the benefits of long-term investing. – Fred Sweets
The racial wealth gap remains one of the most significant economic disparities in the country. Black families, despite the progress made in the last decade, still face considerable barriers when it comes to building long-term
wealth. According to the US Black Chambers, Inc. (USBC), in 2022, the typical Black family had a median/ average wealth of $44,900 compared to $285,500 for typical white families. This level of inconsistency highlights the continuing need for systemic changes. But what are some immediate steps we can take to lighten that burden?
Last year, USBC published the
Black Investment Report. A resource that found one of the critical drivers of this economic disparity is the lower rate of Black participation in the stock market. About 65.6% of white families own stocks directly or indirectly, compared to just 39% of Black families. Moreover, the median value of stock holdings among white families is $67,800,
Sean Creque joins KAI 360 Dallas office
Sean Creque
KAI 360 Construction Services (KAI 360 CS) has expanded its staff in Dallas-Fort Worth, TX with the addition of Sean Creque as senior project manager. In his new role, Creque is responsible for delivering projects and programs with a focus on successful completion in terms of quality, budget and schedule. He is currently managing KAI’s DART Station Modernization and Metrolink Greenline Expansion projects.
Much of Creque’s 15-year career has focused heavily on design-build projects in aviation and transportation, with an emphasis on leading design and construction teams from the start of design and providing direct management and oversight throughout the construction process.
Williams named White House HBCU scholar
Williams was selected for the prestigious U.S. Department of Education White House Initiative on Advancing Equity, Educational Excellence and Economic Opportunity through the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) Scholar Recognition Program.
Gabe Williams
“I feel HBCUs have always fought against the ideas of doing more with less, so it was beyond inspiring to be around students who have plans to maximize what we have as HBCUs and construct plans moving forward to make sure HBCUs are properly funded and respected,” said Williams.
Stewart-Douglas heads student financial wellness
Andrea StewartDouglas
Andrea Stewart-Douglas is the inaugural director of student financial wellness programs at Washington University in St. Louis. The financial wellness program is a new initiative from the Division of Student Affairs to improve financial literacy among all students. In her new role, StewartDouglas has developed classes and workshops on topics ranging from budgeting to taxes to investing.
Myron Burr receives UMSL ‘Hero’ award Myron Burr
Myron Burr, the program manager for strategic initiatives at the University of Missouri – St. Louis, has been named a UMSL Hero Award recipient for the month of February.
Burr organizes and executes events including the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Observance held last month at the Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center. “We have this beautiful venue. You have this event. Let’s bring it all together to create something wonderful,” he said. Burr is also a student in the UM-St. Louis Master of Public Policy Administration program.
Promotion, board appointment, new hire, award... please submit your People on the Move item (including photo) to areid@stlamerican.com
Kim St. Clair has discussed her product DOC Dash at schools throughout the region, including Normandy High School. She guides students on the proper actions to take if stopped by a police officer.
Photo courtesy of DOC DASH Facebook
DOC DASH
Continued from B1
who is on the autism spectrum.
“He looks and behaves like everyone else but gives the impression that he doesn’t care.”
The Missouri certified, minority, woman owned, and operated company, “is committed to bridging the gap in communication during police engagement.”
St. Clair has also launched an accredited de-escalation training course for police across Missouri, a specialized curriculum for paramedics, and the Protocols to Police Engagement program for
Investing
Continued from B1
compared to a mere $16,500 median for Black families. Expanding Black investment in the stock market would not eradicate the wealth gap but could play a critical role in closing it.
The power of investment
Investing doesn’t have to be intimidating. Ron Busby Sr., president and CEO of the USBC, emphasizes that stock market investment requires not only careful planning and patience, but access to education and resources that can help beginner investors make informed decision-making.
“Investing your hardearned money in the stock market by its very nature involves risk. It’s not a ‘get-rich-quick’ scheme,” he notes. Success in investing demands thor-
civilians.
St. Clair is a graduate of Cardinal Ritter College Prep high school and an alum of Webster University, where she earned a Bachelor of Art degree in psychology and a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science.
She worked for 15 years as a mental health professional and then worked in the corporate world for two decades.
Along with building her business, St. Clair is a certified substitute teacher in the St. Louis public school system (city and county), preventionist, speaker and “change agent for police and motorist engagement,” according to the DOC DASH website.
ough research, strategic planning, and the discipline to weather market fluctuations. Historically, the stock market has delivered strong returns. Despite its inherent volatility, over the last decade (20142024), the S&P 500 index grew by 233%, translating to an average annual growth rate of nearly 13%. While not every investment yields such large returns, diversified portfolios, especially through index funds, have proven reliable for long-term wealth creation. A $1,000 investment in Netflix in 2004 would be worth over $467,000 today. Even with impressive numbers like these, a large percentage of Black Americans are missing these opportunities.
That’s not to say that traditional wealth-building avenues such as homeownership, saving a portion of income, and budgeting should be ignored; those are still important strategies for
St. Clair was inspired to design her product in 2016, she says, because she was” provoked into purpose by the repetitive exposure to volatile outcomes during police engagement.”
In 2019 she began the creative process of developing the DOC DASH prototype and its curriculum, the Method of Operation.
Among the districts she works with is the Normandy Collaborative Schools.
Last year, she advised students, “When it’s dark, we’re going to turn on the dome light. And why do we do that? Because we have absolutely nothing to hide.”
According to St. Clair,
making gradual economic gains. The stock market takes it a step further and offers individuals a unique opportunity to accelerate wealth growth. Stocks have consistently outperformed compared to other investment options, including gold, real estate, and government bonds.
Digital platforms like Robinhood have made investing more accessible by allowing users to buy fractional shares with no fees, making it possible to start small and grow investments over time, an option that benefits many new to investing. These platforms also provide financial literacy and educational resources, enabling new investors to learn about market trends and strategies to ensure they’re comfortable making choices.
A 2024 Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis report illustrates the deep racial disparities in wealth ownership. The State of U.S. Wealth Inequality report analyzes infla-
she acted after a situation in the park with her children.
“My youngest came to me and said, ‘You know why we didn’t want to play?’ I said, ‘No please tell me.’ She said, “Because we saw the police and we thought we were going to be shot and killed’ … How many children are running around with that basic fear?” St. Clair asked.
The Missouri Department of Transportation has invested in its expansion, funding workshop tours in high schools statewide to educate students on safe and informed interactions with law enforcement.
In 2022, St. Clair contacted SCORE, a national organization that supports
tion-adjusted wealth for various demographics.
According to the report, despite comprising 65.9% of U.S. families, white households own 84.1% of total family wealth. In contrast, Black households make up 11.4% of families but own just 3.4% of the country’s wealth. These disparities show the importance of Black people having access to and actively participating in the stock market.
A new era for Black investors
Today’s Black retail investors bring unique perspectives to the investment landscape. Nearly half are between the ages of 18-34, compared to just 21% of white investors. This younger demographic relies more heavily on social media for insights and tends to gravitate toward new and emerging asset classes, like cryptocurrencies.
They even cite multiple reasons for participating
small business owners. She received guidance in structuring her business, managing finances and securing funding while working with SCORE mentor Greg Sahrmann.
With Sahrmann’s assistance, she patented DOC DASH in 2023.
“I gave her theoretical advice. She’s really taken it and run with it,” he said.
“Being an entrepreneur is like being run over by a bus. The successful entrepreneurs don’t let go of the bumper.”
St. Clair has donated more than 3,000 units and is working on a statewide program with a goal of having information about proper traffic stop protocols shared with every high school in
in the stock market. While 91% are motivated by the prospect of making money in the short term, 87% see investing as a learning opportunity, and 66% view it as a social responsibility. Others consider investing in an exciting social activity that allows them to connect with others.
Retirement plans such as 401(k)s, 403(b)s, and IRAs are some of the most common investments. In 2022, a record 54% of American families had at least one type of retirement account, but racial disparities also persist in retirement account ownership. While 62% of white families have at least one account, only 35% of Black and 28% of Hispanic families have the same.
Accessible investment strategies
For families seeking to increase their stock market participation this year, here are a few actionable
Missouri. She also recently participated in SCORE’s 60th Anniversary Pitch Competition
More than 2,200 small businesses applied to compete in the five pitch events. Contestants were pared down to 60 contenders. Leading up to the competition, participants were matched with a SCORE mentor to help refine their pitch, strengthen their presentation and hone their business plan. St. Clair was one of 45 finalists.
“It allows me to sharpen my ability to present,” St. Clair said.
