June 16th, 2016 Edition

Farewell to ‘The Greatest’

n

By Alvin A. Reid

– Lonnie Ali

hundreds of workers from nearby hospitals, clinics and offices –doctors, nursed, custodians and staff – stood

together as the city’s favorite son made one last trip through the city in which he was born. Jason Anderson of ESPN 680 AM, a Louisville native, said, “I’ve

Ferguson veteran graduates

By Morgan Bradley For The St. Louis American

n “There is nothing I’m doing now that I could have done without Mike Brown and Ferguson.”

– Bradley J. Rayford

it wasn’t until high school that he realized he had a talent for photography.

“I picked up the camera, ”Rayford said, “looked at a picture I took and noticed it

By Rebecca Rivas Of

photography. Even though his father, Oscar Rayford, is a photographer for KMOV,

Photo by Lawrence Bryant

Photo courtesy of St. Louis Community College

Lil Wayne released from hospital after seizures

Rapper Lil Wayne has been released from the hospital after suffering two seizures on a cross-country flight.

Wayne was flying from Milwaukee to California when the first seizure occurred. He blacked out when the pilot put the jet down Monday afternoon in Omaha, Nebraska.

He was said to have regained consciousness and was alert when paramedics arrived on the airstrip, but he suffered another seizure after refusing medical attention.

Wayne checked into an Omaha hospital following the second seizure.

Tuesday night he took to twitter to thank his fans for their support after check ing out of the hospital.

TMZ reported that their sources said Wayne carried around five 16 oz.

bottles of Promethazine/Codeine syrup during a club appearance just before his fateful flight – and that onlookers claim he drank three of the bottles by himself.

Kevin Hart’s home hit by burglars

Comedian Kevin Hart was targeted by burglars who ransacked his home.

According to reports, the back door on Kevin Hart’s Tarzana, California home was pried open over the weekend and thieves made off with more than $500K in jewelry, watches and Hart, who was in Miami training with Ndamukong Suh, came home Monday and reported the theft.

Bobby Brown claims escapade with Ms. Jackson in new book

In his new memoir, “Every Little Step: My Story: Bobby Brown,” Bobby Brown claims he secretly dated Janet Jackson but dumped her after she wouldn’t leave her part-

ner for him. According to Us Weekly, Brown says he thought Janet would leave Rene Elizondo Jr. for him, but “she told me she wasn’t in love with me,” he told Us Weekly.

“She loved me but wasn’t in love with me,” he said, adding that the singer told him, “My father won’t allow me to be with a black man.” Brown wrote in his book that her remarks about her father compelled him to kick her out of the hotel room where they had been “lying in bed after having sex.”

“I exploded and I threw her out,” he wrote.

Brown says he had been crushing on Janet since the 1970s.

“I fell in love with her when she was Penny on ‘Good Times’,” Brown told Us Weekly. “It goes back that far, you know, my infatuation with her.”

Details of Mike Epps divorce proceedings emerge

According to documents from their divorce proceedings – which appeared on popular urban celebrity news and gossip site Bossip.com – Mechelle Epps wants spousal support as well as full legal custody of the two children in her split with actor/comedian Mike Epps The couple married in July 2006, and they have two daughters, aged 10 and 8. Mike Epps filed for

Is Lil Scrappy about to be set out?

Several outlets are reporting that “Love and Hip Hop Atlanta” star Lil Scrappy is facing eviction from his Stone Mountain, Georgia home.

A judge was said to have signed off on an eviction notice for Scrappy after his landlord sued him for non-payment of rent.

STL rallies in support of hate crime victims in Orlando

By Durrie Bouscaren

Radio

Of St. Louis Public

People from throughout St. Louis marched through the Grove neighborhood late Sunday to hold a vigil for the people killed and wounded in an attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

In the largest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, 50 people died and another 53 were injured when a gunman opened fire as Latin night ended at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. Police stormed the nightclub and killed the suspected shooter, 29-year-old Omar Mateen.

The attack stunned people across the nation, and sparked expressions of solidarity from the LGBT community and their allies. In St. Louis, people from the Metro Trans umbrella group, Pride STL and others gathered at Manchester and Sarah Street, where they began chanting, “we will not forget ... we will not lose hope .... our anger will build peace.”

Holding candles, homemade signs and rainbow flags, about 1,000 marched to the Transgender Memorial Garden where the Gateway Men’s Chorus sang.

Ethical Society Director James Croft asked participants to raise their candles if they had ever been threatened with violence, for being gay, lesbian transgender or queer.

“That’s what we live with every day, and that threat

became real today in Orlando, in a club, a space that’s supposed to be safe,” Croft said. “A space that we built for ourselves to get away from the violence.”

Croft and the other speakers called for an end to hate, to gun violence, and for quick action by lawmakers. But the gathering largely focused on Florida.

“Hopefully a little bit of emotional reconciliation, a stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Orlando who have been impacted by this terrible tragedy,” said Alderman Shane Cohn, D-25th Ward.

In St. Louis, many, especially those with loved ones in Orlando, were still stunned shortly before the vigil was set to begin.

“It makes me sick to my stomach because I’m still trying to get a hold of my cousin, and I’ve heard nothing,” said Matt Cherry, 38, of St. Louis. Cherry said he first heard the news on Facebook. At 7 p.m., he still hadn’t heard

from his cousin who lives in Orlando and was at Pulse.

While he waited at a local bar, he checked his phone constantly.

“He was there last night with his boyfriend,” Cherry said. “I’m still waiting to hear, but I haven’t heard nothing. [Family] has been trying to call his phone, and nothing. I keep checking my phone. All I get is the Weather Channel.”

That’s why Cherry wanted to come to the vigil.

“’My husband and I live right up the street,” he said. “I feel like I have to be here.”

Cohn hopes that the vigil and others like it will help spur political action that helps protect people from such violence.

“The LGBT community is still a target and we need to take stands to support and protect them, not continually harass them and make it illegal for them to be who they are,” he said.

That the violence occurred during Pride month came as a stark reminder to many that

Ashley Gregory stood with hundreds of attendees on Sunday, June 12 at a St. Louis vigil held in honor of those killed and injured when a gunman opened fire at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

members of the community can be targets.

“We got word of this tragedy early in the morning, and we’re heartbroken,” said Landon Brownfield, director of marketing and PR for Pride STL. “Because it’s not only a loss to the Orlando, Florida community, but it’s a loss to our community and to the worldwide LGBT community.” Brownfield said Pride STL will go on as planned on June 24-26 in downtown St. Louis, but with a police presence and enhanced hired security.

“But we’re still encouraging every person to remain alert to their surroundings and to report any suspicious behavior to security and police personnel,” he said.

“It is something that affects the worldwide LGBT community,” Brownfield said, “and it shows that while we’ve come a long way, there’s still a very long way to go.”

Follow Durrie on Twitter: @ durrieB.

Reprinted with permission from news.stlpublicradio.org.

Going to the zoo while black

A first-grader from Wichita, Kansas was mauled by a leopard after the boy scaled a 4-foot railing that surrounded the leopard exhibit, crossed an 8-foot gap and approached the animal’s cage.

A 3-year old boy at Little Rock Zoo with his father and grandfather slipped through the railings surrounding a jaguar exhibition and sustained multiple injuries after he fell 15-feet into the cat pit.

A 2-year-old boy at the Cleveland Zoo suffered injuries to his legs after he experienced a 10-foot fall into a cheetah exhibit after his mother dangled him over the exhibit’s railing.

Outside of the fact that these incidents occurred at zoos, the common factor that these incidents hold is that neither the race of the child nor the race or criminal history of their parents was ever a point of emphasis by media outlets.

in St. Louis serves as another example of this trend. A white infant died from heat exposure after her parents forgot that she was in the backseat of the family vehicle. The parents were not charged with a crime related to her death. Instead, the public was encouraged to show that family sympathy.

Less than a week later, a black mother was arrested after she left her adolescent children in an air-conditioned car while she ran into a store to grab a few items. This woman was summarily vilified in the media.

There is a disparity in how we present certain groups as worthy of mercy and understanding while simultaneously holding other groups to a different standard. How can we who seek justice and equality for all help to change this unequal practice?

The father of the boy who recently fell into the Cincinnati Zoo gorilla exhibit inhabited by Harambe didn’t fare so well.

Within days of Harambe’s death, the father’s personal history and information were being shared by media outlets. Ironically, the father wasn’t at the zoo when his son tumbled into the enclosure.

After finding out that the child and his parents were black, multiple outlets began to point to their race as a contributing factor for why the boy ended up in the predicament. This leads me to wonder why black people don’t receive the benefit of the doubt when high-profile incidents like this occur.

An incident that occurred

First, when someone’s ethnicity is identified in a story, we can ask ourselves if the inclusion of that information makes a difference in why a situation occurred. Second, we can call out writers and media outlets that make ethnicity a criteria in who to hold accountable and who not to hold accountable.

Third, we all can engage in honest dialogue with people of ethnicities that differ from ours so that we can learn how they are unique from us yet similar to us in so many ways.

Terrell Carter is assistant professor and director of Contextualized Learning at Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Shawnee, Kansas and pastor of Webster Groves Baptist Church. Follow him on Twitter @tcarterstl.

Photo by Carolina Hidalgo / St. Louis Public Radio

Guest Columnist

Terrell Carter

Editorial /CommEntary

North St. Louis: from depletion (finally) to investment

Advocates for North St. Louis routinely condemn the “Team Four Plan,” which was not a complete plan but rather one memorandum submitted by Team Four Architects to a comprehensive plan for the city being drafted in 1975. This memo defined something called a “depletion area” as any part of the city “where population and building stock were experiencing severe problems requiring redevelopment but where reinvestment had not yet begun,” as William Albinson of Team Four wrote in this paper in 2008. The memo urged, as Albinson wrote, “that spreading scarce redevelopment funds thinly across all depletion areas would not work; that the city should make commitments to specific locations.”

An oversimplification of the advice might be that the city leaders should focus development efforts on parts of the struggling city that were already bounding back, and consign areas “experiencing severe problems requiring redevelopment” to at least temporary oblivion. Albinson argued in this paper that his team’s memo was never an organized plan formally adopted by the city. Yet, consciously or not, the city has pursued a development strategy consistent with this advice, and anyone with eyes can see that the “depletion areas” left undeveloped were heavily concentrated in North St. Louis, which also has the city’s highest density of African-American residents. In a cultural moment today where “racial equity” is a priority (at least on everyone’s lips), the idea of consciously leaving majority-black areas of the city depleted and undeveloped looks both unjust and unwise (and arguably racist). It has had the effect of concentrating poverty in majority-black neighborhoods and, in the absence of legitimate economic means of earning an income, it has helped to foster crime and spawn a criminal underclass that endangers us all.

Louis, and the amenities required for a workforce of that scale will create many more jobs. The first definite sign of new economic development is Paul McKee Jr.’s announcement that his NorthSide Regeneration project will finally break ground in the 1,500 acres in North St. Louis it controls. McKee said NorthSide will begin construction on 3,000 market-rate residential units – starting with 500 units over the next five years – in a partnership with Washington-based national developer Telesis and local CRG Real Estate Solutions.

n North St. Louis is, for the first time in the 40 years since a “depletion area” was defined, poised for new development of scale.

These are high-tech jobs moving to North St. Louis that will create cross-town synergies with the downtown start-up community and Cortex in the city’s central corridor. The NGA’s decision to stay in the city and move north coincides with a number of other promising, current public and private developments. The Arch grounds are being refurbished in a $380 million project, which will boost tourism and help integrate the riverfront into downtown. The BJC Campus Renewal Project is well underway (BJC said it does not provide the cost of its construction projects). Forest Part Forever continues its partnership with the City of St. Louis to make $30 million in improvements to the city’s great park that anchors development around its periphery. More than $300 million in enhancements to the east end of Washington University’s Danforth Campus, which borders the city, have just gotten started. When you connect all of these projects, it’s possible to have hope that St. Louis has started to turn itself around and transform itself into a place where more people will want to live, work and play.

As I See It - A Forum for Community Issues

What our next mayor must face

By Eric E. Vickers Guest columnist

With St. Louis being in the funnel of the black tornado that upended Ferguson and swept across America, the upcoming mayor’s race is probably the most significant in the city’s history. All the combustible elements that combined to ignite Ferguson – principally poverty, race and an oppressive legal apparatus – exist undeniably in the Gateway City. And undeniably, the next mayor will have to offer solutions to this urban explosiveness.

The usual campaign rhetoric of “bridging the racial divide,” or “healing” the racial strife, will not suffice. For the African-American community – an essential organ of the entire community – faces in the Ferguson era an evil equal to the evil of racism. Namely, inner destruction.

It is virtually impossible for black leaders, particularly the millennial leaders, to openly discuss the terror and horror blacks are subjected to from their own because it distracts from addressing the horror and terror whites inflict with racism, both overtly and systemically. In fact, the first wall of defense whites erect when confronted with white police violence against blacks

is the “black-on-black crime” argument. Thus, whenever a black is shot down by a white cop, whites almost instinctively turn a blind eye to that as a crime and reflexively focus on the statistics of blacks killing other blacks. And whenever a black shoots an innocent black mother or child, their response – and even that of some blacks – is to ask why there are no protests of that kind of killing.

Although the only logical connection between a white police officer shooting an unarmed black and a black shooting an innocent black is violence, the fact that the problem of one is not the same as – or even tied to – the other does not alleviate our imperative to solve both.

Due to protest actions, the next mayor will have at his or her disposal all the post-Ferguson implemented or suggested tools to solve the problem of police excessiveness, such as body cameras, civilian review, and increased and independent prosecutorial scrutiny.

The tools to eradicate the violence that blacks wreak on themselves, however, have yet to be forged. And protests will not form them. A protest against blacks killing blacks is impractical, if not irrational. Because unlike a protest against a cop shooting, in which a demand is being made on the authorities to bring him to justice, a protest against a murder in a carjacking crime, for example, has no effect on such perpetrators. The only protest that would make sense in that situation would be one against the police, demanding that they more effectively perform their obligation to protect the public from criminals.

The next mayor will have to turn instead to social engineering and cultural tools to end the destructiveness blacks perpetrate on the black community. He or she will have to construct a livable environment and an economic foundation that provides more than the subsistence survival that engenders crime in a society where wealth abounds.

Equally important, the next mayor will have to re-instill in the black community the brotherly and sisterly love that once made a black harming another black person an intolerable act and an unspeakable shame.

Those of us who decry this historical pattern should be celebrating the relocation of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s Western Headquarters to North St. Louis, to what would certainly qualify (40 years after Team Four’s memo) as a depletion area. The NGA’s decision transformed the prospects for this depletion area overnight into one of the region’s most promising new hubs for redevelopment. The $1.75-billion construction project will create 15,000 construction jobs, with commitments to hiring minority workers and city residents. NGA West brings the agency’s 3,100 jobs to North St.

Thanks to the NGA – and, yes, Paul McKee Jr., who assembled the land that made the city’s NGA West bid possible – North St. Louis is, for the first time in the 40 years since a “depletion area” was defined (and going back decades before that), poised for new development of scale. We still have to be vigilant and firm to make certain that this development proceeds in a way that fosters the racial equity and inclusion that has been promised – and that this region needs as badly as it needs economic investment. And we regret the displacement of a number of families who made North St. Louis their home during the many years their neighborhoods were dismissed as “depletion areas” by developers. But let’s be clear: a huge jump start to badly needed economic investment has begun in North St. Louis, and that is something to celebrate.

Commentary

Early winner of 2016 campaign: Obama

If you look at the polls, it is clear who’s winning in the 2016 presidential contest: Barack Obama. There remains the technical impediment that the president is constitutionally barred from a third term. But the longer the campaign goes on, the higher Obama’s approval rating rises. This should be bad for Donald Trump and good for the eventual Democratic nominee, almost certainly Hillary Clinton. But it is even better for Obama’s legacy.

According to Gallup, which has been charting the nation’s assessment of its presidents longer than anyone else, Obama’s approval stands at 52 percent, compared with 44 percent disapproval. That may not look impressive but it is actually quite good for a president nearing the end of his second term; Ronald Reagan, by comparison, had 49 percent approval at this point in his tenure.

For most of last year, Obama’s numbers were upsidedown – more Americans disapproved than approved. So why the turnaround?

I believe the increasingly warm feelings about the president must have something to do with the contrast between him and his potential successors. Trump and Clinton may be the most widely disliked major-party contenders ever (though Trump is arguably in a class of his own, with nearly two-thirds of Americans saying they would never, under any circumstances, vote for him as president.)

The speculation about when Trump will shift tactics and begin acting “presidential” is

laughable. It should be clear by now that Trump is not only unwilling to change but incapable of doing so. Look at the way he continues to lash out at anyone he perceives as having slighted him – New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, for example, a potentially valuable ally whom Trump is determined to make into an enemy. Look at the news conference at which he lashed out at a reporter, calling him a “sleaze,” for having questioned Trump’s record of charitable giving. Then look at Obama. Whatever you think of his policies, not for a minute has he failed to comport himself with the dignity and gravitas required to serve as president. Never has he given the impression of acting out of pique rather than calculation. Never does he seem a threat to put ego-gratification above what he believes to be the best interests of the nation.

Another factor in Obama’s rising approval has to be the realization that despite Republican proclamations of doom and gloom, on balance things are going pretty well. Slow but steady economic expansion has not only reduced unemployment to 5 percent but also perhaps begun to move the needle slightly on incomes. Consumer confidence, an important indicator, is up. The effect of the recovery hardly feels like a boom but is nothing

like the total bust that Trump and other Republicans describe.

The president has been increasingly forthright in showcasing his administration’s record. He has also demonstrated his intention to do everything he can to ensure that his successor is a Democrat who seeks to build on his achievements, not dismantle them.

Like many presidents in their final months, Obama is spending considerable time and effort on foreign affairs. Here, too, we see contrast and legacy. He has fundamentally changed the U.S.-Cuba relationship in ways that will be hard for anyone to reverse. He has continued to act with extreme caution in the Middle East, resisting calls for substantial deployment of U.S. combat forces. He made a bold statement against nuclear proliferation by visiting Hiroshima and hugging a survivor of the atomic bombing that turned the city into a smoldering wasteland.

Trump, on the other hand, believes it would be fine if Japan and South Korea got nuclear weapons of their own. We tend to appreciate presidents more after they leave office. The inevitable reassessment of the Obama years seems to be starting early -- perhaps in apprehension of the years to come. Even Obama’s harshest critics have to admit he was a steady hand in the White House. Reflection upon this fact can only increase Clinton’s chances against a man who prides himself on being combative, capricious and cocksure.

Letters

to the editor

One of the greats

Michael Harper was one of the great promoters of AfricanAmerican poetry and AfricanAmerican aesthetics. He was also one of the truly important African-American poets. His anthology, “Chant of Saints,” done back in 1979, is still one of the greatest anthologies of black literary thought and creativity that has ever been done.

Gerald Early, Via email

Law good for emergency medical care

The triage, treatment, and transport emergency medical service practitioners provide can often be the difference between life and death for patients with a medical emergency. The unique nature of emergency medical services is unlike other health care services governed by the Controlled Substances Act. There is a routinely encountered clinical need for controlled substance medications in the practice of EMS medicine, ranging from the administration of pain narcotics to anti-seizure medications.

Emergency medical technicians and paramedics need to administer these lifesaving drugs as quickly as they are able to reach and assess the patient, and any delay wastes valuable time in the provision of care. Established practice allows emergency medical service practitioners to administer and deliver these controlled substances under the oversight of physicians, primarily through directional guidelines written by physicians, commonly known as standing orders. Laws and regulations have not kept up with the evolution of modern medicine, however, and in a recent review of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), the Department of Justice determined that legislation is needed to codify “standing orders.” Absent of Congressional action, patients may lose access to those life-saving medications in emergency situations and established practice will be disrupted because laws have not kept up with the evolution of medicine.

To remedy this dilemma, Congressman Hudson has authored H.R. 4365, the

Protecting Patient Access to Emergency Medications Act.

All letters are edited for length and style.

This legislation will clarify that the current practice of physician medical directors overseeing care provided by paramedics and other emergency medical service practitioners via “standing orders” is statutorily allowed and protected. The use of “standing orders” is necessary so that physician medical directors can establish these pre-set protocols which emergency medical service practitioners follow in delivering emergency medical care. In the absence of standing orders, patients would not have access to the time-sensitive and potentially life-saving interventions they so desperately need.

Darla Long, Alton, Illinois

Inclusive America

I applaud the departments of Education and Justice for taking action to ensure transgender students feel safe in school. This step forward is vital, not just for our most vulnerable students but for the entire school community.

America is at its best when we are inclusive. Recognizing that a person’s gender identity

should be respected is a move every American should be proud of. As a union, the AFT has a long history of fighting discrimination, including requiring locals to desegregate in the 1950s and filing an amicus brief in support of Brown v. Board of Education. This fight continues today with our efforts to fight for LGBTQ-inclusive union contracts, signing on to the LGBT Healthcare Bill of Rights, and working for full and equal access to facilities for transgender students. As a gay woman, the fight to change laws and attitudes is also quite personal. It has given me great hope about America, as centuries of discrimination against gay people have given way in the last few years to widespread legal and societal acceptance and rights. This is why I was proud to join Delaware Gov. Jack Markell yesterday in a broader fight against transgender discrimination and in applauding today’s move by the Department of Education and the Department of Justice. Randi Weingarten, president American Federation of Teachers

Columnist Eugene Robinson

County Library provides literacy gift packs

Eager readers at the Early Childhood Center and Kindergarten Center in the Normandy Schools Collaborative recently received a summer gift pack from the St. Louis County Library. As part of the year-end program, the Gift of Reading, the County Library provides a backpack and materials to use over the summer. This year, each preschool and kindergarten student received an elephant lunch pail containing a book by children’s author Mo Willems, crayons, a notebook, pencil and information about summer reading. A total of 535 gift packs were provided to the pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students.

Non-profits working on incarceration issues merge

Ava’s Grace Scholarship Foundation has united with Connections to Success. Since 2010, Ava’s Grace has worked to break the cycle of poverty by awarding scholarships to children of incarcerated parents. Founded 15 years ago, Connections to Success has focused on strengthening families to break the cycle of incarceration. It offers a variety of programs that help individuals find employment and fulfill their potential, such as Dress for Success, Wheels for Success, Sweet Success, as well as mentoring and skills training. For more information, visit connectionstosuccess.org.

Family Reunion Weekend at Mathews-Dickey

Mathews-Dickey Boys’ & Girls’ Club will produce its inaugural Family Reunion Weekend on August 26-27. The festivities start with a Food Truck Friday from 4-8 p.m. at the organization’s 4245 North Kingshighway facility on Friday, Aug. 26 and culminates with An Evening with Chaka Khan and El DeBarge at 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 27 at The Fabulous Fox Theatre, 527 North Grand Blvd.

“The purpose is to raise funds to help Mathews-Dickey pave an achievement avenue of welleducated, physically active and hopeful scholar-athletes who are ready for college and the global workforce,” said Mathews-Dickey President & CEO Wendell Covington Jr. Tickets for the concert are on sale now at fabulousfox.com and by calling Metrotix at 314-5341111. Special packages for the 5 p.m. dinner-and-show and corporate sponsorships are available at mathews-dickey.com and 314-679-5228.

My mother the leader

By Brittany Packnett Guest columnist

My mother turned 60 on May 31. It was a typically celebratory occasion for our familyseveral of her sisters, nieces and nephews were present, along with her fiancée, my only brother and myself. In the style of our large, joyful, loving family, we dined, laughed, and each toasted my mother to congratulate her on this milestone, share our hopes and prayers for her future, and thank her for the gifts she has given us.

My mother is significant not simply because she gave me life, but because she consistently defied expectations in her professional and civic life. As a result, I never had to seek external role models to aspire to: the most powerful leader I know is my mother.

By her early 20s she was an accomplished educator and social worker, leading trainings around the country. My father, a young minister, met her when she was leading a national workshop.

watching her face down the same challenges that gives me the courage to keep leading. Women of color do not seem to fit America’s archetype of leadership: just 6 percent of the United States Congress is comprised of women of color—and none of them are American Indian. Women of color aren’t fully represented in media, the arts, the tech sector, and make up just 0.4 percent of S&P 500 CEOs.

That’s right- there are just two women of color leading S&P 500 companies. That is not just a loss for women of color, who have yet to experience the kind of equity in leadership that our talents deserve. It’s also a global loss.

By her 30s, she had established an emerging legacy of community and civic leadership and had created the first Multicultural Relations and Student Support center in her university’s history.

By age 41, she became a widow, lost her own father just three months after my dad, and had to postpone her doctoral studies as the now single mother of two young children.

In her 50s she walked across the stage to become Gwendolyn Packnett, Ed.D. If that weren’t enough, she capped off her 50s by becoming an ordained Baptist minister -something still refused to many women across various faiths and denominations.

The lessons she taught me are the ones that mothers teach their daughters daily:defy the odds. Defy them with grace, tenacity, sacrifice and care.

When I led my first workshops as a teenager, I modeled myself after my mother’s teaching style. When I managed my own 3rd grade classroom as a Teach For America corps member, her lessons were the most critical ones. When I became an executive director at age 27, I knew how to lead authentically in the community and the board room because she had done the same. As I began to address more crowds, it was her gift for language and rhythm that influenced me the most.

Most significantly, as I face the challenges of being a woman of color in public positions of influence and responsibility, it has been

From Fannie Lou Hammer demanding the seating of the Mississippi Democratic Party in 1968 to Delores Huerta securing rights for farm workers across the nation, women of color have permanently and positively shifted life for all Americans. Their accomplishments are evidence that when women of color lead, everyone benefits. Though women of color have often pushed to the sidelines of historical social movements, we are fighting back against erasure and silence in today’s movements for racial liberation, educational justice, and gender equity. One needn’t look further than activists like Cherno Biko, trailblazing director Ava DuVernay or the indomitable Malala Youdafzai for what women of color bring: resilience, brilliance, rich perspective and a unique sense of dignity. Despite unparalleled and repeated trauma to our bodies and the continual devaluation of who we are and what we bring, women of color are still here, setting the trend, leading the market, and establishing the pace for industry.

Like my mother before me, we needn’t wait on the pathway to be created-we can blaze trails on our own. And we can leave our textured hair, curvy hips, double sun-kissed skin, brilliant minds and big hearts just as they are when we do so. We already have everything in us we need to lead,and the world wins when women of all color seize our power and take the world by storm.

Lead on, sisters. Rumble.

Commissioned by the White House in anticipation of the United State of Women event.

Brittany Packnett is executive director of Teach For America St. Louis and a member of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing

Brittany Packnett

WEST POINT

application process for West Point is notoriously long and grueling. It includes a congressional interview process and extensive paperwork, among other things.

Once you’re accepted, it’s a free ride to earn one of the most prestigious college degrees and potential leadership positions in the U.S. Army.

“West Point is a golden ticket to success,” she said.

Thomas is one of four African-American students in Missouri who will be attending either the U.S. Military Academy or its Prep School in the fall. The others are Nile Trice from Pattonville High School, Laryn Grant from McCluer North High School and Samuel Howard, a 2015 graduate of Clayton High School.

In total, 22 students from Missouri were selected to attend West Point in the fall. By law, each congressman is allowed to make a nomination. This year, all the appointments for black students came out of the St. Louis congressional districts.

Malik Mitchell, a graduate of O’Fallon Township High School, is the only African American from Illinois’ 12th Congressional District in the Metro East who will start at West Point this fall.

This spring, Thomas and her father, Guy Jennings, attended an event held for all the

RAYFORD

Continued from A1

Continued from A1 pretty good.”

Developing the craft also helped him to develop as a person. “My love for photography brought me out of my social anxiety,” Rayford said. “I felt safe behind the camera.”

After high school, Rayford enrolled at the local community college’s Florissant Valley campus.

“I was worried about everything,” he said. “How could my parents pay for school? Am I good enough to go school? I didn’t necessarily

Unlike Thomas, both of Mitchell’s parents come from a military background. As a teen, his father took him to visit West Point.

“I fell in love with the school and wanted to go there since freshman year,” he said.

What stood out to him was the unity among the students and the opportunities the academy presented. Mitchell is heavily involved in his school and community. While maintaining a 3.85 GPA and his part-time job at the YMCA as a lifeguard, he also was part of the football, wrestling, crosscountry and swim teams. He believes all “great things are possible” through his faith in God and support of his family.

In his view, he believes the academy’s diversity officers are engaged with recruiting in the black community.

“They are doing everything they can,” Mitchell said. “I just think not many people know about West Point.”

traditional uniforms and posed for a picture with their fists raised. The academy nearly disciplined them for violating military restrictions on political activity. Some assumed that the fists represented support for the Black Lives Matter movement.

However by campus tradition, groups of cadets often take pictures in traditional dress uniforms as a nod to the generations of cadets that preceded them.

As a father who was about to send his black daughter to the academy, the incident was disturbing, Jennings said. The cadets’ white counterparts would never been questioned for raising their fists in the air, he said.

academy’s incoming recruits in the area. In the entire room, the only African-American students were Thomas and Mitchell. Jennings said it made him raise his eyebrows.

“Surely the schools need to take more responsibility and reach out to urban black students,” he said. “How many more kids had good scholarships, but because of their financial means had to take another route?”

He knows of cases where minority students got scholarships for half their tuition but decided to enter the U.S. Army Reserves to help pay for the rest. These students

like school. The creative aspects were more important to me than the classwork.”

Bradley believes that STLCC is a hidden gem. The college provided resources that he felt he couldn’t receive anywhere else.

“It allowed me to learn about myself,” he said. “I don’t know if I would be the person I am today if it wasn’t for my decision to stay here and go to STLCC over a traditional fouryear university.”

He said that at Florissant Valley he was able to learn about the industry and meet amazing people who were willing to invest in him even when he didn’t want to invest in himself. That support

could have been groomed to be military leaders, as West Point does, but instead they are entering the military at low levels – just as minorities have historically done.

West Point has about 4,400 students and 15 percent are African-American, according to the academy’s diversity office.

The academy’s incoming class of 2020 has 1,307 students and 172 were African American, 128 were Hispanic, 282 were women and 164 were other minorities.

The Prep School, or West Point Prep, is designed for students with no military experience, like Thomas.

The idea is to help ease those students into West Point’s grueling academic, physical and military challenges. There are 242 students going into West Point Prep this fall, and about half are AfricanAmerican.

Captain Benjamin Johnson, who is in charge of the academy’s minority recruitment in the region, said a majority of minority recruits in the Midwest come from Texas. That’s largely because Texas has many more congressional districts than Missouri.

Johnson said he can’t visit every school, but he does focus on urban schools.

n “I went back to STLCC during the spring semester with the money I made selling Ferguson footage.”

– Bradley J. Rayford

went all the way to the top to Chancellor Jeff Pittman.

“To have the chancellor of the college have a meeting with me and ask, ‘How can I help you out?’” Rayford said. “That wouldn’t happen at any other university.”

As August 2014 began, Rayford’s biggest concern was how he would pay for the upcoming school semester.

On August 9, 2014 everything

changed when 18-year-old Michael Brown Jr. was killed by a Ferguson police officer just three miles from the Florissant campus. Rayford showed up at the earliest protests and shot critical footage from the heart of the action. He quickly edited a mini-documentary, “Ferguson: A Resident’s Perspective,” that was picked up for MSNBC. Then he began to freelance for MSNBC and various other media outlets. The streets of Ferguson became his place of work. That work led to two awards from the National Association

Trice will begin boot camp on June 26, and she said she’s very excited. Trice is the second student from Pattonville High to earn an appointment to West Point, and she’s the school’s first female and first minority.

She has been getting in touch with her future classmates, and many of them are minorities and women.

“Diversity is very important because it brings the different ideas and perspectives that people can offer,” Trice said.

She plans to double major in law and Chinese.