“It’s helped with financials and is preparing me for the next level of my journey.”
steps you can start taking today:
• Invest small amounts using platforms like Robinhood to gain experience and build confidence. Even fractions of shares can have an impact.
• Online resources, workshops, and financial advisors are just a few ways to educate yourself and learn more about investment strategies and market trends.
• Diversifying your portfolio reduces risk. Spread your investments across industries to give yourself the best chance of success.
• Always take advantage of employer-sponsored retirement plans and consider opening an IRA to give yourself tax benefits and compound growth.
• Social media has changed the game for learning and sharing information. Black investors are across the internet sharing their experiences in investment clubs, social media groups, and forums.
n “Tribe, I love y’all. Stay together no matter what.”
– Kyrie Irving’s message to bewildered Dallas Mavs fans
InSIdE SportS
With Earl Austin Jr.
It’s tournament time as March moves in
The treks to state tournaments begin this week as postseason basketball takes hold on both sides of the river.
On the Missouri side, small schools take center stage with district tournament competition. The Class 3, District 4 boys’ tournament will be held at Soldan, with the District 5 Tournament to be held at Duchesne.
The boys’ team to watch in Class 3 is Principia, which will take a 23-1 record into the postseason. The Panthers are the top seed in District 5 while Sumner is the No. 1 seed at Soldan.
STL helps S&T win GLVC championship
For the girls, Principia is the No. 1 seed at the District 5 tournament at Duchesne. The Panthers were moved up to Class 3 after finishing second in the Class 2 state tournament last season. The girls District 4 tournament will be held at Hancock.
On the Illinois side, the girls’ action is off and running with their state playoffs. In Class 4A, metro east powers Alton and O’Fallon won regional championships last week. One of these two teams will be playing for a sectional championship tonight at Normal West. The Supersectional will be held on Monday, March 3 in Bloomington at Illinois Wesleyan University. Alton advanced to the supersectional last season while O’Fallon won the state title in 2023.
Missouri S&T will be the No. 1 seed at the upcoming GLVC Tournament at Lindenwood. S&T, located in Rolla, won the regular season championship last weekend with a dramatic one-point victory at Rockhurst in Kansas City. Former Vashon standout Cameron Stovall scored on a tip-in at the buzzer to give the Miners the victory and the championship. The 6’6” Stovall is one of five players from the St. Louis area on the team
Former Marquette standout Ryan Young is a leading candidate for GLVC Player of the Year. The 6’9” forward is averaging 17 points and eight rebounds a game while shooting 57 percent from the field. Stovall is averaging 10 points and four rebounds a game. Also on the team from St. Louis are freshmen Dwayne Foley (Ladue), Adam Rickman (Borgia), and sophomore Jack Zarr (Oakville).
Hazelwood East wins conference title
The Hazelwood East Spartans started the season with an 0-3 record at a three-game tournament at Triad (IL). After the slow start, head coach Steve Hall got his young team on the right track; and now his Spartans are champions of the Suburban Conference Green Division. East defeated Parkway South 60-56 last
St. Mary’s senior guard Zyree Collins (21) soars
goes for a block during fourth
topped Lift for Life 80-50.
Friday to clinch the conference championship.
The Spartans are led by senior guard Jaylen Vance, who is averaging 16 points and five assists a game. East also has one of the area’s top young players in 6’10” sophomore Tyran Frazier, who averages 13 points and 13 rebounds a game. Another talented sophomore is 6’3” guard Paul Crawford, who averages 10 points a game.
Junior Aarron Brown
and seniors Kris Heard and Brian Lee have also been solid contributors this season.
Earl’s World
St. Louis is ‘Tourney Central’ next week. The Missouri Valley Conference will hold its annual “Arch Madness” postseason tournament downtown at the Enterprise Center from March 6-9, with an auto-
SportS EyE
With Alvin A. Reid
matic bid to the NCAA Tournament on the line…
The Great Lakes Valley Tournament (GLVC) will be holding its postseason men’s and women’s tournaments at Lindenwood University in St. Charles from March 6-9, as well… Former Parkway North basketball standout Ade Popoola is having an excellent sophomore season at Moberly Area Community College. The 6’5” guard led MACC
Missouri is a hit at Andre Dawson HBCU
Sports News Flash!
An HBCU baseball team can beat a squad from the vaunted SEC.
Coach Kerrick Jackson, the SEC’s first Black baseball head coach, and his Missouri Tigers should be applauded for participating in the 17th Andre Dawson Classic at the Jackie Robinson Training Complex in Vero Beach, Fla. Jackson, a former Southern University head coach who piloted the Jaguars in the Dawson Classic during the 2018-20 seasons, thought the tournament featuring HBCU schools needed a major baseball program to be involved. Given the chance, Jackson immediately got his Tigers into the round-robin format.
Sunday’s finale.
The tournament, formerly called the Urban Classic, was championed by Dawson because he appreciates the chance for HBCU baseball players to display their skills before professional scouts.
Dawson played at Southwest Miami Senior High School, but knee injuries shadowed him and he did not receive a scholarship offer to any university nor did he draw interest from pro scouts.
Unvanquished, he took out student loans to attend Florida A&M and walked on to the baseball team as a freshman in 1973. He played for three years at FAMU and would be drafted by the Montreal Expos.
On Friday Feb. 21, Missouri topped Florida A&M 6-5 in a well-played, crisp exhibition of baseball. The following day, somewhat surprisingly, Alabama State scored nine two-out runs in a 10-2 win over the favored Tigers.
Mizzou bounced back to topple Southern 15-3 in
His stellar career including sharing the 1987 National League MVP Award with St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Ozzie Smith and induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2010.
“I got the opportunity to play at an HBCU. I wanted to help create opportunities for other players playing at these schools,” Dawson
told MLB Network.
“There are outstanding players at HBCUs, they just need the exposure, they need a chance to be seen.”
Jackson served as president of the MLB Draft League before becoming the head coach at Memphis in 2023, and now Missouri.
“I thought the tour-
nament needed more than just HBCUs in it,” he told MLB Network’s Sedric Granger and Xavier Scruggs during Friday’s game against FAMU.
“It’s such a great tournament, based around some great guys and great ideas. I think it should be spread.
“Baseball is baseball, right? Being in this league
before, knowing how well these teams are coached, it’s a good opportunity for our guys just to go out and play good, competitive baseball.”
The tournament featured Alabama State, Alabama A&M, Florida A&M, Grambling State University, Jackson State, Prairie View A&M, Southern University, and Missouri.
“At Southern, we played in this tournament and it’s an experience I wanted our [Missouri] kids to have,” said Jackson.
“To come and stay here on the [JRTC] campus and be able to walk across the street, take ground balls, hit in the cage when they wanted to, just be in this atmosphere.”
The Reid Roundup
Boston forward Jayson Tatum, a proud St. Louisan, tallied 25 points in the Celtics’ 118-105 win over the New York Knicks on Sunday to record the 10th-most 20-point games by an NBA player 26 years old or younger. Now at 361, he surpassed Hall of Famer Tracy McGrady Shaquille
to a 24-4 regular season record and a No. 1 seed in the upcoming National Junior College Athletic Association Region 16 Tournament. Popoola is currently averaging 19.4 points and 9.7 rebounds a game while shooting 50% from the field and 47% from 3-point range. He has received more than a dozen scholarship offers from Division I programs across the country.
Classic
O’Neal recorded 364 such games. The Celtics play four games before Tatum turns 27 on March 3. Do the math… Real Madrid superstar forward Kylian Mbappé was named the UEFA Champions League Player of the Week after his three-goal ‘hat trick’ help top powerful Manchester City 3-1… After obtaining Jimmy Butler in a trade with the Miami Heat, the Golden State Warriors went 5-1 following a 126-102 beat down of Dallas last Sunday. “Jimmy gives us some swagger,” said coach Steve Kerr… Colorado Buffaloes QB Shedeur Sanders will not throw passes or do other drills at the NFL Combine this weekend in Indianapolis, but he will meet with team representatives…NFL. com’s Bucky Brooks says Missouri’s Luther Burden III is among players with the most to gain at Combine. “Burden could create buzz in league circles with an impressive performance.” In his first spring training at-bat for the New York Mets, Juan Soto hit a 426-foot home run in a 6-2 win over Houston.
Earl Austin Jr.