This spring, 16 black female cadets who were set to graduate in May dressed in

of Black Journalists in its Digital Media category. He said his success is bittersweet because it was made possible by another person’s death.

“I got this coverage because a child lost their life, and I cannot take that for granted,” Rayford said. “There is nothing I’m doing now that I could have done without Mike Brown and Ferguson.”

After all of the excitement on the streets of Ferguson and accolades from the industry, Rayford was still a young man with no steady work and no college degree.

“I took the semester off, and the staff constantly encouraged me to get back in school and finish it off,” Rayford said. “I went back to STLCC during the spring semester with the money I made selling Ferguson footage.”

He said the individual attention – and relatively

“It was interpreted to be a political, and it scared nonAfrican-American society,” Jennings said. “If you paid attention, it did not mean to go out and attack anyone. It was a symbol of overcoming. They have made their part of history.”

The academy dropped the charges on the women, saying that the photo was meant to show pride for the academy. Thomas said she followed the incident alongside her father. As a black female, these kinds of potential confrontations or miscommunications don’t scare her away from West Point, she said.

“It’s always been a struggle for African Americans,” she said. “I believe it’s my responsibility to break through those barriers to make AfricanAmerican history.”

Follow this reporter on Twitter @RebeccaRivas.

affordable tuition – at a community college enables “untraditional people to have an obtainable goal.“

After graduation, he moved to New York to accept a fellowship with MSNBC that continues until September. After that he will look for other professional opportunities in New York and apply to universities to pursue his bachelor’s degree, hoping to enroll next January. But he hasn’t forgotten what got him there – Ferguson and his local community college.

“At STLCC, the staff and the students did so much for me as a person with social anxiety,” Rayford said, “who didn’t always feel like they were good enough in certain aspects.”

Morgan Bradley is an editorial intern for The St. Louis American.

Malik Mitchell, a graduate of O’Fallon Township High School, is the only African American from Illinois’ 12th Congressional District in the Metro East who will enter the U.S. Military Academy at West Point this fall.

Jennifer Gail Thomas, a graduate of McKinley Classical Leadership Academy, will attend the U.S. Military Academy Prep School at West Point this fall. The Prep School is designed for students with no military background.

ALI

Continued from A1

former President Bill Clinton, and pallbearers Smith and Lewis arrived.

The mood was solemn as the service began, not as celebratory as the procession.

But as ESPN broadcaster Bob Valvano, who resides in Louisville, said during the morning hours, “You know who would have loved this? Muhammad Ali. I know that he is smiling right now.”

‘The power of understanding’

Lonnie Ali was the picture of grace and dignity as she spoke of her husband.

Early in her remarks, she reminded the audience that a police officer helped launched his famed boxing career – and what that kind of relationship can mean in this nation.

“We cannot forget a Louisville police officer, Joe Martin, who embraced a young 12-year-old boy in distress when his bicycle was stolen,” Lonnie Ali said. “Joe Martin handed young Cassius Clay the keys to a future in boxing he could scarcely have imagined. America must never forget, when a cop and an inner city kid talk to each other, then miracles can happen.”

Lonnie Ali said Muhammad knew instinctively the road he needed to travel – that he lived in the moment and neither dwelled in the past nor harbored anxiety about the future.

“His passing and its meaning for our time should not be overlooked as we face uncertainty in the world and divisions at home as to who we are as a people,” Lonnie said.

“Muhammad was not one to give up on the power of understanding; the boundless possibilities of love and the strength of our diversity. He counted among his friends people of all political persuasions, saw truth in all faiths and the nobility of all races.”

‘He was our most basic freedoms’

The service lasted three hours, ending with remarks from former President Bill Clinton.

“We all have an Ali story,” Clinton said. He shared the story of the night Ali lit the Olympic flame to open the 1996 Games in Atlanta –during his presidency.

“I’ll never forget it,” Clinton said.

“I was sitting there in

Atlanta. By then we knew each other. By then I felt I had some sense of what he was living with – and I was still weeping like a baby seeing his hand shake and his leg shake and knowing, by God, he was going to make those last few steps no matter what it took. The flame would be lit, the fight would be won.”

Senior White House advisor Valerie Jarrett, whose uncle was an Ali pallbearer, spoke on behalf of President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama. She read a tribute written by the president.

“The man we celebrate today is not just a boxer or poet; or an agitator or a man of peace. He was not just a Muslim or a black man, or a Louisville kid. He even wasn’t just the greatest of all time. He was Muhammad Ali. The whole being greater than the sum of its parts,” Obama wrote.

“As he once put it, Muhammad Ali was America. Brash, defiant, pioneering, joyful; never tired, always game to test the odds. He was our most basic freedoms: religion, speech, spirit. He embodied our ability to invent ourselves. His life spoke to our origins in slavery and discrimination and the journey he traveled helped to shock our confidence and lead us on a

roundabout path to salvation.”

Ali inspired Obama and paved the way to his historic election, according to the president.

“Ali was a radical, even in a radical time – a loud, proud and unabashedly black voice in a Jim Crow world. He chose to help perfect a nation where a descendant of slaves could become the king of the world, and while doing so, lending some dignity to all of us,” Jarrett read.

“And he helped inspire a young mixed kid with a funny name to have the audacity to believe he could by anything, even the president of the United States.”

and the power and capacity of African Americans – that he dared to openly love America’s most unloved race.

Cosby said, “Let us never forget that he is the product of black people in their struggle to be free.”

n “Before James Brown said, ‘I’m black and I’m proud,’ Muhammad Ali said, ‘I’m black and I’m pretty. ‘Black and pretty’ was an oxymoron.”

– Rev. Kevin Cosby

Rev. Kevin Cosby, senior pastor of St. Stephen Baptist Church, was the service’s first speaker.

“Before James Brown said, ‘I’m black and I’m proud,’ Muhammad Ali said, ‘I’m black and I’m pretty,” Cosby said. “‘Black and pretty’ was an oxymoron. Blacks did not say ‘pretty.’”

Cosby said Ali dared to affirm the beauty of blackness

The freedom fighter

Only once during Muhammad Ali’s interfaith memorial service did those in attendance scream in unison “Ali! Ali! Ali! Ali!

The speaker responsible for the outburst of emotion was the Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun, a progressive Jewish interfaith magazine based in Berkeley, California, and the rabbi of Beyt Tikkun Synagogue in Berkeley.

“Today we stand in solidarity with the Islamic community in this country and around the world. We will not tolerate politicians or anyone else putting down Muslims and blaming Muslims for (the acts of) a few people,” Lerner said to loud applause.

He said Ali and he “shared a personal relationship.”

“Both of us were indicted for various stands against the Vietnam War,” Lerner said.

“At the key moment when he had the recognition, he used it to stand up to an immoral war and say, ‘I won’t go.’”

Lerner said it is for that reason that tens of millions of Americans, who don’t particularly care about boxing, do care about Muhammad Ali – because he was a person willing to risk his fame and honor to stand up for his beliefs.

“How do we honor Muhammad Ali?” Lerner challenged the crowd. “The way to honor Muhammad Ali is to be Muhammad Ali today! We must speak out. We must refuse to follow the path of conformity.”

Lerner then listed the causes that Ali followers should now take up, including wealth re-distribution, ending unjust mass incarceration, ending warfare, creating guaranteed incomes, prosecuting corporate criminals and politicians who support torture.

He referred to the next U.S. president with female pronouns.

“Tell her that the way to achieve homeland security

is not to try new ways of domination,” Lerner said.

“The way to get security is to get the United States to be known as the most generous and caring county in the world, not the most powerful.”

While it was not tense, when Malcolm X’s daughter, Attallah Shabazz, approached the podium there was palpable wonder in the atmosphere. What would she say? After asking Allah to give her strength to overcome a weak voice, she moved the audience.

“Having Muhammad Ali in my life somehow sustained my dad’s breath for me just a little while longer – 51 years longer, until now. I am forever grateful at our union on this Earth together that allowed for me the continuum of shared understanding, preserved confidentialities and the comfort of living in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky for the past six years,” Shabazz said.

“While he and I had a treasured relationship, the genesis of this love was through the love of my father. Muhammad Ali was the last of a fraternity of amazing men bequeathed to me directly by my dad.”

Throughout the route of Muhammad Ali’s funeral motorcade in Louisville, Kentucky, on Friday, June 10, his family members had their car windows open to shake hands with the public.

Boxing promoter Don King was one of many who broke down into tears during Muhammad Ali’s memorial service in Louisville, Kentucky, on Friday, June 10.

Photo by Lawrence Bryant

Photo by Lawrence Bryant

African-American Male Initiative

The St. Louis Community College African American Male Initiative invites African American males aged 13 to 18 to attend a FREE leadership summit.

Monday, June 27 - Friday, July 1, 2016

8 a.m. — 3 p.m. St. Louis Community College at Forest Park

The Leadership Summit will include but is not limited to the following:

• Personal and Professional Development Strategies

• Financial Literacy Training

• Leadership Training

• Continental breakfast and lunch each day

To register and for more information, contact Keith Ware at 314-951-9858 or kware14@stlcc.edu

Shahid stands ground against Turkish president at Ali funeral

In an amazing twist of fate, St. Louis activist Brother Anthony Shahid stood his ground, face to face – actually, elbow to elbow – against Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the president of the Republic of Turkey, and he did so at the memorial service for Muhammad Ali on Friday, June 10 in Louisville, Kentucky.

Shahid, who had known Ali personally starting in 1975, arrived early to secure a good view. As a fellow Muslim, he knew the casket would be facing east when it arrived, so he knew where to stand. He had staked out his spot for a good four hours before a small entourage encircling the Turkish president attempted to move into his space and usurp his vantage point. Reportedly, Erdogan arrived expecting to speak at the service, but was not included on the program and therefore not in a good mood by the time he encountered Shahid.

The elected president of a nation of nearly 80 million people – and his steely-eyed security force – might be expected to shoulder aside one brother from St. Louis and his small traveling party. But Brother Shahid does not stand down from any man.

conservative Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP), which is the target of Turkish protestors very close in spirit to Shahid. The Gezi Park protests against AKP policies that kicked off on May 28, 2013, should be grouped in history books along with the Ferguson protest movement that erupted on August 9, 2014, with Shahid a key early Ferguson protest leader (before the younger leaders, now better-known in national media and on the national speaking circuit, emerged on Twitter and the street).

A core of Gezi Park protest organizers have strong St. Louis ties through the local community-based arts collective Poetry Scores. They followed Ferguson protests closely from Istanbul and recognized the same spirit among protestors and similar enemies on the street. For the leader of AKP and a Ferguson protest leader to end up standing next to each other for an hour of prayer – and elbow skirmishes – in Kentucky must be counted as yet another magical act by Muhammad Ali.

“In Islam there is no big ‘I’ and little ‘you,’” Shahid told The American. He wasn’t about to be shouldered aside. Indeed, photographs and camera footage broadcast all over the world portray Shahid holding his own with Erdogan in an elbow skirmish. A security guard behind and between the two men glared at Shahid, but Shahid kept his cool, stood his ground and honored his dead friend.

“We stood there and did our prayers together,” Shahid said of his adversary for elbow room, the president of the Republic of Turkey.

Two things must be said about this incident.

Erdogan is founder of the

Also, the image of Shahid standing proudly next to the president of the Republic of Turkey, as if he belonged there as much (or even more) than the politically more powerful man, calls to mind an early scene from Ferguson.

Dorian Johnson, Michael Brown Jr.’s friend and considered an eyewitness to his killing by thenFerguson Police Officer Darren Wilson, had been reported dead in the alley behind a pizzeria, another victim of police violence. This was one of the first bogus rumors (but far from the last) to circulate throughout Ferguson protests and falsely agitate people. But before anyone knew that Johnson was still alive, Shahid took charge. He went into the Ferguson Police Department – the belly of the beast, to a Ferguson protestor – and more or less dragged Police Chief Thomas Jackson outside to address the crowd.

A security guard for Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the president of the Republic of Turkey, gave Brother Anthony Shahid a steely eye from behind as the St. Louis activist elbowed for space with the Turkish president at the memorial service for Muhammad Ali on Friday, June 10 in Louisville, Kentucky.

This was one way press conferences happened when Ferguson was hot.

Shahid put Chief Jackson up on a flatbed truck with himself and fellow veteran community activists Zaki Baruti and James Clark, and he got an angry protest throng to quiet down and listen to Chief Jackson, who told them Johnson was still alive. At the same time, a reconnaissance group of protestors returned from behind the pizzeria to report no corpse and no blood. Dorian was, in fact, alive.

This was one of several riots that were averted in Ferguson, and not by the police.

Speaking of the police, the strong police presence at Ali’s memorial service did not sit well with Shahid.

“They had those police in there thick,” Shahid said. “If there were 100 police, there were maybe only three that were black. They should have had some brothers out there – Nation of Islam or just brothers, period – not all those police with their guns.”

Treasurer budget skirmish

There was a tussle over a budget matter at the St. Louis Board of Aldermen’s Ways and Means Committee hearing on Monday, June

St. Louis public or charter school with a $50 savings account for college. But, she claimed, they moved to defund these programs for political reasons. Jones alleged payback for her overt support of Alderwoman Megan Green after Reed laughed along at misogynistic comments made about her on The Grim Reaper of Radio’s show (hosted by a generous Reed campaign donor). Also, Jones’ father (and former campaign manager), former comptroller Virvus Jones, was critical of new stadium proponents hosting a fundraiser for Reed two days before the stadium financing vote took place. She claimed Reed threatened to cut the treasurer’s office budget shortly after.

6 that was either the first skirmish in a probably mayoral battle between aldermanic President Lewis Reed and Treasurer Tishaura O. Jones – or just some aldermen doing due diligence and trying to make an independent office with a hefty reserve fund pay for its own programs without tapping general revenue.

“Aldermen took aim at treasurer Tishaura Jones’ budget for more than $340,000 in reductions, mostly targeting her Office of Financial Empowerment and a college savings program she started last year,” St. Louis Public Radio reported.

“Those who supported those changes said, if the office was important, Jones could find the money in her budget to cover its costs. Many, including Alderman Antonio French, D-21st Ward, raised questions about how much money Jones has in reserve, especially after the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Jones had offered to use $2 million from the parking division to fund a conceptual design study for a north-south MetroLink line.”

Jones told The American that Reed and French both supported the Office of Financial Empowerment and its College Kids Savings Program, which provides all kindergarten students in a

All of this, she acknowledged, is playing out in a political climate where, for the first time in recent memory, an incumbent St. Louis mayor is not seeking reelection. Reed is Mayor Francis G. Slay’s most recent opponent and said he will run again next year. Jones is on everyone’s short list to run as well. When Jones partners with Slay – say, on funding a study for a north-south MetroLink expansion – she falls open to the accusation of pandering to Slay voters who will need someplace else to go next March (and most likely are not going with Reed).

Reed responded via Tom Shepard, his chief of staff (and a certified public accountant).

“The money going into the children savings accounts was not cut at all. Alderman Stephen Conway’s amendment to make the treasurer’s budget more reasonable and add money for recreation center programs throughout the city passed the committee by a margin of 7 to 1. Those 7 included both supporters and detractors of the stadium, as well as supporters and detractors of Mayor Slay. All of them support the concept of a north-south Metrolink expansion, and this had nothing to do with a football stadium or Treasurer Jones’ close relationship with Mayor Slay,” Shepard said.

“This was not politics, just plain old fiscal management 101. The treasurer’s budget request was adjusted to better reflect sound financial principals and the fact that the treasurer has a reserve fund of $18 million which can more than accommodate any additional salary expenses the treasurer wants to add.”

Emerson gives grant to Obama Elementary

Picking and choosing who gets justice

The parents of Mansur BallBey received the crushing news last week that there would be no justice for their son coming from the St. Louis circuit attorney. The 18-year-old was gunned down by St. Louis police officers Ronald Vaughan and Kyle Chandler last year. Both officers are white, BallBey is African-American. He was killed on the anniversary of Kajieme Powell, also killed by St. Louis police.

Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce claims that there was insufficient evidence to charge the officers, but she didn’t take a stand on whether the shooting was justified. This is the kind of muddled process that often allows officers a get-out-of-jail-free card.

Well, you might say, Joyce is prosecuting ex-STPD cop Jason Stockley for the 2011 shooting death of Anthony Lamar Smith. Again, Stockley is white and Smith is black. At the time of the shooting, Joyce also claimed there was insufficient evidence to pursue charges against the officer.

indisputable history of racial bias and incompetence of the circuit attorney’s office. And then there’s the fact that St. Louis is in the middle of an important election for the next city prosecutor. While there have been several cases of wrongful conviction that have come to light over the years, I believe there are hundreds of people who languished in prison for years or who are still incarcerated due to prosecutorial misconduct.

Then came the family’s lawsuit and one of the biggest payouts in the department’s history – $900,000. It was after this settlement – and public records requests about the case by activists – that we hear about Stockley’s prosecution.

Supporters of Reggie Clemons are outraged about Joyce’s decision to file new murder, rape and robbery charges after his previous conviction for murder – and death sentence – was vacated by the U.S. Supreme Court. The court ruled that Clemons’ trial jury should have been presented with evidence that his confession – to rape, not murder – was coerced by a police beating.

First, there’s the question of the misuse of taxpayers’ dollars to take on an expensive trial when there’s already been due diligence done on the case. We can’t ignore the

The case of Fredrico LoweBey is one of those cases. Centurion Ministries has been working on the case for years with full resistance from the circuit attorney’s office to regard the compelling evidence. Lowe-Bey was wrongfully convicted of rape in 1988; he has already served more time than some who have committed an actual murder. There is no physical evidence linking Lowe-Bey to the crime, but Joyce’s office has been dogged in its refusal to admit they are wrong.

Groups like Centurion Ministries and The Innocence Project are in existence only because of the incredible injustices perpetrated by the very offices that are supposed to pursue truth and justice. Because of the number of wrongful convictions in this country, you are a lucky soul if your case gets chosen by one of these groups.

There is a field of five candidates currently running for circuit attorney. One has the blessing of Jennifer Joyce. Given the history of incompetence and corruption of this office, the August 2 election is an important one. If you don’t know about the office functions or about the candidates, check out the candidate debate at 3 p.m. Saturday, June 18 at Wool Ballroom at SLU’s Busch Student Center.

Columnist Jamala Rogers

Brunetta Blackshear, 3rd grade teacher at Barack Obama Elementary School, is the recipient of an Emerson Gold Star Grant. Blackshear was presented the $2,500 grant by Emerson Executive Vice President Patrick Sly during a surprise assembly at the school May 27. A 2015 Emerson Teacher of the Year for the Normandy Schools Collaborative, Blackshear plans to use the grant to teach students geometry by using doodling techniques. As part of the award, the school will also receive $2,500 for another project of their choosing. Shown here with Blackshear (2nd from right) is Barack Obama Elementary Principal Netra Taylor-Nichols (from left), Normandy Superintendent Charles J. Pearson and Patrick Sly.

Scholar Dr. Alvia Wardlaw to speak on black folk art

By Courtney M. Baxter Romare Bearden Minority Graduate Fellow, 2015-2016

On Saturday, June 25 the Saint Louis Art Museum welcomes Dr. Alvia Wardlaw, a nationally recognized scholar and expert in African American art, for a free public lecture. The talk, African American Expressions in Folk Art, will complement the Museum’s main exhibition Self Taught Genius: Treasures from the American Folk Art Museum, which opens Sunday, June 19. Born in Atlanta, Georgia and raised in Houston, Texas, Alvia Wardlaw grew up surrounded by art. Her childhood in Texas included a generous amount of time spent at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston taking classes in art history and painting. Decades later she would become a curatorial assistant and then curator at the very same museum after she received her B.A. degree in art history from Wellesley College in 1969. While at Wellesley College, a private women’s college in Massachusetts, Wardlaw irst discovered a passion for African American art that would greatly inluence her work as an art historian and curator. She would go on to help increase the visibility of African American art and artists through exhibitions and her work as a curator.

Wardlaw continued to pursue her scholarly interest in art and received her M.A. degree in art history from New York University in 1986 and her Ph.D in art history from University of Texas, Austin in 1996. While working at Museum of Fine Arts, Houston she began her position as a professor at Texas Southern University (TSU). TSU was an institution Wardlaw had already been closely acquainted with; her father, Alvin Wardlaw, had spent many years there as a math professor. She has also curated several critically acclaimed exhibitions, including The Quilts of Gee’s Bend and Hard Truths: The Art of Thornton Dial. Dr. Wardlaw’s love for museums and African American art continues today and she currently serves as the museum curator and director at the University Museum at Texas Southern University.

Wardlaw’s knowledge of African American folk artists like Thornton Dial and Dave Drake (also known as “Dave the Potter” or “Dave

African American Expressions in Folk Art

with Dr. Alvia Wardlaw

Saturday, June 25, 2016, 10:30 am Farrell Auditorium, Saint Louis Art Museum

All events in The Farrell Auditorium, including free events, are ticketed. Tickets are subject to availability. Tickets may be purchased or reserved in person at the Museum’s Information Centers or through MetroTix at metrotix.com or 314.534.1111. All tickets purchased or reserved through MetroTix incur a service charge; the service charge is waived for tickets purchased at the Museum.

the Slave”), two artists featured in Self-Taught Genius, make her a speaker you do not want to miss. We hope you join us Saturday, June 25, 2016 at 10:30 am at the Saint Louis Art Museum. For more information please visit slam.org or the Saint Louis Art Museum’s Facebook page.

Earnings tax reauthorization hurt the city

By Comptroller

Darlene

Green Guest columnist

In recent months, credit rating agencies have revised their rating criteria, and the City of St. Louis will be affected by the changes. The city has been proactive and commissioned a 10-year financial strategic plan, approved in September 2015 by the Board of Estimate and Apportionment.

The Fitch agency downgraded the city last week after applying its new rating criteria released in April. Under the new criteria, the earnings tax

Darlene Green

reauthorization is a negative factor for the first time. Fitch said it, along with the Hancock Amendment, reduces the city’s legal ability to raise revenues. Another key rating factor is the city’s low reserve levels. Fitch had more positive comments regarding city’s ability to control costs and the city’s

favorable long-term liability burden.

The city proved its financial resilience during the most recent economic downturn. But, the city would be smart to strengthen its financial resiliency for the future by increasing reserves and seeking legislation to remove the earnings tax reauthorization mandate.

The city remains in the “A” category for overall ratings with all three credit rating agencies Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s, and Fitch.

The greedy robbing the needy?

It would appear that East St. Louis Township Supervisor Oliver Hamilton may soon be adding the credential of felon to his extensive resume.

That’s contingent upon the outcome of an investigation into township finances after the township was served with a federal subpoena, following news that Hamilton reportedly spent $84,970, within an 18-month period, using a township American Express Card on a plethora of items including construction materials, tools, cleaning supplies, tractor tires, gasoline, car washes, and trips to Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

For those who may be oblivious to the function of the East St. Louis Township, it exists as an antiquated government entity tasked with the purpose of distributing aid to the financially destitute, receiving $1.6 million in taxes from a community in which 45.4 percent live in poverty.

However, only $285,780 found its way to those in need last year (that’s only 18 cents for every tax dollar). The remainder was spent on a political patronage jobs, overhead and Hamilton’s apparent spending sprees.

Then there is the absence of basic accounting procedures, checks and balances, or financial safeguards. For example, checks are routinely issued with Hamilton’s stamped signature versus having two signatures to authorize payment.

And apparently Hamilton’s

expenditures were a mystery to board members Ricky Eastern and Edith Moore, who were oblivious to Hamilton’s Las Vegas trips and other charges because, they claim, the charges never came before the board for approval.

Hamilton disagrees, saying that his charges did, in fact, go before the board. So either someone is a lying or is malfeasant in their duties. Either way, it’s inexcusable.

Ingram

Oh, and did I mention conflicts of interest?

How about having your sister as a paid $33,000 -a-year township financial consultant?

Well, June

Hamilton Dean serves in that capacity, in addition to moonlighting as an ESL City Council member and Scott Air Force Base employee. Hamilton Dean also has a township American Express card in her name.

But, despite this flagrant conflict of interest, Hamilton Dean refers to herself as “Miss No” because she claims that she does business “by the book.” But perhaps she should have said “no” to her job with the township.

All of these expenditures are exacerbated by the fact that there is nothing to show for the outlay of charges.

When Hamilton was quizzed about two trips to Las Vegas, in May and December of 2015 (accompanied by township board member Michael Roberts and their wives), he claimed to be attending a seminar on hydroponics.

However, upon checking with the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority, I was informed that no hydroponics seminars were scheduled during those months.

And during that same 18-month period, the ESL Township paid $45,700 to a defunct construction company, which operates out of Hamilton’s dilapidated boarding house at 1232 Cleveland Ave. The company, Padron Construction, is owned by Hamilton’s friend Earnest Walker. Walker is also the manager of Hamilton’s boarding house. I’ll leave it to the feds to get to the bottom of this sordid financial mess, but between the conflicting information, excessive spending and lack of accountability by Hamilton and the ESL Township, I smell indictments, convictions and incarceration for those who may have been complicit in this abuse of ESL tax dollars and the public trust.

Once again, the needy citizens of East Boogie have been victimized by the greedy, inept “public serpents” of their community.

Email: jtingram_1960@ yahoo.com; Twitter@JamesTIngram.

Riverview still unaccredited

By Dale Singer Of St. Louis Public Radio

Members of the Missouri state school board praised progress made by Riverview Gardens in recent years on Tuesday, June 14, but postponed any vote that could upgrade its status from unaccredited.

Because the board put off until at least this fall any consideration of making the district provisionally accredited, students living in Riverview Gardens will remain eligible to transfer to nearby accredited schools in the coming school year.

“I think we should reflect with a great deal of pride for Riverview Gardens for what they have accomplished to date,” said board member Peter Herschend of Branson. “This is not a time of failure. This is a time of absolutely moving in the right direction, and they should be proud.”

Mike Jones of St. Louis added that the board has no authority to change the state’s transfer law, so it had to be very mindful of the ramifications that an upgrade to provisionally accredited status would bring to students in Riverview Gardens. Some parents whose children have

thrived after transferring out of the district have urged the state board to delay any change in the district’s accreditation. For two years after the Missouri Supreme Court upheld the transfer law in 2013, lawmakers worked to make changes to the transfer process. Both efforts were vetoed by Gov. Jay Nixon. In the most recent legislative session, three bills introduced to make changes went nowhere. Edited for length and reprinted with permission from news.stlpublicradio.org.

James

How Muhammad Ali once offended this Muslim

By Ishmael-Lateef Ahmad For The St. Louis American

In the mid-1960s Muhammad Ali, the boxer, was on the ascent – and as a teenage Muslim I didn’t like him. His braggadocio offended me. And even though everybody around me, it seemed, loved and cheered him on to victory, I had little love for a Muslim who proclaimed: “I am the Greatest! I am the Greatest!” Islam associates such words nearly exclusively with Allah or God, the creator and master of the universe. To hear a Muslim seemingly equate himself with and challenge God was to commit the unthinkable and went against everything I was taught. While I appreciated his boxing prowess, it would be years before I forgave Ali for this.

It also took me a while to understand his arrogance and his intricate mix of sport, showmanship, religion, politics, public relations and his love for humanity.

As a newspaper editor in the early 1980s for the East St. Louis News, I had the wonderful opportunity to interview Ali during his visit to East St. Louis, Illinois. I was no longer that naïve teenager but an adult in my early 30s with a more mature sense of understanding. I no longer disliked the haughty Ali, and with a newfound respect put that part of him in its proper place. The real Ali would never disrespect God as I thought he once did.

I recall it was warm outside and he was seated along Collinsville Avenue, a main downtown street, surrounded by youth. Media handlers gave me about five minutes to talk to the champ. I was excited and thrilled at the opportunity and planned to discuss his many achievements and controversies, as well as his hope for humanity.

When my turn came, I approached him and we shook hands. I greeted him with “Salaam” or “Peace.” I was ready to share how I once felt about him and how that later changed once I came to know the real Ali and the greatness which he truly stood for. Instead, the meeting left me feeling surprised and disappointed.

The bold, brazen, boisterous Ali was gone. A calmer, slow-talking, thoughtful Ali had emerged in his place. We would later learn that Parkinson’s disease was the thief that would one day take away both his voice and his youthful body, all too soon.

I used to think that perhaps a jealous God had silenced Ali, as punishment for his claim to greatness. But, the more I learned about Ali and his love of people and his work to improve the world, the more I resolved that God would not silence him out of

anger. Just as the rest of the world, I learned to accept and live with a great man, silenced and physically humbled in his prime.

Years later I would marry an African woman whose father absolutely loved Ali, the boxer, and taught his daughter to love him as well. As a child growing up in Ghana, Ayesha would be awakened at 3 a.m. by her father and together they would sit and watch Muhammad Ali on television, in awe as he nearly always vanquished his boxing foes. It was as if Ali stood in triumph for people of color everywhere. The world hurts to know that he is gone, as with the passing of all great people. Yet, I feel certain his life will be studied for many decades to come by scholars and others in search of the magic that endeared him to the world. Even his critics came to respect and honor him. How many of us can claim greatness in our personal lives, let alone to the world? And live up to it? Muhammad Ali did. Therefore, I honor him and pray to God to forgive him his faults, whatever they may be. But, being the “Greatest” is not one of them. How many of us can say that about our lives?

Guest Columnist IshmaelLateef Ahmad

ples customers said they wanted.

Mobile market

New food oasis in St. Louis food deserts

By Sandra Jordan

Of The St. Louis American

It was a few years in the making, but St. Louis MetroMarket is scheduling grocery stops in the city for shoppers that need affordable healthy food closer to where they live.

A donated city bus was converted into a traveling grocery store for urban areas with less access to affordable, nutritious food and produce. The bus was the brainchild of then SLU Medical School student Jeremy Goss and two students from Washington University, Tej Azad and Colin Dowling, who studied food access and social entrepreneurship.

n “They wanted fresh produce at a good price, so we made sure that was the first thing we looked at, but we made sure we had your basics that everybody wanted.”

– Serene Bugett, director of Community Engagement for St. Louis MetroMarket

“These are places where there are far more fast food restaurants than anything and where there is access to food, it’s typically a convenience store,” founder Jeremy Goss told the American in the 5/2/2013 issue.

“And the selection isn’t ideal.” Goss is currently a medical research fellow at Harvard. Azad is studying biomedical informatics at Stanford and Dowling is an operations manager for a software company.

Serene Bugett, director of Community Engagement for St. Louis MetroMarket, said the group held listening sessions with community members to see what types of foods they would be interested in purchasing.

“They wanted fresh produce at a good price, so we made sure that was the first thing we looked at, but we made sure we had your basics that everybody wanted – we have onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes; we have an awesome selection of greens, collards, kale, mustards, things like that,” Bugett said. The choices include a variety of vegetables, fruit, some refrigerated dairy products and frozen meats.

Interestingly enough, while organic products did not resonate with prospective shoppers –buying locally grown items did.

Bugett said, “Organic produce and fruits really were not a ‘must’ from the community.

I think they were more excited about the fact that the majority of the fruits and produce are local.”

See MARKET, A15

By Denise Hooks-Anderson, M.D.

Of The St. Louis American

Many of the leading causes of death for men can be prevented with lifestyle changes and regular preventative care. However, men are least likely to see their doctors on a routine basis and lag behind women on obtaining recommended procedures, tests, and immunizations. So this Father’s Day, let’s provide our dads with the tools and information they need to live a long healthy life.

No. 1: Regular exercise! Countless studies have proven over and over the benefits of consistent movement of at least 150 minutes per week. And be creative! There is no cookie cutter version prescribed. If you like to walk, then walk. If you like to box, then box. The only thing that matters is daily activity that raises your heart rate.

n Countless studies have proven over and over the benefits of consistent movement of at least 150 minutes per week.

No 2: Yearly doctor’s visits! Men are notorious for avoiding their providers. Reasons given for this behavior include: fear of being diagnosed with a disease, not wanting to be weighed, or fear of a prostate exam. However, if a diagnosis is prolonged and the disease progresses, then what could have just been yearly visits has now ballooned into weekly visits needing some type of expensive, painful treatment. So as you can see men, prevention is far better than the alternative. Go to the doctor!

No. 3: Don’t smoke! Cigarette smoking kills almost 500,000 Americans per year. The largest preventable cause of death and disease in the US is caused by tobacco use. About a fifth of all men smoke and the greatest prevalence is between people aged 25-64. And if you already smoke, it is never too

The St. Louis MetroMarket made a stop at Saint Louis University Hospital recently, stocked with the fresh food and sta-

Denise HooksAnderson, MD

Photo by Sandra Jordan

Summer safety tips

Summer is a time of fun and relaxation for most people. But for seniors, the heat and sun can be dangerous without proper precautions. Private duty nursing provider MediNurse offers readers the following tips for older adults and caregivers.

Stay hydrated. Seniors are more susceptible to dehydration than younger people because they lose their ability to conserve water as they age. They can also become less aware of their thirst and have difficulty adjusting to temperature changes. Remember to drink water often, and be sure to pack some when going out.

Stay cool. Even small increases in temperature can shorten life expectancy of

seniors who are coping with chronic medical conditions.

Protect your eyes. Wearing sunglasses can protect your eyes from harmful UV rays and preserve vision.

Use sunscreen and wear hats. People of all ages should use sunscreen when outdoors. Hats are especially helpful for those with light-colored or thinning hair.

Know the risks of hyperthermia. During the summer, be especially cautious about abnormally high body temperature, a condition known as hyperthermia. Heat stroke is an advanced form of hyperthermia that can be life-threatening. If you or an elderly loved one shows these warning signs, ask

for medical help and get out of the heat, lie down and place ice packs on your body: Hyperthermia symptoms include:

• Body temperature greater than 104 degrees

• Dry, flushed skin

• Nausea and vomiting

• Headache

• Not sweating, even if it is hot out

• Fainting

Know who to call. Prepare a list of emergency phone numbers and keep the list in a place that’s easy to access.

Openings on Missouri Foundation for Health board

The Missouri Foundation for Health is seeking applicants for its 2017 Board of Directors. Its board consists of 15 directors who serve voluntarily for three-years. Members may be nominated for a second three-year term. Five board positions expire

MARKET

Continued from A14

Local in this case means, Missouri and Illinois.

“They were really excited to find out we were using local farmers to stock the bus with what we sell and that includes a lot of the fresh and frozen meats,” she added.

The bus officially kicked off May 14 at the intersection of MLK and Compton in the Jeff Vanderlou neighborhood, from 9 a.m. to 12 noon. Going forward, it will be at 3117 Thomas Street every Saturday, year round. In addition, the MetroMarket will service the Hyde Park neighborhood at Holy Trinity Catholic Church from 1p.m. to 4 p.m., the first Saturday of every month.

On weekdays, the bus makes stops on Thursday afternoons at SLU Hospital and Friday afternoon at Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital.

each year. A guiding principle of the board selection process is that the Board as a whole represents the gender, racial, cultural, geographic, and ethnic diversity of the MFH region, which includes 84 counties and the city of St. Louis.

Bugett said feedback has been positive, much like that of shoppers during a bus visit to the Renaissance Place Apartments on N. Compton.

“A lot of those residents came out and visited the bus and they were very pleased with the products and they were really pleased with the prices we have to offer,” Bugett.

The market is looking toward added value for customers while combining a bit of community service.

“We helped a lot of clients back with their groceries, so that’s something that we can do,” Bugett said. “We plan to have the volunteers – most likely students, come out and volunteer to help the elderly carry their groceries back.”

In addition, there is a mobile market bus in the works to expand into other areas in St. Louis. For more information, visit http://www.stlmetromarket. com.

Joining MFH’s Board of Directors is an opportunity to engage in very meaningful work and to assist the Foundation with achieving its mission of improving the health of Missourians through a combination of partnership, experience, knowledge, and

funding. Board members also serve as financial stewards, carrying fiduciary responsibility for MFH’s over $1 billion in assets. Applicants must be at least 18 years old and are required to complete and submit an application, along with a CV/

resume, postmarked, faxed or emailed by 5 p.m. Monday, August 8, 2016. The MFH Community Advisory Council reviews applicant responses and selects candidates for personal interviews in early September. The CAC identifies, screens, and nominates candidates, and the current Board elects members from among those nominated.

For an application and more information, visit www.mffh. org.

Cleaning with a wire brush? Grill and eat with caution

Now that the unofficial start of the summer grilling season is underway, barbeque kings and queens may not be aware of the dangers of eating food cooked on grills that were cleaned with wire-bristle brushes. A new study conducted at the University of Missouri School of Medicine identified more than 1,600 injuries from wire-bristle grill brushes reported in emergency departments since 2002. Loose bristles can fall off the brush during cleaning and end up in the grilled food, which, if consumed, can lead to injuries in the mouth, throat and tonsils. Researchers advise individuals to inspect their food carefully after grilling or consider alter-

native grill-cleaning methods. “Wire-bristle brush injuries are a potential consumer safety issue, so it is important that people, manufacturers and health providers be aware of the problem,” said David Chang, M.D., associate professor of otolaryngology at the MU School of Medicine. “If doctors are unaware that this problem exists, they may not order the appropriate tests or capture the correct patient history to reach the right diagnosis.”

Chang reviewed consumer injury databases to determine the number of emergency department visits caused by wire-bristle injuries between 2002 and 2014. He observed

Continued from A14

on convenience and 24 hour accessibility. Our fast paced lives leave little room for the simple pleasures of life such as cooking and sharing a meal with one another. Meals are pre-packaged, processed and often lack any substantial nutritional value. Fresh foods not only provide essential dietary needs , it also forces us to slow down and savor the process of food preparation. This dying art form must be revived for our existence to continue.

In 2013-2014, the preva-

that 1,698 injuries were reported by emergency departments in that time. The most common injuries reported were in patients’ oral cavities, throats and tonsils, with some injuries requiring surgery.

“One little bristle unrecognized could get lodged in various areas of the body, whether in the throat, tonsil or neck region,” Chang said.

“If the bristle passes through

lence of obesity in men was 35%. Obesity has been linked to hypertension, diabetes and osteoarthritis, just to name a few. But choosing to eat mostly fruits and vegetables can positively affect future health outcomes.

Finally, No. 5: Get the test, get the blood work! Want

those regions without lodging itself, it could get stuck further downstream in places like the esophagus, stomach or the intestine. The biggest worry is that it will lodge into those areas and get stuck in the wall of the intestine. The bristles could migrate out of the intestine and cause further internal damage.”

Chang said that the number of injuries found from wire-bristle brushes could be

even larger than his 1,698 estimate, since his study did not include injuries treated at urgent care facilities or other outpatient settings. This data could lead to better protective measures from individuals and wire-bristle brush manufacturers, he said.

Chang recommends the following tips for individuals this grilling season:

• Use caution when cleaning grills with wire-bristle brushes, examining brushes before each use and discarding if bristles are loose.

• Inspect your grill’s cooking grates before cooking, or use alternative cleaning methods such as nylon-bristle brushes or balls of tin foil.

a fight in the doctor’s office, then recommend a colonoscopy to a male patient. Although colonoscopy is recommended starting at age 50, men tend to delay or refuse this potentially life-saving procedure. To me, removing polyps endoscopically sounds much better than having a small portion of your colon resected because of colon cancer.

• Inspect grilled food carefully after cooking to make sure bristles are not stuck to the food.

“If cautionary measures fail and individuals do experience problems with swallowing or pain after eating something that has been barbecued or grilled, they should seek advice from a physician or an emergency department and let the physician know that they were just at a barbecue event or they just grilled food,” Chang said. The study, “Epidemiology of Wire-Bristle Grill Brush Injury in the United States, 2002-2014,” is published in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery.

Furthermore, if your doctor orders lab work, get it done! Diabetes, electrolyte abnormalities and kidney disease can all be tested via lab work. Though Father’s Day is a day to honor the men in our lives who have been exemplary dads, it should also be a day where we convince these men that we want them to be around for years to come. Therefore dads, you must do your part to make that dream a reality.

Denise Hooks-Anderson, M.D., is assistant professor at SLUCare Family Medicine. She can be reached at yourhealthmatters@stlamerican.com

Fanciful hats help keep Forest Park – forever

Forest Park Forever, the nonproit conservancy that partners with the City of St. Louis to restore, maintain and sustain Forest Park, welcomed nearly 1,200 Park supporters to the World’s Fair Pavilion for its annual Hat Luncheon on Thursday, June 9. Guests of this exciting annual event donned hats and other fanciful headwear in every shape and size in anticipation of winning terriic prizes for their creative and stylish millinery, all while supporting

Forest Park. Between ticket sales, sponsorships and a rafle, the event raised more than $400,000 to support critical maintenance of Forest Park.

KMOX News Anchor Carol Daniel served as Mistress of Ceremonies for the luncheon, which culminated with the Stifel Hat Contest. Winners were announced and brought to the stage in several categories including: Romantic, Whimsical, Fascinator, Vintage, Couture, Best Male Hat, Best in Show and Best Table Theme.

Lauren Ming, Lee Haynes and Elinor Hancock

Darla Brown, Susan Buford and Valerie Moten

Minga Furr, Addie Tompkins and Dana Redwing

FPF’s Tamara Shefield and David Rowan

St. Louis Treasurer Tishaura Jones and Eva Roberts, another award winner.

Lesley S. Hoffarth, P.E. President, Forest Park Forever

KMOX’s Carol Daniel was a dynamic emcee.

Penny Ledet won an award for her hat.

Photos courtesy of Gentry W. Trotter

Business

U.S. Black Chamber of Commerce launches local branch

Christal Watson, president of the Heartland Black Chamber, said the U.S. Black Chamber of Commerce’s new St. Louis branch will collaborate, rather than compete, with existing local minority business advocacy organizations.

Programs include assisting in business development and microlending

By Rebecca Rivas

Of The St. Louis American

About 75 black business owners and community leaders celebrated the launching of a local branch of the U.S. Black Chamber of Commerce at an event held at Saint Louis University on Monday, June 13.

“How many of you know you’re awesome?” asked Veta Jeffrey, manager of community economic partnerships at the Missouri Department of Economic Development. “The fact that you know you’re awesome, does that mean that the person next to you is not awesome?” Jeffrey was pointing to the fact that there are currently a few other regional organizations that provide services for minority businesses,

n “We want something that speaks to African-American business owners, and not just minorities overall.”

– Veta Jeffrey, Missouri Department of Economic Development

including the St. Louis Minority Business Council and the Mid-States Minority Supplier Development Council.

“We want something that speaks to AfricanAmerican business owners, and not just minorities overall,” she said. “They can walk in tangent, and we can be a good support.”

The board members include Kelvin Westbrook, Tony Thompson, Darlene Davis, Marvin Steele, Damon Jones, Ron Norwood and Naretha Hopson.

The St. Louis branch falls under the regional Heartland Black Chamber, which also includes Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska.

After Ferguson, the U.S. Black Chamber established a foundation for businesses near “Ground Zero” that were unable to operate in the ongoing unrest. Then they reached out to Jeffrey about opening a local chamber.

The chamber’s programs include business employment services and training, assisting in business development and microlending, among others.

See CHAMBER, B6

NorthSide to build 500 residential units over next 5 years

Low-income housing advocates worry about displacement of local community

By Rebecca Rivas

Paul McKee Jr.

n “Our goal is to not put income restrictions so they can grow to anyone who wants to live there and increase the value of the neighborhood.”

– Paul McKee Jr.

be the new home for its $1.75-billion west headquarters. NorthSide’s first housing will go up immediately adjacent to the NGA facility site, in a 50-block area bounded by St. Louis Place Park, Cass Avenue on the south and North Florissant on the east.

Paula Perkins Bryant was appointed circuit judge for the Twenty-Second Judicial Circuit, which covers the City of St. Louis, by Gov. Jay Nixon. Previously she was an associate circuit judge. Prior to taking the bench, she was an assistant circuit attorney in St. Louis. She will fill a vacancy created by the retirement of Circuit Judge Margaret Neill.

Gregory Glore joined the Board of Directors for the Gateway Center for Giving, a philanthropic membership organization that helps grantmakers to connect, learn and act to benefit the St. Louis region. A graduate of Sumner High School, he recently returned home to St. Louis from Kansas City, where he retired from the Seagram’s Corporation.

Charlene NdiJones is the new deputy director of the Wound Care Outreach Program. The program provides free wound dressings to those who are under-insured and at greatest risk for infection or amputation due to complex wounds. Previously she was senior Community Relations manager at the Johns Hopkins – Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center & Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Vincent D. Reese joined the St. Louisbased law firm Mickes O’Toole. He specializes in labor and employment and education law as well as commercial litigation. He has successfully litigated employment discrimination claims based on race, sex, age, disability, religion, national origin and pregnancy in Missouri and Illinois state courts as well as many courts across the country.

Wilmetta ToliverDiallo has been elected to the Board of Directors of the Foster & Adoptive Care Coalition. She is an assistant dean in the College of Arts and Sciences and senior lecturer in African & African American Studies at Washington University. The coalition is one of the largest recruiter of foster/adoptive homes.

Jermine Alberty was named the lead consultant for Pathways to Promise. He is the principal consultant of SALT Initiative, founded on the principles that service, affirmation and love can bring about transformation in organizations and those they serve. Pathways is committed to creating an atmosphere in

Paula Perkins Bryant

Charlene Ndi-Jones

Vincent D. Reece

Wilmetta ToliverDiallo

Gregory Glore

Jermine Alberty

Of The St. Louis American

Photo by Wiley Price

Anyone can make mistakes with estates – you don’t have to

By Nathaniel Sillin

Adulthood brings certain financial responsibilities like the building of budgets, bank accounts and proper insurance.

It’s surprising how few consider a proper estate plan part of that essential mix. In fact, a recent ABCNews poll (http://abcnews.go.com/ Business/story?id=86992) found that only about 50 percent of Americans have created a will and significantly fewer have created the supporting estate documents like a living will or a power of attorney. Preparing now for the end of your life or for illness may not sound like fun, but it is necessary. Having a plan for the future can help bring you peace and even put you on the road to stronger financial security. It can also help those you care most about.

We’ve all heard cautionary tales about relatives or friends who did not have a will, and family members who were left with difficult but avoidable situations.

So, how do you start an estate plan? It has a lot to do with carefully drawn documents, but it’s the planning behind them that really counts. I would encourage you to work with a qualified financial, estate and/or tax professional in your home state at the earliest opportunity to make sure your plans fit your needs and the needs of your loved ones. Here’s a bit more detail on each.

A will, also called a testament, is the starting point.

Wills are generally seen as the umbrella document that drives the rest of an individual’s estate process. A will generally accomplishes the following:

• It details how you want to leave your property to specific people or institutions after you die.

• If you have minor children, it allows you to name a guardian

to care for them after you die or become incapacitated. It also indicates who will manage your kids’ assets, including what you leave them.

• It lets you name your executor, the trusted person who will carry out all your wishes in the will. If you die without a valid will, your state’s court system may get involved

in distributing your assets depending on intestacy laws on the books.

A living will – also known as an advance directive –allows you to define how you want to be medically treated under specific situations, including irreversible injury or terminal illness. Depending on your state laws, living wills allow you to express

NORTHSIDE

continued from page B1

The first phase will include houses, starting at $115,000 for a 1,000 square-feet home. It will also include apartments and lofts, starting at rents of $750 on up to $1,400 for 800-square-feet. At present, Catherine Lynch, director of planning for Telesis, said they do not plan to include affordable housing among the first 500 units.

“There’s a difference between affordable housing and income-restricted housing,” said Lynch. “Right now the market rate for rents and sales in that neighborhood are affordable to households below 80 percent and in comes cases 60 percent, which is the usual income restriction for affordable housing. So how many are affordable? Right now, everything.”