Alvin A. Reid
to the basket as Lift For Life’s Tavion Bonner (3)
quarter action on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025 at St. Mary’s. St. Mary’s
Photo by Wiley Price / St. Louis American
Mizzou reliever Xavier Lovett earned a save in Missouri’s 6-5 win over Florida A&M during the Andre Dawson Classic last weekend in Vero Beach, Florida.
Photo courtesy of mutigers.com
Lincoln University of Missouri in Jefferson City has been designated by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education as a “Research College and University” in recognition of its more than $9.1 million in research activity on average annually 2021-23.
“The recognition is an affirmation of Lincoln’s pledge to advance research as a core component within the scholarly pursuits of not only our faculty but also our students,” said Lincoln University Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Stevie Lawrence II.
“This Carnegie Classification for Lincoln University is a testament to our work to elevate the importance of research among our faculty, students and those that work to personify our land-grant mission.
“We are working now to embed undergraduate research activity into more
Lincoln U. earns prestigious Carnegie Classification
of our academic degree programs, along with creating additional opportunities for faculty-led research by providing additional resources and expanding our graduate programs. These efforts
n
“Our land-grant mission drives a significant portion of our research activity.”
– Dr. Douglas Lavergne
will increase curiosity among our students and encourage faculty to pursue external funding to advance their scholarship.”
Most research activities at Lincoln University are focused on animal, environmental and plant sciences, food safety and natural resources.
However, plans are developing to expand research efforts in the social and
behavioral sciences.
“Our land-grant mission drives a significant portion of our research activity,” said Lincoln University Vice President of Land-Grant Engagement and Dean of the College of Agriculture, Environmental and Human Sciences Dr. Douglas Lavergne.
“The answers to the emerging needs in agriculture and related sciences, along with providing solutions to community and human science-related issues of Missouri, are being found here at Lincoln University.”
Lawrence adds he is working in partnership with the faculty to develop curriculum to offer doctoral-level work at Lincoln University that will assist it in elevating its research activity.
“We are already devoting enough funding to meet the next level in the Carnegie Classifications,” he said.
United Way, partners offering free tax preparation services
United Way of Greater St. Louis is providing free tax preparation services to area families with a household income of $67,000 or less in 2024. Through the 211 referral system and in partnership with local tax coalitions, over 600 certified volunteers will help working families file taxes and maximize returns.
Most tax site locations require appointments
which can be scheduled online or by phone. Walkin locations are limited.
Local residents can dial 211 or visit 211helps. org to find their nearest tax preparation site, learn how to make an appointment, or get more information.
“These free tax prep services are crucial for people looking for an efficient, no-cost route
for filing their taxes. This initiative seeks to alleviate some of the burden that comes with tax season,”
said Linda Harris, United Way vice president of impact strategies and systems change.
“Trained volunteers will work to ensure families receive all the tax credits they qualify for which will reap dividends for people hoping to increase their
income, so they’ll have more money to provide essential needs for them and their families.”
Last year, United Way’s tax coalition partnership filed more than 18,000 tax returns in the St. Louis region, helping local low- and middle-income families receive more than $17 million in tax refunds.
United Way’s
tax coalition partners include Metro - St. Louis Community Tax Coalition, Gateway EITC Community Coalition, National Association of Black Accountants – St. Louis Chapter, and St. Louis Tax Assistance Program.
United Way is raising awareness about the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), a federal and
Missouri state tax credit that helps offset the tax burden for low-income working families. The average national EITC refund in 2024 was $2,743. “By offering substantial support to low- to moderate-income working households, this program is making a significant dent in the poverty rate,” said Harris.
Dr. Stevie Lawrence II, Lincoln University provost and vice president for academic affairs, says the HBCU in Jefferson City, Mo., is working to develop curriculum to offer doctoral-level work that will assist it in elevating research activity.
Photo courtesy of Lincoln University
Living It
An ‘Amazing’ challenge
Father-son team compete on staple CBS reality program
By Zaria Mac The St. Louis American
St. Louis area residents will notice a pair of familiar faces on the 37th season premiere of the top-rated CBS competition reality show “The Amazing Race” on Wednesday, March 5. And if there was ever a team that could win the first-place million-dollar prize, it is St. Louis natives Jeff “Pops” Bailey and Jeff Bailey. This father-son duo will travel across the globe competing in what has been dubbed the “season of surprises.”
“I almost forgot we were being filmed,” Pops said. “Because we were in that mode to win – to get to where we were going and execute what we were doing – and it was a lot of fun.”
Pops and Jeff Bailey are lumberjacks by trade, and each own a business. Pops, an alumnus of University City High School, has been in the business for 40 years and counting. His company Green Thumb Tree Service (GThumb) is in Creve Coeur and has offered pruning and tree removal service since 1988.
“I told Pops maybe two years ago that we were going on ‘The Amazing Race,’” said Jeff. “Pops has never even done an interview because he’s always been an entrepreneur, you know, so this was completely out of his wheelhouse.”
Jeff, who is 36 and a graduate of McCluer North, has a business called EconoTree Service. Located in Jamestown, the business offers pruning, removal, and drought care.
Jeff wanted to bring his dad on “The Amazing Race” to show off his physical skills.
“My dad is 65 and he is in excellent shape,” said Jeff. “He’s what everybody wants to be at that age. As a kid for as long as I remember I had a chainsaw in my hands. I would be watching him climb trees and be amazed at what he was doing.”
Jeff began watching “The Amazing Race” in 2020 during the COVID-19
“I bring a lot of myself into a character.”
Morris Chestnut on his role as Dr. John Watson in the
CBS series
“Watson.”
The voice of human emotion
lockdown. It was one of many shows he watched during that time – and just so happened to strike a chord with the rest of the family. He began watching it with his 12-year-old daughter Skylar. She became his “binging partner.” He then told his father about the show. Pops took to it immediately. He also quickly took to the idea of competing with Jeff on the show.
“I have my own business – and he has his – but sometimes we’ll collaborate on jobs,” Jeff said. “It’s been plenty of times where we’ll be on a job site together talking about ‘[The Amazing Race’ – so this is just another thing for us to bond over.”
The two would talk about the different challenges on the show whenever they got a chance. Once Pops agreed to be a part of the show, they began training
immediately. Pops would carry plates on his head to increase his balance and agility and practiced little dance moves to dominate the performances to come.
Jeff sought counsel from close friend Ricky Hughes, creator of STL Run Crew, on the physical needs of the race like the correct shoes, and the mental needs like endurance. Jeff has been very fast since he was a child. He ran the 4x800 in the Junior Olympics when he was just 12 years old. “I didn’t really play any organized sports for that long because on the weekends and after school I was out working with Pops,” he said.
Jeff noted the race is inherently physical but there is also a social aspect as well. “The social side of it is very import-
See Race, C3
Cruising and connecting
California and Mexico offered cherished bonds with people and nature
By Taylor Marrie
The St. Louis American
A kind gesture before our plane landed at LAX set me up for one of the biggest takeaways from my most recent family vacation late last month. Flight attendants handed us pens and small pieces of paper to write encouraging notes that they would pass along to firefighters and first responders. We thanked them for bravely fighting the fires that engulfed the region. As I handed over my affirmation, I made a genuine connection despite being unable to communicate in the traditional sense. Those types of connections happened again and again on my trip that included three days in Los Angeles, a seven-day Carnival cruise and a quick layover in Las Vegas.
During the L.A. portion, we stayed at the Hollywood Celebrity Hotel. Just like the name suggests, the theme was vintage Hollywood and honored entertainment icons like Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley. After we settled in our rooms, we took a trip to Koreatown to visit Memory Look Café. On the way I noticed a truck that was transporting burned cars.
A family vacation that included a three-day trip to Los Angeles, a seven-day cruise to Mexico and a quick layover in Las Vegas led to memo
rable moments with people, animals and nature.
Seeing the pile of smoldered metal made me think of my note from the plane. When we arrived, I got started with one of my favorite activities while visiting Los Angeles – people watching. The city’s diverse population means that there is always something to see.
For our second day in LA, we headed to the Santa Monica Pier and walked around the carnival before heading to Westfield Century City Mall. Apparently, there have been several movies filmed there. This was by far the nicest mall I’ve ever visited. I noticed Los Angeles uses a lot of greenery in its landscape. Even though it is a big city, it still has nature everywhere. We ended our evening with dinner at Din Tai Fung. I had pork soup dumplings.
ing Venice beach, the grove, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, and more.
Venice beach was my favorite stop of the tour because of the skateboarding culture as well as the roller skaters and the visual artists on the beach. There are so many creative people at Venice beach. Even the people just walking by look like characters out of a movie.
After making our rounds in Los Angeles, we boarded The Carnival Panorama. The cruise had three ports in Mexico: Mazatlán, Puerto Vallarta and Cabo San Lucas. Activities they had on board included stage shows, karaoke, sports tournaments, art auctions, scavenger hunts – and one of my favorite things, unlimited food and ice cream. We
The last day in California we took a bus tour that explored all of LA – includ- See Travel, C3
Music legend Roberta Flack passes at 88
By Kenya Vaughn The St. Louis American
Roberta Flack’s voice was more than a musical instrument. It was a translator of human emotion. Every range of it – love, loss, longing, heartbreak, sensuality and more – was reflected with a purity and clarity that transcended genre. And while it didn’t possess the trills and runs often associated with soul singers, her sound was unapologetically Black. She proved as much in duets with her longtime musical collaborator – St. Louis native Donny Hathaway – and later through chart topping hits that redefined both soul and popular music. Flack died on Monday, February 24, 2025. Her passing came two weeks after her 88th birthday.
“She died peacefully surrounded by her family,” a statement on Flack’s passing said. “Roberta broke boundaries and records. She was also a proud educator.” Although no cause of death was given in the statement, Flack was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, otherwise known as ALS, in 2022. The disease cost her the singing voice that was a musical treasure for generations.
n Roberta Flack became the first artist ever to win back-to-back Grammy awards for “Record of the Year.”
“Her music wasn’t just heard – it was FELT,” singer Celine Dion said in a social media tribute to Flack. “She was a legend, with a voice that could soothe and stir all at once.”
Flack became the first artist ever to win back-to-back Grammy awards for “Record of the Year.” She took home the honor for “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” in 1973 and “Killing Me Softly with His Song.” The latter became a mainstream music crossover hit for rap trio The Fugees – and introduced many pop music lovers to a then emerging rapper/singer named Lauryn Hill.
“Whitney Houston once said to me that Roberta Flack’s voice was one of the purest voices she had ever heard,” Hill said Tuesday on Instagram.
Flack won five Grammys over the course of her 50-plus year career, including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020. She was nominated for 14. Before her name became synonymous with heart-piercing songs performed by a voice that could melt the coldest of souls, she was a little girl with big dreams of becoming a classical concert pianist. Roberta Cleopatra Flack was born February 10, 1937, in Farmville, North Carolina. Her father Laron Flack was a draftsman by day and a self-taught jazz pianist by night. Her mother Irene was
Photos courtesy of CBS
St. Louis natives Jeff and Pops Bailey are hoping to be crowned the newest winners of ‘The Amazing Race.’ The 37th season of the top-rated CBS reality show premieres March 5th.
Photos by Taylor Marrie
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Roberta Flack, whose musical brilliance influenced fellow artists and connected with fans for generations, died on Monday, February 24th. She was 88 years old.
BLACK HISTORY
MONTH ACTIVITIES
Thurs., Feb. 27, 7 p.m.
Thursday Night Blues Jam: African American Heritage Month Edition, National Blue Museum, 615 Washington Ave. St. Louis, MO 63101. For more information www.eventbrite. com.
Thurs., Feb. 27, 5 p.m.
Thursday Nights at the Museum:
STL Sites & Sounds
17th Annual Gateway Blues Festival, Chaifetz Arena, 1 Compton Ave, St. Louis, MO 63103. For more information visit www.chaifetzarena.com.
COMEDY
Sat., Mar. 1, 7 p.m. Special Event: Lavelle Dontae, Helium Comedy Club, 1151 St. Louis Galleria Street, St. Louis, MO 63117. For more information,
Prize-winner Lynn Nottage. The Loretto-Hilton, 130 Edgar Rd., Webster Groves, For more information, visit repstl.org.
Through March 9, The Fabulous Fox presents Some Like It Hot, The Fox Theatre, 527 North Grand Blvd. St. Louis, MO 63103. For more information, visit www.fabulousfox.com.
Through March 2, The Black presents the rolling world premiere of Coconut Cake, A.E. Hotchner Studio Theater, Edison Theatre. For more information, www.theblackrep.org.
Through March 6, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis presents the St. Louis premiere of Clyde’s, by Pulitzer
Through Mar 22, 8 p.m. The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Marcelle, 3310 Samuel Shepard Drive, St. Louis MO, 63103. For more information, visit https:// newlinetheatre.com.
ART
Through March 1, From The Deep, a solo exhibition by Michael Marshall, Atrium Gallery, 665 S. Skinker Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63105. For more information, call (314) 367-1076 or visit www.atriumgallery.net.
Through Mar. 2, 10:30 a.m., Saint Louis Art Museum presents Art in Bloom, Saint Louis Art Museum, 1 Fine Arts Drive, Forest Park, St. Louis, MO 63110. Find event information and dining options at www.slam. org.
Through Apr. 13, 2025, Saint Louis Art Museum presents Federal Art Project 1935-1945, Saint Louis Art Museum, One Fine Arts Drive, St. Louis MO 63110. For more information, visit www.slam.org.
Through Jun. 30, 2025, Pop Stars! Popular Culture and Contemporary Art, 21C Museum Hotel St. Louis, 1528 Locus Street, St. Louis, MO 63103. For more information, visit www.21cmuseumhotels. com
Florals and Festivities Fill Art Museum This Weekend
The Saint Louis Art Museum’s beloved Art in Bloom festival returns Friday, February 28, through Sunday, March 2. Visitors are invited to experience a unique and stunning fusion of art and florals— free of charge.
This annual celebration showcases 30 works from the Museum’s collection, reimagined through the creativity of the region’s most talented floral designers. The festival also features a variety of free, family-friendly activities alongside select ticketed events, ensuring something for everyone. For a full list of activities and additional information, visit slam.org.
One of this year’s highlighted artworks is Douglass Square by African American artist Allan Rohan Crite, interpreted by floral designer Chloe Lawless of Lawless Botanicals & Florals. Also taking center stage is Mask (agbogho mmwo), a striking work of art from the Museum’s African collection, creatively reinterpreted by Aniyah Donner of Floral Studio. Visit the galleries Friday through Sunday to view art and florals. Below are just a few of the many program offerings.
Kick off the weekend on Friday, February 28, with a Toddler and Me program. Young children and caregivers can participate in hands-on art-making and garden-party-themed activities. You won’t want to miss the evening extravaganza with renowned floral designer Phillip Corps, whose work has appeared in Mission Impossible, The Witcher, and Bridgerton (seasons 2, 3, and 4). Corps will host a drop-in floral design demonstration. No tickets are required.
Join us on Saturday, March 1, for Flowers After Hours, an event featuring live music, cocktails, a photo booth, and more. Tickets are required and available through MetroTix (limited capacity).
Igbo artist; Mask (agbogho mmwo), 20th century; wood, pigment, metal; 25 3/16 x 7 5/16 x 8 9/16 inches; Saint Louis Art Museum, Gift of Dr. Donald M. Suggs 223:1977
Art In Bloom
Friday, February 28 –March 2
For a full list of activities, visit www.slam.org
On Sunday, aligned with our highly successful Family Sunday program, gather the family for an afternoon of hands-on art activities and an interactive scavenger hunt in the galleries,
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ant – it’s not just about doing challenges and getting from place to place,” Jeff said. “We’re lumberjacks with loud chainsaws around us all the time, so for us to go out there with 13 other teams and play a social game, make friends and allies, I’m very proud of how we were able to navigate that.”
This season racers will encounter a new twist
Continued from C1
a church organist. When she was a small child, the family moved to Arlington, Virginia. By the time they arrived, she was already a piano prodigy.
At the tender age of fifteen she arrived on the campus of Howard University thanks to a full music scholarship. But her professional ambitions had nothing to do with singing.
“My real ambition was to be a concert pianist and to play Schumann and Bach and Chopin – the Romantics,” Flack told NPR in 2012. “Those were my guys.” Instead, she met a guy from St. Louis who helped her change the course of her musical purpose.
She found a musical kindred spirit in Vashon High School graduate Donny Hathaway. The pair collaborated throughout their time at Howard and beyond – when she became a music educator in Washington, DC and he became a studio singer
beginning at noon. Due to high attendance, parking near the Museum will be limited. A free shuttle will run every 20 minutes between the Museum and free parking lots near Forest Park’s Dennis & Judith Jones Visitor and Education Center and the Upper Muny Parking Lot. Full details at slam.org. Art in Bloom is presented by Bank of America. Friday programming is funded by Art Bridges Foundation’s Access for All program, and Family Florals is supported by KPMG. Don’t miss this extraordinary weekend of art, flowers, and community celebration!
called the “Fork in the Road.” It includes a trap during the first leg of the race in Hong Kong. The “Fork” will be encountered on their way to the Pit Stop. If racers choose the wrong direction, it may lead them to an elimination.