McKee said there are

your exact wishes about feeding, breathing assistance and other life-sustaining procedures in addition to how you want them carried out at certain decision points in your care. A living will may also provide information on pain or infection medications you either want or don’t want administered as well as specific instructions about your remains, including

already seven low-income projects in surrounding neighborhoods.

“There is so much subsidized housing on the North Side,” McKee said. “Our goal is to get prices that people can afford to pay but not put income restrictions on people so they can grow to anyone who wants to live there so that we can increase the value of the neighborhood and make it a market neighborhood.”

Molly Metzger, a board member of the Equal Housing Opportunity Council and associate professor at the Brown School of Social Work at Washington University, has been part of many recent conversations on preventing gentrification and diversifying city neighborhoods.

“I suppose you could say that even the most expensive housing is affordable to someone,” she said. “But the big question is: Who can afford it? And if there are some reasonably priced units, will

release to your family or donation for medical research.

Powers of attorney are legal documents that allow you to name a specific person to take care of your money or healthcare wishes if you are incapacitated. It is particularly wise to seek professional counsel from a qualified trusts and estates attorney in writing these documents. The person you designate as healthcare power of attorney will be speaking with doctors and executing your wishes on various forms of treatment; your financial power of attorney will be in charge of paying your bills and depending on the range of responsibilities you outline for that person, handling your investment and business affairs. Both are extremely important jobs that should be carried out by people you trust, and that’s why they need to be people in the know. Make their preparation part of your estate planning so they know how to step in and carry out the assignments you’ve given them efficiently.

Bottom line: Estate planning is the final, responsible step in all good financial planning. While it may be unpleasant to do, it is essential in taking care of family, loved ones and causes you support after you’re gone.

Nathaniel Sillin directs

they be dedicated to the lowincome households who really need them?”

While the low-income tax credit program is not perfect, Metzger said it helps to guarantee that there will be a mixed-income population. Metzger hopes that the housing developers will take into account the Ferguson Commission’s call to apply a racial equity lens to every major policy and practice decision made in the region. “It is not enough to say that there is affordable housing elsewhere on the North Side,” Metzger said. “If we want integrated housing, as opposed to merely a shifting of the color line, we need to be proactive and plan for it. There is a long history in St. Louis and around the country of the displacement of low-income communities and communities of color. Will the NGA site be the next iteration of that same story?”

n “It’s another hit for us as Americans and what we have to deal with in our world today, and it definitely puts things in perspective on basketball.”

– LeBron James, on the massacre in Orlando

Bryant Gumbel, Billy Crystal said what we felt about Muhammad Ali

~ See ‘Sports Eye’ page B4 ~

Surge wins home opener

Women’s basketball team is 5-1 going into Saturday

By Palmer Alexander III

For The St. Louis American

The St. Louis Surge didn’t disappoint the energized crowd inside the Mark Twain Center on the campus of UMSL. The Surge won their home opener 103-88 against the Nebraska Strikers, the only team to put a loss on the Surge that sits now at 5-1.

The Surge got tested by the Nebraska Strikers especially in the first quarter of the game. Strikers point guard Michaela Houser had a sizzling first quarter. at one point outscoring the Surge all by herself, 16-15.

I was a little surprised that the Strikers abandoned their hot shooting point guard and played a lot of one on one basketball. Houser went more than four minutes into second quarter without getting a shot. And by the time she finally was able to take one, she had cooled off considerably. However, I don’t think it mattered, because the Surge had all the answers.

Surge guard Rebecca Harris was impossible to guard. She led them with 27 points and did it with an array of crossovers, pull-up jumpers, and pure desire and determination. And she is really good at changing directions without sacrificing any speed whatsoever. Harris played that game with a chip on both shoulders. It was as if every shot Strikers point guard Michaels Houser made just got Harris more agitated, and there wasn’t a Strikers player within the distance of at least one Metrolink stop who wanted to take a charge against Harris.

And she wasn’t alone either, as 6’4” post player Michala Johnson showed off her smooth post moves, finishing with either hand. Johnson has the softest touch around the basket and plays well without the ball in her hands. She is very difficult to guard in post, and not a bad interior passer either. After she made a couple shots in the post, she had the Strikers off balance on defense.

n The Surge just kept coming in waves at the Strikers, whether it was forward Shannity James or Jaleesa Butler and Leah Cotton.

The Surge just kept coming in waves at the Strikers, whether it was forward Shannity James –whom head coach Tony Condra raved about during an interview I did with him for a podcast – or Jaleesa Butler and Leah Cotton. This team is very, very deep and fun to watch.

Surge owner Khalia Collier was kind enough to give us a quick interview at halftime, which you can see at stlamerican.com. Khalia started off the game in heels, then went into the phone booth for tennis shoes and her Surge basketball shirt while greeting every single person in attendance – even twice, if need be. What this young lady has accomplished is quite remarkable, and it’s only going to get better.

Next up for the Surge is another home game, this time against the Iowa Force (2-3) on Saturday, June 18. The tip off at 7:05 p.m. For more information, visit www.stlsurgebasketball.com.

If you haven’t already, please subscribe to the St. Louis American YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Follow me on twitter @thelegendkil @NTheZoneNetwork. JUNE 16

Ishmael H. Sistrunk

Boxing is a sport of great debates. Fight fans rarely have conversations of about great fighters without comparing them to the ring legends of yesteryear. In team sports such as basketball and football, a player’s greatness is often impacted by those around him. Would Michael Jordan be as great without Scottie Pippen? Would Joe Montana be as great without Jerry Rice? How many yards could Barry Sanders have accumulated with a decent quarterback and offensive line? When comparing any of those players with today’s greats, all those things have to be taken into account (in addition to the significant rule changes between eras). In boxing, the rules are simple. The personnel impacting a fight are minimal. Legacies are built on the fists of the fighters. There is room for reasonable debate on whether Muhammad Ali is the greatest fighter of all-time, or even the greatest heavyweight. However, what cannot be debated is that Ali stands alone as the most important and impactful fighter in the history of the sport. From the moment John Graham Chambers penned the Marquess of Queensberry rules in 1865, until the recent plague of mediocrity that has infected the current crop of heavyweights, boxing’s heavyweight division was its pride and joy. Even when boxing was broadcast solely over the radio waves, marquee matchups for the heavyweight title put the Super Bowl hype to shame. Heavyweight champions were billed as the biggest

and baddest men on the planet. They were simultaneously feared and revered. Then came a slender, fasttalking kid from Louisville, Ky. that had the audacity to claim

he was pretty in the manliest sport around. He highlighted his speed, agility and skill over the brute strength and power for which heavyweights were celebrated. Witnessing Ali in the ring was like watching Miles Davis on the trumpet or Charlie Parker on the saxophone. He

See CLUTCH, B5

Ishmael H. Sistrunk

ropes

knocked out George Foreman in one of the greatest fights in boxing history.

Palmer L. Alexander

With Palmer L. Alexander

Rebecca Harris (13) of the Surge attempts to pass by defenders Reshea Bristol (10) and Hailey Kimball (11) of the Nebraska Srickers during fourth-quarter action on Saturday. The Surge went on to win 103-88.

Photo by Wiley Price

SportS EyE

With Alvin A. Reid

Bryant Gumbel, Billy Crystal said what we felt about Muhammad Ali

The late St. Louis icon Jack Buck hosted a short-lived NBS sports program in 1975 entitled GrandStand, which was designed to rival ABC’s Wide World of Sorts. Joining him on the show was a young, black man named Bryant Gumbel GrandStand didn’t last, but Gumbel did. From 1975 to 1982, he hosted a variety of major sporting events for NBC, including NFL, MLB and college basketball events. In September 1982, he began a 15-year run as the principal anchor of Today. He now works for HBO Sports, and was a longtime friend of Muhammad Ali

made our fights his fights for decades.

As he spoke to the world at Ali’s memorial service last Friday, June 10 in Louisville, Kentucky, his words touched me more than any other participant. Maybe it is because I am a black journalist, maybe it is because I always counted myself as one of his fans. Here are his words of respect and praise for Ali. They say everything I have struggled to say since Ali passed.

“The great Maya Angelou, who was herself no stranger to fame, wrote that ultimately people forget what you said; and people forget what you did. But no one will ever forget how you made them feel. As applied to Muhammad Ali, the march of time may one day diminish his boasts and his poetry; maybe even his butterflies and bees. It may even one day dull the memories of the ‘Thrilla in Manilla and the ‘Rumble in the Jungle.’ But I doubt any of us will ever forget how Muhammad Ali made us feel.

“People like me who were once young, semi-gifted and black will never forget what he freed within us. Some of us, like him, took pride in being black, bold and brash. And because we were so unapologetic, we were in the eyes of many way too uppity; we were way too arrogant. Yet we reveled in being like him. By stretching society’s boundaries, as he did, he gave us levels of strength and courage we didn’t even know we had.

“But Ali’s impact was not limited to those of a certain race or a certain religion or a certain mind set. The greatness of this man is that he was, in fact, a man for all ages.

“Has any man ever scripted a greater art to his life? What does it say of a man, any man, that he can go from being viewed as one of country’s most polarizing figures to arguably its most beloved – and to do so without changing his nature or for a second compromising his principles?

n “I doubt any of us will ever forget how Muhammad Ali made us feel.”

– Bryant Gumbel

“Yeah, you know there were great causes, there were great national movements, there were huge divisions in our nation that afforded Ali unusual opportunities to symbolize our struggles. But Harry Truman had it right when he said ‘men make history, and not the other way around.’ Or as Lauryn Hill so nicely put it, ‘consequence is no coincidence.’

I’m not talking about how proud he made you feel with his exploits, or how special he made you feel when you were privileged enough to be in his company. I’m talking about how he gripped our hearts. our souls and our conscience and

“By stretching society’s boundaries, as he did, he gave us levels of strength and courage we didn’t even know we had,”

even fought, ultimately to his detriment, the limitations of father time.

“Befitting his stature as The Greatest of All Times, Muhammad Ali never shied away from a fight. He fought not just the biggest and baddest men of his day inside the ropes, but outside the ring he went toe-to-toe with an array of critics, a seemingly endless succession of societal norms, the architects of a vile immoral war, the U.S. government; he

“Strictly speaking, fighting is what he did. But he broadened that definition by sharing his struggles with us and by viewing our struggles as his. And so it was that he accepted and led battles on behalf of his race, in support of his generation, and in defense of his religious beliefs and, ultimately, the fight of his disease.

“I happened to be overseas working in Norway this past week when my buddy (Today host) Matt Lauer called and he said that the champ had been

taken to the hospital - and this time it was really serious. Right away I called Lonnie, who was as always a pillar of strength. As we discussed the medical details, the doctors’ views and ugly realities of mortality, Lonnie said ‘Bryan, the world still needs him.’

“And indeed it does. The world always needs a champion who always worked to bridge the economic and social divides that threaten a nation that he dearly loved. The world needs a champion that always symbolized the best of Islam to offset the hatred and the fear. And the world needs a champion that believed in fairness and inclusion for all.

‘Hating people because of their color is wrong,’ Ali said. ‘And it doesn’t matter what color that does the hating, it’s just plain wrong.’

“Yeah, we do need Muhammad Ali now. We need the strength, the hope, the compassion, the conviction that he always demonstrated. But this time our beloved champion is down. And for once he will not get up. Not this time. Not ever again.

“Let me close with a personal story. Fifty years ago, Muhammad Ali defeated George Chuvalo in Toronto Canada. The very next day he showed up in my Hyde Park neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago. As Ali got out of a car at the home of Elijah Muhammad, I happened to be next door shooting hoops in a friend’s backyard. Of course, I quickly ran to the fence and for the first time in my life I shook the champ’s hand. I was 17. I was awestruck and, man, I thought he was the greatest. Now, half a century and a lifetime of experiences later I am still awestruck and I am convinced more than ever that Muhammad Ali is the greatest.

“To be standing here on a virtue of his and Lonnie’s request is mind numbing. The honor that Ali has done me today as he goes to his grave is one that I will take to mine. God Bless you, champ.”

Crystal clear

Actor Billy Crystal brought humor to the ceremony, as well as poignant memories of his

relationship with Muhammad Ali. He first met the champ when Ali was being honored as Sport magazine’s man of the year. Crystal, then a struggling stand-up comedian, was only selected to entertain because the sought-after comic was not available.

He imitated Ali and the late Howard Cosell to the amusement of Ali and other guests. After the show, Ali came to him and said, “From now on, you my little brother.” Ali called Crystal “Little Brother” until his death.

He shared a tale of the two giggling during Cosell’s funeral service after Ali asked him

“Do you think he’s wearing his hairpiece?” Crystal said, “I don’t think so.” Ali: “How will God recognize him?” Crystal: “Champ, as soon as he opens his mouth, He’ll know.”

The final words of Crystal’s remarks brought the family, dignitaries, crowd and media to their respective feet.

“He was a tremendous bolt of lightning created by Mother Nature out of thin air.

A fantastic combination of power and beauty. We’ve seen still photographs of lightning bolts at the moment of impact; ferocious in its strength, magnificent in its elegance, and at the moment of impact it lights up everything around it. So you can see everything clearly.

“Muhammad Ali struck us in the middle of America’s darkest night, in the heart of its most threatening, gathering storm. His power toppled the mightiest of foes and his intense light shined on America, and we were able to see clearly injustice, inequality, poverty, pride, self-realization, courage, laughter, love, joy and religious freedom for all.

“Ali forced us to take a look at ourselves. This brash young man who thrilled us, angered us confused and challenged us ultimately became a silent messenger of peace who told us that life is best when you build bridges between people, not walls.

“My friends, only once in a thousand years or so do we get to hear a Mozart, see a Picasso, read a Shakespeare Ali was one of them. And yet at his heart, he was still a kid from Louisville who ran with the gods, and walked with the cripples and smiled at the foolishness of it all. He is gone, but he will never die. He was my big brother.”

He was mine too, Billy.

Alvin A. Reid is a panelist on the Nine Network program, Donnybrook and appears on ABC’s The Allman Report and several sports radio shows. His Twitter handle is @aareid1.

Alvin A. Reid

Bryant Gumbel said of Muhammad Ali at his funeral last Friday, June 10 in Louisville, Kentucky.

Photo by Lawrence Bryant

Hazelwood Central alumna is All American

By Earl Austin Jr.

Of The St. Louis American

Former Hazelwood Central girls’ track and field standout Ashley Henderson put on quite a show at last weekend’s NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon.

A sophomore at San Diego State, Henderson earned All-American status in two events. She finished second in the women’s 100meter dash, just missing a national championship by .01 seconds behind Oregon’s Ariana Washington. Throughout the three rounds, Henderson displayed a late surge in the last 20 meters that nearly netter her an individual national title.

Ashley Henderson excels at NCAA Outdoor Championships

of 11.21 seconds. She also anchored the Aztecs’ 4x100meter relay team to a sixthplace finish and a new school record. Henderson was also a semifinalist in the 200-meter dash, finishing in 11th place overall.

last weekend’s NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon. n Ashley Henderson has also qualified for the upcoming U.S. Olympic Trials.

The All-American performance at the NCAA Outdoors culminated an outstanding season for Henderson, who was named the Outstanding Female Track Athlete in the Mountain West Conference. She was the MWC champion in the 100, 200 and 4x100-meter relay. Henderson has also qualified for the upcoming U.S. Olympic Trials, which will also be held in Eugene from June 30 to July 10. Henderson will compete in the 100 and 200.

Henderson posted a windaided time of 10.96 seconds in the 100-meter finals. In the semifinals, she won her heat with a personal best

By Earl Austin Jr. Of The St. Louis American

There were some extraordinary individual performances during the 2016 track and field season.

Cahokia’s Ja’Mari Ward unleashed a triple jump effort of 53 feet 7 ½ inches, which was the best in the history of the state of Illinois.

Edwardsville’s A.J. Epenesa threw the discus 206 feet 5 inches, which is the best throw in the United States and the second-best effort in Illinois prep history.