If Jeff and Pops are victorious, they won’t be the first St. Louisans to win
“The Amazing Race.” St. Louis’ own Dr. Maya Warren and her partner Amy DeJong captured the title for season 25 in 2014. They are looking for-
and session musician. She would perform at DC area lounges and clubs as a pianist and singer. It was through one of these gigs that she landed a deal with Atlantic Records, where she released her debut album “First Take” in 1968. Flack and Hathaway released “Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway” in 1972. The self-titled LP spawned the Grammy winning hit “Where is the Love.” They produced two albums together before Hathaway’s untimely death in 1979.
The year after their first duet album, Flack became a household name when Clint Eastwood chose “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” from “First Take,” for his film “Play Misty For Me.” The song introduced Flack to mainstream popular music. “Killing Me Softly” solidified her stardom and put her on the path to becoming a musical influence that has resonated with fellow artists and fans for more than fifty years. The duet “The Closer I Get To You,” a posthu-
ward to sharing their journey on “The Amazing Race” with the world.
“I’m just excited for our family to watch it,” Pops said. “I’m proud of our actions.”
“One thing I think you’ll be able to see is we had fun with it,” Jeff added. “And we’re just a father and son that wanted to take this experience in.”
The 37th season premiere of “The Amazing Race” will air at 8:30 p.m. CST on CBS. Check local listings for channels.
mous release for Donny Hathaway, ushered in a wave of hits in the 1980s for Flack, including duets with Peabo Bryson and Maxi Priest. She also enjoyed a stint as a singer of theme songs. Television audiences may have recognized her voice on the opening credits for “Valerie” and “The Hogan Family.”
Her music continued to inspire g singer/songwriters – and music lovers as a whole – for generations.
In 2023, Flack released a children’s book, “The Green Piano: How Little Me Found Music.” It was written with Tonya Bolden and was a lifelong goal for Flack. She received her flowers from the industry later that same year with the release of the PBS documentary, “American Masters: Roberta Flack.”
“Mrs. Flack was an artist, a singer-songwriter, a pianist and composer who moved me,” Hill said. “And showed me through her own creative choices and standards what else was possible within the idiom of Soul.”
Josephine Baker
By Cicely Hunter, Missouri Historical Society
St. Louis–born Josephine Baker was a world-renowned African American performer who blurred rigid gender categories with her clothing and appearance, spied for the French during World War II, and later in life became a civil rights activist in the United States. Many now revere her as an iconic symbol of the Harlem Renaissance era.
Born as Freda Josephine McDonald on June 3, 1906, Baker began her entertainment career at a young age, dancing on street corners around the Booker T. Washington Theater near Union Station to help her family financially. At age 15, she left St. Louis and joined a theatre troupe that performed vaudeville across the country. She later landed an opportunity to travel to Paris, where she starred in the successful La Revue Nègre and went on to have her own show. Baker became the first African American woman to star in a French motion picture in 1927. Throughout her career, she performed for mostly white audiences throughout Europe. One performance that Baker is often remembered for is Danse Sauvage in which she wore a banana skirt costume. Baker lived in Paris for many years, becoming a French citizen in 1937. She was an active participant in the French Resistance movement during World War II, using her fame to spy on German officials and sharing this information with French generals using invisible ink. For these and other efforts, she was awarded France’s Croix de Guerre military honor.
In a 1952 speech at the Kiel Auditorium, Baker revealed that America’s racial problems had caused her to flee both her hometown and her country of birth, but she felt compelled to return to the US to fight for civil rights. Baker refused to perform at certain US venues that did not allow integration, and many club owners and managers abandoned segregation to accommodate her request for integrated spaces. In 1963 she was one of a few women speakers at the March on Washington, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. By the 1970s, Baker had adopted 12 children from different countries, referring to her multiracial family as her “Rainbow Tribe.” Until her death at age 68 on April 12, 1975, she continued to perform and work as an activist. Baker
Travel
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began our first day trying the buffet. They had foods from all over the world. The entrees included interesting kinds of sausage, beans on toast, Asian desserts and more.
My cabin had a cove balcony – which is on a lower level, so you are very close to the water. I could feel the mist from the ocean while the ship was moving. Being on the balcony started the second major takeaway from my trip – an even deeper appreciation for nature.
While in Mazatlán I saw cliff divers and met a monkey in a dress named Linda. Her owner was kind enough to let me engage with his trusted companion. While ordering food on the beach, our waitress saw my camera. There was a language barrier, but
Josephine Baker sitting at Union Station during a March of Dimes promotional tour, 1948. Missouri Historical Society Collections.
was buried in Monaco in a French military uniform along with the medals she had received for her role in the French Resistance. On November 30, 2021, she became the first Black woman and the first entertainer to receive France’s highest honor by being symbolically interred in the Panthéon monument in Paris. Baker graced many stages throughout her life, incorporating feminism and civil rights activism into her life’s work. The Missouri History Museum honors Baker’s contributions to St. Louis’s African American and music history in the St. Louis Sound hallway exhibit on the second floor, which shares stories about her life as a star on the stage and beyond. She will also be featured in the upcoming Collected exhibit, which opens March 29, and in Mill Creek: Black Metropolis, opening in November.
On Tuesday, March 4, at 11am, the Museum will present “Josephine Baker: Dancer, Singer, Actor, Spy.” St. Louis Public Library’s Collection Development Librarian Cindy Fehmel will discuss Baker’s life of intrigue during World War II based on declassified information from Damien Lewis’s 2022 book Agent Josephine
This program is part of the African American History Initiative. Visit mohistory.org/events for more information.
she pointed to my camera and then began showing me sunset photos she had taken with her phone. I showed her a few of my photos as well. It was cool to bond with her even though we didn’t speak the same language. The same thing happened with our tour guide when we rode horses. Even though we had no idea what he was saying, the man had a great sense of humor. He told us he named his horse Peppa Pig. We passed a pack of stray cats, and he meowed at them as we rode our horses down a path and to the beach.
Cabo was the last port.
It was also my favorite.
We woke up at 5:30am and gathered in small groups to go whale watching. The boat bounced across the waves until we were far away from the shore. It slowed down and drifted in the deep water until a puff of water shot out of the ocean. The boat erupted in excited whispers – and everyone pointed at the puff of water coming from the blowhole of the whale. Whales come to the surface every five minutes to breathe. With each puff the whale’s body would soon appear before diving back under the surface. Sometimes their tails would show as they dove downwards. We also Saw Manta rays as they sprung completely out of the ocean and did backflips in the air before diving back into the water. Towards the end of the whale watching experience, we discovered a baby whale following its mother. The baby whale jumped out of the water and onto its side. Their bonding moment was one of my most treasured moments – it reminded me of the fun I had with my own family over the course of the vacation.
Flack
Celebrating Black History
Black history is being made each day throughout the St. Louis region by accomplished African Americans in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics fields. During Black History Month, the St. Louis American will be featuring individuals who are following the historic paths of great
scientists, engineers, and educators and also paving a way for others with STEM interests who are destined for future accomplishments
Dr. Danielle N. Lee shows science can be fun
By Sylvester Brown, Jr. St. Louis American
What is a Tanzanian giant pouched rat and how is it able to sniff out landmines, tuberculosis and possibly illegal drugs?
There are only a handful of people who can answer that question and Dr. Danielle N. Lee, assistant professor of biological sciences at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, is one of them.
Like Bill Nye “the Science Guy” or Neil deGrasse Tyson, Lee makes science-related topics not only interesting but fun and relatable. When explaining her life or her work she punctuates sentences with bodacious laughter. For example, when delivering her 2015 TED Talk on her team’s research of the giant African pouched rat, Lee wore a black evening gown with a knitted broach in her hair like singer Billy Holiday.
“That’s part of my intentionality when I show up in historical or academic science spaces. I show up as me,” Lee stressed adding: “That was my signature look; showing up with a flower in my hair. I would catch some flack at science conferences from people asking, ‘why do you do that?’ And I’d answer, ‘because I’m a beaut, that’s why.’”
There was even a bit of humor when Lee described the African poached rat; making sure there was no confusion with a Memphis, Chicago, New York or St. Louis rat.