Brentwood girls’ star Sophie Rivera threw the javelin 180 feet 4 inches to qualify for this

CLUTCH

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Ali wasn’t quite as swift and elusive as he was when he shocked the world to become heavyweight champion. Still, his obvious advantage over the brute and stalking foreman, was his foot and hand speed. Rather than using his natural advantages though, Ali did the unthinkable and laid on the ropes and corners and allowed Foreman to tee-off on his face and his body for eight long rounds.

Ali dodged some punches and ate plenty of others. The extreme confidence that led Ali to long proclaim that he was ‘The Greatest,’ allowed him to devise the plan to beat Foreman. He sat still and allowed one of the most devastating punchers in history to punch him. To make sure Foreman threw everything at him, Ali taunted and peppered him with insults before (and during) the fight to make his opponent angry. Ali gambled that Foreman would get tired of punching before he would get tired of being punched in the face. Ali gambled on his heart, endurance and ability to persevere and it paid off with one of the most impressive victories in the history of the sport. The victory laid the foundation for mental warfare as a strategy in the sport of boxing. Between his showmanship and entertaining personality, his affinity for mind games, his never-wavering (publically, at least) confidence, without Ali, your favorite fighter probably would not exist. Recent greats such as Floyd Mayweather Jr. Roy Jones Jr. Sugar Ray Leonard, Mike Tyson, Bernard Hopkins and others owe part of their success and the ability to be flashy, brash or outspoken fighters to the doors Ali opened during his reign. Ali defied convention and fought against the odds in almost every aspect of his life.

Henderson was a two-time state-champion in the 100 and 200 during her stellar career at Hazelwood Central.

Leaders of the track

St. Louis American 2016 All-Area Track and Field Team

month’s U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon. Alton High’s LaJarvia Brown was a monster in the jumps and hurdles all season as the area’s best all-around performer. Ward is this year’s St. Louis American Male Track Athlete of the Year while Brown is the Female Track Athlete of the Year. Ward is headed to Missouri while Brown will attend Texas A&M. All four of these athletes are mainstays on this year’s St. Louis American All-Area Track and Field Team. Here is a list of the athletes on the 2016 All-Area Team by their event.

Boys 100-meter dash: Adam Nelson (Triad)

200-meter dash: Jayson Ashford (SLUH)

400-meter dash: Isaiah Cole (Hazelwood West)

800-meter run: Dylan Quisenberry (Lafayette)

1,600-meter run: Dustan Davidson (SLUH)

3,200-meter run: Austin Hindman (Lafayette)

110-meter high hurdles: Travis Anderson (Edwardsville)

300-meter int. hurdles: William Session

(Belleville East)

4x100-meter relay: East St. Louis

4x200-meter relay: East St. Louis

4x400-meter relay: East St. Louis

4x800-meter relay: Lafayette Shot Put:

A.J. Epenesa (Lafayette) Discus:

A.J. Epenesa (Lafayette) Long Jump:

Ja’Mari Ward (Cahokia) Triple Jump:

Ja’Mari Ward (Cahokia)

High Jump: Lamont Allen (De Soto)

Pole Vault: Mark Govero (Festus)

In the age of segregation, when it was even more deadly for black men to be defiant, Ali stood up for civil rights. He stood up for the Muslim faith when he changed his name from Cassius Clay to Cassius X and ultimately Muhammad Ali. He stood

up for the Vietnamese and against war by refusing to fight in the Vietnam War, even when it put his career and life in jeopardy. He stood up against Parkinson’s Disease by waging a long and public battle against the debilitating illness.

Girls

100-meter dash: Deja Ingram (Hazelwood Central)

200-meter dash: Madison Fuller (John Burroughs)

400-meter dash: Margaret Sliney (MICDS)

800-meter run: Melissa Menghini (Rockwood Summit)

1,600-meter run: Anna West (Lafayette) 3,200-meter run: Sara Nicholson (Lafayette) 100-meter high hurdles: LaJarvia Brown (Alton)

300-meter low hurdles: LaJarvia Brown (Alton)

4x100-meter relay:

Hazelwood Central

4x400-meter relay: Kirkwood

4x800-meter relay: Lafayette

Shot Put:

Sophie Rivera (Brentwood)

Discus: Sophie Rivera (Brentwood)

Long Jump: LaJarvia Brown (Alton)

Triple Jump: LaJarvia Brown (Alton)

High Jump:

Chrishana Wilson (Gateway STEM)

Pole Vault: Taylor Gross (Seckman)

The fact that an entire nation wept after Ali, a loud-mouthed, black, war-skipping Muslim man passed away, shows that there was no foe too great for him to defeat. It is likely that we will never see another Muhammad Ali, inside the ring or out. As I mentioned,

boxing fans and historians can debate and discuss where his skills place him amongst the all-time greats. What cannot be debated though is that any conversation on the most-important and influential fighters of all-time begins and ends with Ali. Much like

October 1, 1975, Muhammad Ali defeated Joe Frazier in what was called the ‘Thrilla in Manila’ to retain the heaveyweight championship.

Foreman was never the same after the Ali defeat, boxing will never be the same without ‘The Greatest.’

Follow Ishmael and In the Clutch on Twitter @ IshmaelSistrunk

Former Hazelwood Central girls’ track and field standout Ashley Henderson, now a sophomore at San Diego State, earned All-American status in two events at

Ali speaks to 1,500 students in Los Angeles in February, 1968.

Otis Williams, executive director of the St. Louis Business Development Council, said the U.S. Black Chamber of Commerce’s new St. Louis branch will help “get the minority community into the working environment.”

CHAMBER

continued from page B1

One

at the event asked if the local chamber will be working in collaboration or in competition with the other minority business organizations.

Christal Watson, president of the Heartland Black Chamber, said that they want to collaborate. “What is the black business

agenda in St. Louis?” she said. “There needs to be a conversation about what our roles are and what services each of those organizations deliver. There is a role each of us play, and we just need to be more specific about it.”

Otis Williams, executive director of the St. Louis Business Development Council, said he applauds many of the services that the chamber officers and any efforts to “get the minority community into the working environment.”

Mike Jones, former senior policy advisor for County Executive Charlie Dooley (and current member of The St. Louis American editorial board and the State Board of Education), said the chamber’s launch is an important step for black business leaders.

“The laws of that universe apply to the big and the small,” he said. “You will never develop without effective political instruments.”

Financial Focus

By Ana Anderson-Stringfellow

50

Photo by Wiley Price

Co-star chemistry makes for guilty pleasure

Natural ebb and flow of Hart and Johnson salvages formulaic ‘Central Intelligence’

By Kenya Vaughn Of The St Louis American

In “Central Intelligence” Kevin Hart steps into the familiar role of odd couple/cop buddy comedy co-star with his reputation as a movie star on the line.

For his last two films, the standup phenomenon’s transition to the screen has been reduced to a windup physical comedy toy failed by a thoughtless premise and script – and without the luxury of his own routine to fall back on.

On the verge of being declared box office kryptonite, Hart has found a rhythm with “Central Intelligence.”

The film by director/co-writer Rawson Marshall Thurber that co-stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson just might be his saving grace.

“Central Intelligence” opens in theatres

A nod to old soul

His peers prefer the modern influences of hip-hop, but millennial singer Leon Bridges has found his niche in vintage. The Texas native took his sold-out audience at The Pageant on a stroll down memory lane with original material that pays homage to the early days of R&B.

nationwide on Friday, June 17 – and with better jokes and comedic situations, the film could have been the “Rush Hour” for the millennial generation.

But they’ll have to settle for an enjoyably serviceable action comedy that sprinkles in cute elements from the reunion comedy formula and showcases the potential of its stars.

The pair seems unlikely at first sight, but the duo meshes well. The secret to their successful partnership is Hart’s graciousness and generosity. He gives Johnson plenty of breathing room to flex his comedy muscles.

In “Central Intelligence,” Hart is actually the straight man – well, as close to a straight man as he could possibly get.

He plays Carl Joyner, a former high-

Agony of unhealthy love inspires new album from Theresa Payne

By Kenya Vaughn Of The St. Louis American

“You picked the wrong heart to play with,” local soul singer Theresa Payne belts in her mid-tempo track “Forever” from her latest project “Get My Heart Back.”

With the release of the album last week, Payne furthers the notion that R&B hath no better subject matter than a woman scorned.

“It really started out as therapy for me,” Payne said. “My intention was not to put out an album at all.”

As a matter of fact, she was fighting against it.

That is until she recorded the song

“Didn’t I.”

Payne knew she was on to something musically, but didn’t think what she was coming up with was for her.

Her previous projects 2009’s “Go Fight Win” and 2011’s “The Moment,” were comprised mostly of inspirational soul.

She came up through the ranks of local traveling open mic event Café Soul, opened for Jill Scott and even made her way to the televised auditions for NBC’s hit talent

See PAYNE, C4

St. Louis loses local artist

Tyrell Thompson killed during robbery at age 29

By Morgan Bradley For The St. Louis American

Rell’s father, Tyrone Thompson, was a policeman who himself had been murdered, yet he loved and respected his city that is plagued with violence. “Don’t

See ARTIST C4

The life of Tyrell Thompson –an accomplished artist with a gift for friendship--ended abruptly last Wednesday, June 8, when he was shot by a stranger trying to steal his wallet. He was 29. After graduating from Hazelwood East High School, Thompson – known to his friends as “Rell Finesse” – studied for three years at the Art Institute of Santa Monica and then continued his studies at Webster University, pursuing a degree in graphic design. He was a nurturing role model for his family and friends, and his home and studio provided a safe haven for fellow artists. His home exuded love and warmth and a fostered a feeling of togetherness. The art that covered his walls was vibrant, full of imagination and color – a parallel to his life. His love for cartoons and anime was ever-present in his skillful, witty work. He painted Power Ranger helmets onto basketball players and voluptuous women.

“Central Intelligence,” written and directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber and starring Kevin Hart and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, opens in theatres nationwide on Friday, June 17.

Theresa Payne’s record “Get My Heart Back” is available on digital outlets including iTunes, GooglePlay, Amazon, Spotify and Tidal.

Local artist Tyrell Thompson was killed Wednesday, June 8, when he was shot by a stranger trying to steal his wallet. He was 29.

Photo by Lawrence Bryant

How to place a calendar listing

1. Email your listing to calendar@stlamerican. com OR

2. Visit the calendar section on stlamerican.com and place your listing

Calendar listings are free of charge, are edited for space and run on a space-available basis.

concerts

Fri., June 17, The Marquee Old School Series with Rakim, The Marquee, 1900 Locust. For more information, visit www.metrotix.com .

Sun., June 19, Temptations Revue featuring Dennis Edwards, The Ambassador, 9800 Halls Ferry. For more information, visit www. metrotix.com.

Wed., June 22, 10:30 a.m., St. Louis County Library presents Music & History: West African Kora Enjoy this special musical performance by Sean Gaskell on the Kora, an ancient 21-stringed harp from West Africa. Gaskell will feature traditional songs that are the heart and soul of the Kora’s musical repertoire, in addition to some of his own personal compositions. Grant’s View Branch, 9700 Musick Rd., 63123. For more information, call (314) 994-3300 or visit www.slcl.org.

Fri., June 24, 8 p.m. Café Soul welcomes PJ Morton for Black Music Month, The Lux, 2619 Washington Ave. For more information, visit www.facebook.com/cafesoulstl

Sat., Jun. 25, Mo Investment presents Brian McKnight Live, The Ambassador, 9800 Halls Ferry. For more information, visit www.

metrotix.com.

Sun., July 3, 7 p.m., Club Riviera Productions presents The Whispers with special Guests The Dirty Muggs, The Ambassador, 9800 Halls Ferry. For more information, call (314) 534-1111 or (314) 8699090 or visit www.metrotix. com.

local gigs

Sun., June 19, 4 p.m., Sikuizm: A Soulition Day Groove. A day of groove offering unapologetically afroprogressive vibes for those who dare to think outside the club. Centene Center for the Arts, 3547 Olive St., 63103. For more information, visit www.facebook.com.

Sun., June 26, 4 p.m., The Griot Museum of Black History presents Groovin’ at the Griot feat. Lamont Hadley, Sr. Reservations required. 2505 St. Louis Ave., 63106. For more information or to make your reservation, call (314) 241-7057 or visit www. thegriotmuseum.com.

Sun., June 26, 6 p.m., 28th Annual Carondelet Concerts in the Park feat. Kingdom Brothers Band 3900 Holly Hills Dr., 63116. For more information, call (314) 752-6339 or visit www. carondeletliving.com.

Calendar

Club Riviera Productions presents The Whispers with special Guests The Dirty Muggs. For more information, see CONCERTS.

Featured Event

Sat., June 18, 10 a.m., CAM, the Pulitzer, and the Sheldon present Family Day Block Party. Enjoy superhero-themed art activities, music by KDHX DJ Paul Stark, performances by Tapman, face painting, and more. Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, 3750 Washington Blvd., 63108. For more information, call (314) 535-4660 or visit www.camstl.org.

special events

Fri., June 17, 5:30 p.m., Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis presents Salute to Women in

Leadership. Marriott St. Louis Grand Hotel, 800 Washington Ave., 63101. For more information, call (314) 6153668 or visit www.ulstl.com.

Sat., June 18, 10 a.m., Family Day Block Party. Enjoy superhero-themed art activities at each location, music

Rd., 63146. For more information or to register, call (949) 599-1867 or visit www.hirelive.com.

Sat., June 25, 7 a.m., Haven House City of Refuge Church Bazaar, Barbeque, and Carwash Building Fundraiser. 11115 New Halls Ferry Rd., 63033. For more information, call (314) 2991641.

Sat., June 25, 9 a.m., 150th Anniversary of the Buffalo Soldiers Bike Ride. We will conquer all 11.8 roundtrip miles of the St. Louis Riverfront Trail. We

by KDHX DJ Paul Stark, performances by Tapman, face painting, and more. Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, 3750 Washington Blvd., 63108. For more information, call (314) 535-4660 or visit www.camstl.org.

Sat., June 18, 3 p.m., Circuit Attorney Debate 2016. An opportunity to engage all four candidates running for St. Louis City Circuit Attorney before voting in August. Busch Student Center, 20 N. Grand Blvd., 63103. For more information or to register your questions, visit www.bit. ly/1XvLbU4.

Mon., June 20, Kingdom House presents 2016 Golf Tournament & Dinner Auction. The day will include 18 holes of golf with cart, lunch, food and drinks on course, a dinner auction, and more. Forest Hills Country Club, 36 Forest Club Dr., 63005. For more information, (314) 260-6369 or visit www. kingdomhouse.org.

Mon., June 20, 5:30 p.m., Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. St. Louis Metropolitan Chapters present the Longest Day Awareness Happy Hour Troy’s Jazz Gallery, 4519 Olive, 63108.

of course Caribbean food. The Office, 5917 Delmar Blvd., 63112. For more information, visit www. facebook.com.

comedy

June 16-June 18, Helium Comedy Club St. Louis welcomes Sinbad, Helium Comedy Club, 1151 St. Louis Galleria St. For more information, call (314) 7271260 or visit http://st-louis. heliumcomedy.com/ Fri., July 29, 8 p.m. Martin Lawrence, Chaifetz Arena. For more information, visit www.ticketmaster.com

literary

Thur., June 16, 7 p.m., Ferguson Public Library hosts author Carol Anderson, author of White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide As Ferguson erupted in

2014, and media commentators

across the spectrum referred to the angry response of African Americans as black rage, Anderson wrote a remarkable op-ed in the Washington Post showing that this was, instead, white rage at work. 35 N. Florissant Rd., 63135. For more information, call (314) 521-4820 or visit www. ferguson.lib.mo.us.

Wed., June 22, 7 p.m., St. Louis Public Library hosts author Kimberla Lawson Roby, author of A Sinful Calling. Schlafly Branch, 225 N. Euclid Ave., 63108. For more information, call (314) 367-4120 or visit www.slpl. org.

Mon., June 27, 7 p.m., Left

Bank Books hosts author Alison Flowers, author of Exoneree Diaries: The Fight for Innocence, Independence, and Identity. 399 N. Euclid Ave., 63108.