“Oh no, those are like tiny, little pets… completely different species all together.”
The long road to becoming a featured Ted Talk science speaker started in Lee’s hometown of Memphis, Tennessee. She described her biological father as a “naturally trained man in the sciences” but a musician by trade. Her stepfather, she said, was an “outdoorsy” educator who still avidly watches nature shows today.
She was always fascinated by the plants and insects in her backyard. That interest peaked as she (the oldest of four siblings) went to work with her mother at the Memphis parks and recreational department.
“That’s how I got into it. I’d tag along with her and spend time outside,” Lee recalled.
She enrolled in college intent on becoming a veterinarian. Lee graduated with a degree in animal science but was
outreach efforts focusing on
mathematics) fields.
swayed by courses she had taken in animal behavior, which she described as “a sub discipline of ecology and evolution.”
“As I got deeper into it, I started peeling back the layers of biology and the evolutionary and ecological foundations of behavior,” Lee explained. “I finally formally learned about the stuff I had always been curious about. I learned vocabulary, concepts and the biology of how and why animals behave the way they do.”
Proudly asserting that she has been in
school her “whole life,” Lee detailed her obsession with learning how animals have adapted through time.
“It’s interesting to think about how history-and I mean long history, millions and millions and millions of years-have played a role in how organisms make a living,” she said.
After graduation, Lee rode the academic track but kept building her portfolio by pursuing her master’s and PhD (both in biology) while teaching classes at SIUE. She is best known for her science blog-
60 years after Malcolm X’s assassination, ‘it’s time to wake up’
death remains clouded in mystery
By Joseph Williams Word In Black
His image, peering through curtains while holding a rifle, is iconic, seared into the collective memory of Black America. His message of racial progress — defiant, hopeful, or threatening, depending on whom you ask — still resonates, decades after his voice was stilled. But the brutal assassination of El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, better known as Malcolm X, on Feb. 21, 1965, remains cloaked in shadow and doubt 60 years later. Though three men served prison time for his murder, there is reason to believe the FBI — which considered Shabazz an imminent national security threat —
helped orchestrate it.
That’s why Benjamin Crump, renowned civil rights attorney, has traveled to the spot where Shabazz was killed in 1965 to demand the declassification of files the government kept on him. Crump wants the public to know whether their government participated in the slaying of Shabazz, a seminal figure in American history.
Crump’s call for disclosure comes at a fraught time for Black America. Nearly two decades after the nation
Malcolm X would be sharing a philosophy that Black people “must do for ourselves” if he were alive today, according to Stanford professor and historian Lerone Martin.
ging and outreach efforts focusing on increasing minority participation in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields. In a way, she’s attempting to give what she didn’t receive growing up in Tennessee.
“I am ministering to my younger self,” Lee said. “I was a kid who enjoyed outdoors and animals and science. My family and community were supportive of me, but they didn’t have the capacity to give
2025 BLACK HISTORY MONTH
elected its first Black president — a milestone Shabazz could have scarcely imagined in his brief lifetime — the progress he and others in the civil rights movement fought and died for in the 1950s and 60s is under assault.
Just a month into his second term, President Donald Trump has taken a wrecking ball to the nation’s civil rights infrastructure.
Largely through executive order, the
Black
See Malcolm X, C5
Photo courtesy of the Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz Memorial Center
See Science, C5
Photo courtesy of SIU, Dr. Danielle Lee
Dr. Danielle Lee, who calls herself ‘outdoorsy’ is known for her biological studies and her science blogging and
increasing minority participation in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and
St. Louis Public Library will close out its Black History Month Film Series with “Sorry to Bother You,” starring Oscar nominated actor LaKeith Stanfield.
Science
Continued from C4
me objective information to guide me to that. So, I had to figure out a lot of stuff on my own.”
Her passion isn’t just about ensuring more people of color enter the science field.
“I would describe it this way: I want to make sure that people who come from historically excluded and marginalized communities-I call them communities where science is underserved-are exposed.”
In 2017, Lee was selected as a “National Geographic Emerging Explorer,” which was, in part, bestowed on her due to her work in Tanzania with a team researching the behavior and biology of landmine-sniffing giant
Malcolm X
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president has hollowed out the Civil Rights Act of 1964, shut down affirmative action in government hiring, sidetracked all active federal investigations of civil rights violations, and terminated teacher training grants that touched on the value of diversity or honestly teaching about race in America.
Lerone Martin, Stanford University professor of religious studies and African and African American studies, believes that if Shabazz were alive today, he would not be surprised that Trump, who succeeded President Barack Obama in 2016, wants to turn back the clock.
“There are too many ways in which this moment rhymes with the past,” says Martin.
“It feels like we’re still grappling with the lessons that Malcolm tried to teach us” more than half a century ago.
“He would have told us that in a certain sense, we ought to be appreciative of the fact that the enemies of justice and equality have made themselves known,” says Martin, who also is director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Center at
pouched rats. She is quick to note that some 20,000 people a year are killed from hidden land mines left in the ground from previous battles. Because she was trained in how animals-rats in particular-make decisions naturally, Lee’s research helped scientists formulate ways to train the rats on how to sniff out certain particles better.
The results? Lee said because of their work, “millions of acres of land in Mozambique and Angola have been returned completely de-land mined…completely thanks to these rats.” The work, she said, is continuing “right now in Cambodia and Vietnam.”
“And that’s just the landmine stuff,” she added excitedly. “Tuberculosis (research) is in progress right now. The rats are being trained to detect
Stanford. “It’s very clear who’s who. No more wolves hiding in sheep’s clothing.”
A Black civil rights icon, Shabazz rocketed to fame in the 1950s as a charismatic member of the Nation of Islam and a top lieutenant to its leader, Elijah Muhammed. A gifted orator, his speeches plainly calling out white supremacy captivated Black America and placed him in sharp contrast with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who favored ending Jim Crow through nonviolent resistance.
But Shabazz’s core message — Black people must embrace their African heritage, join the global fight against colonialism and defend themselves against white aggression, by any means necessary — concerned the white American power structure. Considered a “messiah” who could galvanize Black political power, Shabazz was placed under government surveillance as informants and undercover agents infiltrated his inner circle.
On Feb. 21, just before a high-profile speech at the Audubon Ballroom in the heart of north Harlem, a group of assassins, purportedly sent by Muhammed after Shabazz split from the NOI, stormed the stage and shot him some 20 times. Gunned down before
positive samples (tuberculosis bacteria). They’re saving lives by making diagnoses happen faster.” She added that the rats are also being trained to detect contraband at airports and aid in search-and-rescue operations.
Be it teaching on campus or in after school classes, Lee’s goal is the same.
“I do what’s called ‘urban or placed or based science,’” she said. “I show young people that their neighborhoods or backyards are amazing scientific labs and field spaces, and that science is a rewarding, fun and viable career avenue.
“This is my niche.”
Sylvester Brown Jr. is the Deaconess Foundation Community Advocacy Fellow.
his wife and daughters, Shabazz died three months shy of his 40th birthday. Three men were convicted, including one who confessed; two of them were eventually exonerated, and the third shooter was released on parole in 2010.
Martin says that Shabazz would have been disturbed that Black people “have been lulled to sleep” by integration and incremental progress, including Obama’s election 17 years ago, Martin says. While he would have been appalled by President Trump “equating a plane crash with DEI,” Martin says, Shabazz would also have argued that it is “well past time to organize” and fight back.
If the government bans teaching Black history in school, Shabazz would tell Black people to set up Black history classes in church or community centers, Martin says. He would have advised Black people to organize their vote and avoid depending on institutions “that never really served us, anyway.”
He would say, ‘Some of you have fallen asleep. And some of you thought that 2008 was going to usher us into the promised land,’” Martin says. “And I think he would have flashed that beautiful smile of his and say, ‘It’s time to wake up.’”
Visit website for eligibility and disclosures
Photo courtesy of SIUE, Dr, Danielle Lee
Dr. Danielle N. Lee, assistant professor of biological sciences at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, has a scientific fascination for the Tanzanian giant pouched rat, who can use its sense of smell to find landmines and detect tuberculosis and illegal drugs.
MEDICAL TECHNOLOGISTS
Medical Technologists needed by Mercy Clinic East Communities at a location in St. Louis, MO. Requires bachelor’s degree in Medical Laboratory Sciences and eligibility for ASCP or AMT certification. Email CV to Christina Turnage at christina.turnage@mercy.net
LIBRARY ASSOCIATE
The St. Louis County Library is seeking applicants for a part-time Library Associate at our Samuel Sachs Branch. Performs a variety of circulation, reference, and clerical duties to meet the needs of Library customers. High School Diploma or equivalent required. Schedule: Tuesday and Wednesday –4pm-8pm, Saturday – 8:45am-5:15pm, one Sunday per month. Salary $17.99/hour, plus paid vacation. Apply at https://www.slcl.org/about-us/ employment. Equal Opportunity Employer.
GUARDIAN AD LITEM –FAMILY COURT - JUVENILE DIVISION
Family Court (Juvenile Division) of St. Louis County is seeking an attorney to serve as guardian ad litem (GAL) in the Family Court to handle juvenile matters/ parent attorney. A GAL who serves the Court must commit to serve on various Family Court (Juvenile) cases on an as needed basis for a monthly retainer to be paid by public funds. The current retainer is in the amount of $2,500.00 per month. Payments for time expended in adoption, guardianship of minor, and termination of parental rights matters may be made over and above the retainer fee.
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS: Graduation from an accredited law school, possession of a current license to practice law in the State of Missouri, up to three (3) years of trial experience preferred; preferably in juvenile or family law (additional years of trial experience and guardian ad litem experience are highly preferred), and completion of necessary guardian ad litem training as required by the Supreme Court of Missouri. Note: This position is subject to continued availability of funding.
To apply, please send a current resume, along with a cover letter, to SLCCourtJobs@courts.mo.gov or to the following address (application materials must be postmarked by March 28, 2025): Family Court of St. Louis County, Attn: Human Resources Department, 105 S. Central Ave., Clayton, MO 63105. EOE. Please contact the Human Resources Department at 615-4471 (voice) or RelayMo 711 or 800-735-2966 if you need any accommodations in the application process, or if you would like this posting in an alternative form.
10 MEDICAL TECHNOLOGISTS
O’Grady Peyton is a Staffing Company is seeking up to 10 Medical Technologists for assignments at Mercy Hospitals in Festus and Washington, MO locations. Applicants must have ASCP certification, bachelor’s degree in MT/ CLS, and 24 months’ work experience as a Medical Technologist. Please send resume to OGPMTresumes@ amnhealthcare.com
HR GENERALIST III – TRAINING DIRECTOR – 21ST CIRCUIT COURT
Family Court of St. Louis County is hiring for a Human Resources Generalist III- Training Director in our Human Resources Department. The HR Generalist III - Training Director coordinates and oversees the planning, development and delivery of educational and training programs for the entire St. Louis County Circuit Court, ensuring these programs support the goals and direction of the court and provide development opportunities for employees. This position is responsible for all aspects of training for State and County employees for the Saint Louis County Circuit Court (excluding all Article 5 Judges), and reports to the Director of Human Resources.
Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university in training or related behavioral science (preferred). At least 5 years of experience in training or an equivalent combination of training and experience. Experience training in a government environment is preferred. This is a non-merit position. Recruitment for this position will be handled by the Family Court of St. Louis County. Position is eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness.
As an employer, St. Louis County cares about the health and well-being of our employees. In an effort to provide for the best possible work-life balance, the County offers a generous benefits package that includes affordable health insurance, dental and vision coverage, 4 weeks of Paid Time Off the first year, 11 paid holidays, deferred benefit retirement plan, paid life insurance as well as short- and long-term disability. A full listing of benefits is available under the benefit tab at the top of this page.
Pay Grade 12 - $55,536 - $83,304. This position is eligible for the 10% addition to pay effective January 12, 2020.
Note: All selected individuals will be required to submit to a background check. Apply online at the following link on or before February 28, 2025. https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/stlouis/jobs/4778399
EOE. Please contact the Human Resources Department at 314-615-8088 (voice) or RelayMO 711 or 800-735-2966 if you need any accommodations in the application process, or if you would like this posting in an alternative format. Cover letter and resume may also be sent to: Attention: Human Resources, Circuit Court of St. Louis County, 105 S. Central Avenue, Clayton, MO 63105.
SOLICITING BID
Reinhardt Construction LLC is Soliciting Bids from MBE/WBE/DBE/Veteran/SDVE for the following:
CP250271 Clinical Support and Education
– SIM Center Training Space Renovation, Phase II
Contact: Mike Murray ; mikem@reinhardtconstructionllc.com
Phone: 573-682-5505
SEALED BIDS
Bids for Install New Heating Unit at Bothwell Lodge State Historic Site, Project No. X233101, will be received by FMDC, State of MO, UNTIL 1:30 PM, March 20, 2024. Project information available at: http://oa.mo. gov/facilities
SEALED BIDS
Bids for Crossroads & Esperanza Group HomesRemodel Shower & Restroom, Group Home Buildings, Project No. M2412-01 will be received by FMDC, State of MO, UNTIL 1:30 PM, March 27, 2025. Project information available at: http://oa.mo. gov/facilities
SEALED BIDS
Bids for Chilled Water Renovations at Missouri State Capitol Building, Project No. O235301, will be received by FMDC, State of MO, UNTIL 1:30 PM, March 27, 2025. Project information available at: http://oa.mo. gov/facilities
PUBLIC NOTICE
Notice is hereby given that the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District Requests for Quotes, Bids and Proposals are posted online for public download. Please navigate to www.msdprojectclear.org > Doing Business With Us > View Bid Opportunities Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
WAITING LIST WOODLAND TOWERS APARTMENTS
306 PINE LAKE ROAD COLLINSVILLE, IL, 62234
Seniors 62 and older Apply now for an affordable 1-bedroom unit. Stop by the office or Call: (618) 345-7240 for an application Applications may be returned in person or by mail. Monday-Friday 8-5 Managed by Related Management Company
St. LouiS american Bids &
REQUEST FOR BIDS
STRUCTURAL REPAIR & RELATED SERVICES
4067 SAINT LOUIS AVENUE
ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI 63115
Issued February 18, 2025 Responses Due March 19, 2025
The Land Reutilization Authority of the City of St. Louis, MO (LRA) is seeking sealed Bids from qualified firms for structural repair and related work.
Selected firm(s) will s tabilize and repair the building at 4067 Saint Louis Avenue. There is a Pre Bid Meeting scheduled March 7th at 9:30 a.m. at 4067 Saint Louis Avenue.
Sealed Bids may be submitted via STL Permits at https:// www.stlcitypermits.com/ or by hard copy at 1520 Market Street Suite 2000 St. Louis, Missouri 63103 (Attention: General Contractors), until 1:00 PM on March 19, 2025, at which time there will be a public bid opening.
The full invitation and all other documents may be downloaded at: https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/ government/procurement.cfm
REQUEST FOR BIDS
Great Rivers Greenway is requesting bids for Brickline Greenway - Digital Smart Kiosks. Go to https:// greatriversgreenway. org/bids/ and submit by March 28,2025.
REQUEST FOR BIDS
Great Rivers Greenway is requesting bids for Mississippi Greenway: Chain of Rocks Park Bridge Gates. Go to https:// greatriversgreenway. org/bids/ and submit by March 30,2025.
REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS
CITY OF ST. LOUIS OFFICE OF VIOLENCE PREVENTION REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS –PROGRAMS TO REDUCE CRIME AMONG AT-RISK YOUTH (PROP S)
The City of St. Louis Office of Violence Prevention, in partnership with the St. Louis Board of Aldermen, invites proposals from qualified nonprofits for youth programs to reduce crime among at-risk youth. The RFP may be found online at: https://tinyurl.com/ovp-rfp.
The Leadership School is accepting proposals for contracting out the Food Service Program with a Fixed Price contract for the 2025-2026 school year. Request for Proposals are due by 5:00p on Wednesday April 2, 2025.For questions and bid specifications, please contact the Whitney Hooks at 314-492-2301. The Leadership School reserves the right to reject any or all bids.
LETTING #8787 ADA IMPROVEMENTS CITY HALL WAYFINDING SIGNAGE ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI
Electronically sealed bids will be received by the Board of Public Service through the Bid Express Online Portal at https:// www.bidexpress.com/businesses/20618/home?agency=true. Proposals must be submitted before 1:45 PM, St. Louis Time, on Tuesday, MARCH 25, 2025. The proposals will then be publicly opened and read.
The bidder must pay $50 to submit a bid through the Bid Express service. Monthly subscriptions are available.
Plans, Specifications, and the Agreement may be examined online through Bid Express at https://www.bidexpress.com/businesses/20618/home? agency=true and may be downloaded for free.
An optional pre-bid conference for all contractors bidding on this project will be held at City Hall, 1200 Market St., Room 325 on March 4, 2025, at 10:00 AM. All bidders are strongly encouraged to attend the pre-bid meeting.
Bidders shall comply with all applicable City, State, and Federal laws (including MBE/WBE policies.)
The right of the Board of Public Service to reject any or all bids is expressly reserved.
SEALED BIDS
REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS Family Sub-Contracted Services
The St. Louis City Family Court is seeking proposals from service providers to address behaviors that have resulted in referrals to the Family Court. Proposals should be submitted no later than 4:00 p.m. on March 7, 2025 Interested service providers may obtain the Proposal Specifications by accessing www.stlcitycircuitcourt.com and selecting Courts & Services, Court Administration, then Requests For Proposals.
SEALED BIDS
Bids for Site Development and Security at Jefferson City Scruggs Station Warehouse, Project No. O243308, will be received by FMDC, State of MO, UNTIL 1:30 PM, March 25, 2025 Project information available at: http://oa.mo. gov/facilities
NOTICE OF ELECTION
PRIMARY MUNICIPAL ELECTION
CITY OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 2025
SEALED BIDS
Bids for Upgrade Electrical Service, Rolla Regional Office Project No. M240901, Rolla, MO will be received by FMDC, State of MO, UNTIL 1:30 PM, March 27, 2025. Project information available at: http://oa.mo. gov/facilities
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that a Primary Municipal Election will be held at the designated polling place for each precinct in the City of St. Louis, State of Missouri, on Tuesday, March 4, 2025. The polls will be open between the hours of 6:00 A.M. and 7:00 P.M. for the purpose of nominating candidates for Mayor, Comptroller, and Alderman in Wards 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 13.
As a result of the passage of Proposition D on November 3, 2020, all candidates for office on March 4, 2025, will run as non-partisan candidates, and voters may vote for as many candidates for each office as they approve of. The two candidates who receive the most votes for each office on March 4 will have their names appear on the April 8, 2025, General Municipal Election ballot. In addition, as a result of the passage of Ordinance No. 71736 on December 14, 2023, there is no primary for any office that has less than three candidates.
The last day the Board of Election Commissioners can accept an application to vote an absentee ballot by mail in the March 4, 2025 Primary Municipal Election is 5:00 P.M. on Wednesday, February 19, 2025. Absentee voting in person will conclude at 5:00 P.M. on Monday, March 3, 2025. The office of the Board of Election Commissioners will be open on Saturday, March 1, 2025, from 9:00 A.M. until 1:00 P.M.
THE OFFICIAL BALLOT WILL BE SUBSTANTIALLY IN THE FOLLOWING FORM:
INSTRUCTIONS TO VOTERS: In today’s election, you will receive a paper ballot that contains the names of the candidates for whom you may vote, regardless of your polling location. To cast your ballot, completely darken the box to the left of the name(s) of the candidate(s) of your choice. When you finish marking your ballot, insert it into the scanner.
Do not try to punch through the ballot. Use only a black or blue ink pen to mark your ballot. If you tear, deface or make a mistake and incorrectly mark your ballot, return it to the Election Judges and obtain a new ballot.
FOR MAYOR
(Vote for AS MANY names as you approve of.)
MICHAEL “MIKE” BUTLER
TISHAURA O. JONES
CARA SPENCER
ANDREW JONES
FOR COMPTROLLER
(Vote for AS MANY names as you approve of.)
DONNA M.C. BARINGER
DARLENE GREEN
CELESTE METCALF
FOR ALDERMAN WARD 3
(Vote for AS MANY names as you approve of.)
DALLAS ADAMS
SHANE COHN
INEZ BORDEAUX
FOR ALDERMAN WARD 11
(Vote for AS MANY names as you approve of.)
MELINDA LONG
REBECCA MCCLOUD
LAURA M. KEYS
YOU HAVE NOW COMPLETED VOTING.
Bids for Retaining Wall Replacement WMMHCBM, Project No. M240701 will be received by FMDC, State of MO, UNTIL 1:30 PM, March 20, 2025. Project information available at: http://oa.mo. gov/facilities
IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF: The undersigned, comprising the Board of Election Commissioners for the City of St. Louis, State of Missouri, have caused this notice to be signed and the official seal of the office to be affixed at the office of the Board of Election Commissioners in St. Louis, Missouri, this 24th day of January, 2025.
BOARD OF ELECTION COMMISSIONERS FOR THE CITY OF ST. LOUIS
JERRY M. HUNTER Chairman/Member
GERALDINE M. KRAEMER ANDREW L. SCHWARTZ Member Member
(Seal) Attest: JOSEPH A. BARBAGLIA Secretary/Member
By Dorothy Boulware Word In Black
When Dr. Suzan “Sujay” Johnson-Cook answered her call to ministry, she and other Black women had plenty of influential clergymen who advised, supported and encouraged them along what was — and is — an overwhelmingly male institution. She remembers them with great affection.
“We had wonderful mentors in Dr. A.C.D. Vaughn, Dr. Gardner Taylor,” says JohnsonCook, a pastor, author and former U.S. ambassador-atlarge for international religious freedom. “And we just buried Rev. Dr. Robert Perry last week.”
Still, “there were no women to guide us,” she says. “We literally blazed trails.”
Now, as the role of women in ministry continues to expand globally, Johnson-Cook has forged yet another path. She is the founder of Women in Ministry International (WIMIN), an organization dedicated to empowering and mentoring female faith leaders as well as encouraging and inspiring the next generation of women at the pulpit.
Along with support, leadership development, and self-care guidance, WIMIN will help “ensure that women in ministry have the resources, community, and encouragement they need to lead effectively,” says Johnson-Cook. “Too often, women in leadership roles are pouring into others without anyone pouring into them. We’re here to change that.”
Martha Simmons, founder of Women of Color in Ministry,
Religion Forging a new path
which helps women navigate the process of getting ordained, estimated in an Associated Press article that less than one in 10 Black Protestant congregations are led by a woman, even as more Black women are attending seminary.
The Association of Theological Schools reported in 2022 a total of 5,068 Black men enrolled in seminary with 4,412 Black women enrolling as well. This is significant because when compared to other racial groups, Black men and Black women enroll in seminary at comparable rates
The African Methodist Episcopal Church estimates that one-fourth of its total staff are women, including 1,052 ordained ministers.
Johnson Cook says they’re also intentional in supporting those called to non-traditional or non-parish ministries.
“There are all kinds of chaplaincies that were not really open to Black women for a long time: in the corporate place, in the sports place, in the law enforcement space, and our members are exposed to all of this,” she says.
WIMIN operates under the umbrella of Women on the Worldstage (W.O.W.), a nonprofit organization dedicated to amplifying the global voices of multicultural women leaders. One of its flagship events, The Total Package Conference, is set to take place April 3-5, 2025, at the Holiday Inn, Washington Capitol.
“This conference is all about equipping women with the tools they need — spiritually, emotionally, and professionally,” says Johnson-Cook, who served
on the White House Domestic Policy Council during the Clinton administration. “It’s not just about ministry; it’s about leadership in every aspect of life.”
And, she says, it’s about taking care of themselves and each other.
“So many of us had to work in isolation and in small congregations with little resources. And so many either burnt out or quit or just got so discouraged or died,” says
Johnson-Cook, New York City’s first female police chaplain.
“There’s a whole generation that started with me that died because they didn’t have any support systems. And I’m convinced that my legacy is to elevate, celebrate, and make sure women are given the proper chance.”
During the April international conference, there will be breakout sessions for training as well as small-group discussions so women can foster connections and establish bonds with one another. Women who’ve participated for the last four years, Johnson-Cook says, will serve as session leaders for the newcomers.
“We’re tithing our time and our talent,” she says. “We hope they will not be a rocky thorny ground but will be received and
that trees will grow to provide shade for future generations.”
Rev. Lisa Jenkins, a long-time member of WIMIN, praised the organization’s impact.
“I’ve attended The Total Package conference for years, and every time, I leave feeling recharged and ready to serve my congregation with new energy,” says Jenkins, who leads St. Matthew’s Baptist Church in Harlem.
“Dr. Sujay, as we call her, has created something truly special for women in ministry.”
Through events like these, WIMIN continues to be a driving force for advocacy, education, and well-being among women faith leaders.
For more information, visit thewowfactor.live.
Photo courtesy of Suzan Johnson-Cook