Wed., June 29, 7 p.m., Left Bank Books hosts author Natashia Deon, author of Grace. 399 N. Euclid Ave., 63108.

theatre

Through June 22, The Muny presents The Wizard of Oz. 1 Theatre Dr., 63112. For more information, call (314) 3611900 or visit www.muny.org.

Through June 26, Shakespeare Festival St. Louis presents A Midsummer Night’s Dream. 6604 Fine Arts Dr., 63110. For more information, call (314) 5319800 or visit www.sfstl.com.

arts

Fri., June 24, 6 p.m., 5th

Annual Contemporary Night Out. This is an evening of short, informative programs about various aspects of contemporary art. For more information, call (314) 935-4523 or visit www. kemperartmuseum.wustl.edu/

events.

The Griot Museum of Black History presents Lady Leaders and Legends. Artist Daniel Hodges will 20 outstanding St. Louis women including Maya Angelou, Katherine Dunham, Frankie M. Freeman, Ida Woolfolk, and others. 2505 St. Louis Ave., 63110. For more information, call (314) 241-7057 or visit www.thegriotmuseum.org.

lectures

Sun., June 19, 10 a.m., Every Black Man. What would it take to get every black man in St. Louis to pray for our brothers that have passed, tribute our ancestors, make arrangements to better ourselves, our women, our children, and our communities? Art Hill in Forest Park, 63110. For more information, visit www. facebook.com.

Tues., June 21, 8 a.m., Day Care Provider Training Conference at Harris Stowe State University in the William Clay Center. If you have a Day Care or thinking about opening a Day Care, don’t miss this FREE training opportunity. Register by phone at (314) 622-3306 or email at RayWi@stlouis-mo. gov.

health

Sat., June 18, Community Women Against Hardship’s 12th Annual Walk and Health Fair, Tower Grove Park. For more information, Call (314) 289-7523 or visit www.cwah.org.

Sat., June 18, 10 a.m., Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. Upsilon Omega Chapter presents the 17th Annual Commemorative Charles Drew Blood Drive. For more information or to

Café Soul welcomes PJ Morton for Black Music Month. For more information, see CONCERTS.

schedule an appointment, call (800) RED CROSS or visit www.redcrossblood.org and enter sponsor code: Omega.

Sat., June 18, 10 a.m., Alzheimer’s Association and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Gamma Omega Chapter present the Care & Conquer Education Seminar. In honor of Alzheimer’s & Brain Awareness Month, join us for this free education program. Attendees will learn the latest information on research and early detection of Alzheimer’s disease. The event is free and open to the public. Friendly Temple M.B. Church Youth Worship Center, 5544 Dr. Martin Luther King Dr., 63112. For more information, call (800) 272-3900 or visit www.alz.org/stl.

Sat., June 18, 12 p.m., East St. Louis Branch NAACP and Southern Illinois Healthcare Foundation

Healthy Start Male Involvement Program present Men’s Health Day. During the event, men will learn about the health disparities that affect African American males and get the necessary screenings needed to put them on the path toward greater health. The event includes a variety of services for men without medical insurance or a medical provider, including: blood pressure, glucose, and health screenings. State Street Health Center, 2001 State St., East St. Louis, IL 62205. For more information, call (618) 2158149 or visit www.sihf.org.

Fri., June 24, 6 p.m., Sickle Cell Association Quarter Auction Fundraiser. What is a quarter auction? It is a cross between an auction (where you hold up a numbered paddle to bid on an item), a raffle (where you are trying to win a prize), Bingo (using chips or a ball with a number on it), and a home party (a gathering with friends). This is a fun and easy way to raise money for a great cause, while bidding on great items from various vendors, like Partylite, Miche, It Works, Thirty-One Gifts, Created, Tupperware, and many, many more. Bidding Paddles are 1 for $5 or 2 for $8. Bring lots of quarters to bid with (we will have extras rolls, if you run out). 5615 Pershing Avenue, Ste. 29, 63112. For more information, call (314) 277-3950 or visit www. sicklecellassociation.org.

Sat., June 25, 8:30 a.m., St. Louis Walk to Defeat ALS. Welcome and Announcements will begin at 10:00 am with the Walk immediately following. There is a 3 mile and a 1 mile route that you can choose. Visitors & Education Center, Forest Park, 5595 Grand Dr., 63112. For more information, visit www.web. alsa.org.

Wed., June 29, 8 a.m., The Alzheimer’s Association presents Alzheimer’s Care Consultation Day Consultations discuss dementia and Alzheimer’s related issues

including caregivers stress, diagnosis questions, resources and services, coping with behaviors and learning how to communicate with someone with dementia. Consultations are conducted by a social worker for an hour to answer your questions and address concerns. If unable to attend, care consultations can also be conducted by telephone or at the Alzheimer’s Association office, 9370 Olive Blvd, 63112. Appointments are required. To register, call (800) 272-3900. James J. Eagan Center, 1 James Eagan Dr., 63033. For more information, visit www.alz.org/stl.

Wed., June 29, 1 p.m., The Alzheimer’s Association and Saint Louis University’s Geriatric Education Center present Free Geriatric Screenings. Screenings are for anyone age 65 years or older and will include assessment of frailty, nutrition, and cognitive function. Jewish Community Center, 2 Millstone Campus Dr., 63146. For more information, call (314) 8010416 or visit www.alz.org/stl.

Sat., July 9, 1 p.m., Sickle Cell Association presents a Sickle Cell Baby Shower. Play games, meet other parents, enjoy cake and punch, and most importantly be educated on the important facts for the road ahead. This event is primarily for those parents of a newly diagnosed infant, however it is open to parents of children 5 years and under, also diagnosed with sickle cell disease. RSVP required. 5615 Pershing Avenue, Ste. 29, 63112. For more information or to RSVP, call (314) 833-6751 or visit www. sicklecellassociation.org.

Tuesdays & Thursdays, 7:30 p.m., Get Sexy Movement Boot Camp. Station styled boot camp with 1 minute at each station for three rounds. North County Recreation Center, 2577 Redman Rd., 63136.For more information, call (314) 898-8898.

ARTIST

Continued from C1

give up on your dreams for St Louis,” he often said about the same city that eventually took his life.

His optimism was a constant. He possessed the unique ability to bring out the best in the people he cared the most about.

“Although seven years apart in age, we fostered a friendship that transcended both space and time,” said John Greene. “Our friendship did not exist because of the commonalities that we shared, but because of the things that made us distinct and different. These distinct differences rendered me almost speechless in one of the last moments I was fortunate

enough to share with him.”

That night, Greene picked up Rell and they went to a hip-hop event in South City.

“The performance was over, and people are slowly filing out of the event space,” Greene said. “I am standing around, passing out flyers to promote an upcoming event that I curated. Too introverted and shy to pass the flyers out to everyone, I intentionally overlook a group of people standing across from me. Rell witnesses how reserved I am and asks me, ‘Why don’t you go invite them?’”

Green gave his friend excuses why he couldn’t. Rell wasn’t hearing it.

“This next moment is what truly makes me marvel at his genius and his spirit,” Greene said.

“Tyrell takes one of the

flyers, puts it in his back pocket and goes over to the group of people. He stands there talking to the party for several minutes before he returns to me with his beaming smile and says, ‘Yeah, man. They’re coming!’ This is what made Tyrell unique. This is what made Tyrell a rarity. This is what made Tyrell beautiful.”

Rell challenged his friends to grow and led by example. “His actions showed you that he cared and he wanted you to live beyond your present state,” Greene said. “He saw where you were but he also saw where you could be and he would do whatever he could to help you get there. One could not quantify a spirit and energy as extraordinary as his.” Morgan Bradley is an editorial intern for The St. Louis American.

series “The Voice.” But she grew up singing church music.

So an album that exposed the grimy details of unhealthy love didn’t seem like an option.

Payne was looking to shop “Didn’t I” to other singers and played the song for her trusted crew within the local music scene.

“I told them I wrote it and wanted to give it to somebody else, and they looked at me like I was crazy,” Payne laughed.

She was already three songs into what would become “Get My Heart Back,” though she didn’t know it at the time.

But the more producer Trifecta kept funneling her music for her words and melodies, the better she felt – not only her situation, but presenting her thoughts and feelings through songs as a collective experience.

“I realized how much it was helping and healing me,” Payne said. “And I knew if I were to

put it into a project that it could help somebody else.”

So she did.

The nine-track record dropped last week and features Arshad Goods, Rockwell Knuckles and Aloha Mischeaux. “Get My Heart Back” carries the listener through the range of emotions experienced over the course of a dysfunctional relationship.

“It was literally like I had written myself through the stages of grief,” she said, “and you have to go through all of those to get to the last stage.”

The stages of heartbreak and relationship dysfunction are a bit different, though.

Depending on the nature of the partnership, they can include rage, confusion, self-doubt, delusion, confrontation, relapse, despair, apathy, freedom and, finally, self-actualization. Payne gives a taste of them all over the course of the album.

“I keep coming back for more, but you change nothing,” Payne sings in “Back For More.” “Guess I ain’t had enough.”

The album could hold its

own against just about anything out right now in mainstream R&B.

With the mostly mid-tempo and hip-hop-flavored selections, Payne nails the experience of carrying listeners through her experiences on the losing end of love.

She feels that doing so through the album shows that

URBAN

school hero disenchanted with the monotony of his life as an adult. On the eve of his high school’s 20-year reunion, former overweight outcast turned CIA hard body Bob Stone (Johnson) inserts himself into Joyner’s life and makes him ache for the ordinary.

The physical absurdity of Hart and Johnson’s pairing is probably the biggest advantage of “Central Intelligence.” It is reminiscent of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito in “Twins.” Schwarzenegger and DeVito had better punchlines and content to work with. However, Hart and Johnson are both naturals when it comes to timing – and they manage to use their gifts to maximize the funny.

she has grown not only as an artist, but as a woman.

“Sometimes we as women don’t like to talk about those sensitive subjects, because you don’t want to be judged or have anyone look at us like we are crazy,” Payne said.

“But it’s just about being real and owning your feelings. It showed me that I have

n “It really started out as therapy for me. My intention was not to put out an album at all.”

– Theresa Payne

actually learned from my experiences – and that all of that pain wasn’t in vain.”

It wasn’t easy reliving the pain for the sake of her art –even though it was worth it.

“I cried my way through it,” Payne said of the opening prelude.

“In order to move forward, we have to heal – from whatever it is that’s keeping us from getting to the next level,” Payne said. “Everything that happens to us – good or bad –is for a reason.”

“Don’t you know you are beautiful? Don’t you know

you are a queen?” Payne sings in the closing number entitled “Crown.” “Don’t you know you can conquer anything?”

“It’s okay to struggle, hurt and cry,” Payne said. “But it’s also okay to heal from that struggle and move forward. If you ever want to know what’s on the other side of pain, we have to be willing to take that journey.”

“Get My Heart Back” is available on digital outlets including iTunes, GooglePlay, Amazon, Spotify and Tidal. Payne will celebrate the album’s release with performance at the Kranzberg Arts Center (501 N. Grand in Grand Center) for Music at The Intersection on Friday, June 17 (8 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.). She will also open for Café Soul’s presentation of PJ Morton (of Maroon Five) on Friday, June 24 at The Lux, 2619 Washington Ave. For more information on Theresa Payne, visit her on Facebook.com/Theresa Payne, Twitter @theresa_payne, IG: @theresapayne and on her website at theresapaynemusic. com.

The chemistry between Hart and Johnson is also something that deserves a

second look. They are two of the hardest-working individuals in Hollywood. They put in the elbow grease and rose to the occasion of making “Central Intelligence” something they both could be comfortable with presenting to their fans. The film is a practice run for what could be a decent recurring comedy duo, though there would have to be an upgrade with respect to jokes and subject matter.

More intention being placed on the overall package of “Central Intelligence” from a production standpoint – and not just placing the weight of the film on the star power –would have led to an incredible experience. It certainly had the potential to grow beyond formulaic, predictable comedy. The film isn’t a side-splitting masterpiece by any stretch, but “Central Intelligence” also has an indisputable fun factor that will allow it to rest comfortably among the guiltypleasure comedy selections of recent years. Between the surprise comedy elements and a few cameos, even the harshest critics will at least be amused.

“Central Intelligence” opens in theatres nationwide on Friday, June 17. The film is rated PG-13 with a running time of 114 minutes.

Art by Tyrell Thompson

Celebrations

Scholarship Winners

Ga’Nel Wiggins, a senior at McCluer High School and member of the school’s Army JROTC, received Alabama A&M University’s Bulldog Battalion Order of Merit List for a four-year Advanced Designee Campus Based Scholarship. The $81,000 scholarship will cover four years of undergraduate studies. Wiggins plans to major in biology/pre-med with goals of becoming an Army officer and physician.

Hazelwood Central senior Tyrese Goldsby was awarded the prestigious Millennium Gates Scholarship that will cover the full cost of tuition for four years of college. Goldsby will be attending Morehouse College. He also has aspirations of attending Georgia Tech to complete his master’s degree.

Reunions

rochellewilliams001@yahoo. com.

4300 Calvert Ave 63134 (off Woodson Rd.).

21st Birthday

Book release

In May, Wykeeta Lee released her debut book entitled, Breaking the Silence from Shame: My Journey. Empowered through her relationship with Jesus Christ and motivated by her life experiences, Wykeeta shares her story in hopes of helping other victims of abuse.

Do you have a celebration you’re proud of? If so we would like to share your good news with our readers. Whether it’s a birth, wedding, engagement announcement, anniversary, retirement or birthday, send your photos and a brief announcement (50 words or less) to us and we may include it in our paper and website – AT NO COST – as space is available Photos will not be returned. Send your announcements to: kdaniel@stlamerican. com or mail to: St. Louis American Celebrations c/o Kate Daniel 2315 Pine St. St. Louis, MO 63103 FREE OF CHARGE

Beaumont High Class of 1971 is planning its 45th year reunion for July 22-24, 2016. The reunion dinner dance is Saturday, July 23, 2016 at the Renaissance Airport Hotel, 9801 Natural Bridge Road. Please send your contact information (address and phone number) to Gladys Smith at beaumont1971alumni@aol. com.

Beaumont High Class of 1976 will have its 40th year reunion September 23-25, 2016. For more detailed information please email bhs1976@swbell. net or Facebook: Beaumont High class of 76.

Beaumont High Class of 1984 can stay updated via our Facebook page “Beaumont Class of 1984”. We meet the last Friday of every month. Contact Rochelle Williams at

East St. Louis Lincoln High Classes of 1966 will celebrate our 50 year class reunion August 19 - 21, 2016 at the Four Points Sheraton Hotel in Fairview Hts., Ill. The cost is $100 for classmates and $50 for guests. A late fee of $25 pp will be assessed after May 31. Please contact John Cunningham for details and reservations at: 618-692-6610.

East St. Louis Class of 1971 will celebrate its 45-yesr reunion Sept. 2-4, 2016 at the Casino Queen in East St. Louis, IL. For more information, please contact Opal at 314-952-4729, Sandra at 314-249-7295 or Glenda at 618-781-4888 or email timac48@aol.com.

Hadley Technical High School Class of 1961 will celebrate its 55-year reunion, September 16-18, 2016 at the Renaissance Airport Hotel. For more information, contact Ralph Johnson 477-2042, Shirley Woods 361-5351, or Jeffery Raybon 3821875. Send updated contact information to celiajteach@ gmail.com. The annual picnic is Sunday, September 4th at John L. Brown Park,

Harrison School All-Class Reunion Saturday September 10, 2016, 6:30 pm-10:30 pm at Ambruster Great Hall (6633 Clayton Rd., St. Louis, Mo 63117). Tickets are $60 per person.For more info contact; Judy Darris at 314-443-6741, Yolanda Beck at 314-346-8103 or Làshell Tolliver at 314-4203566.

Soldan High Class of 1965 is pleased to announce that our trip to the Nation Capitol of Washington, D.C. was a success. Thank you to all who participated.

Soldan High Class of 1966 has planned its 50-year reunion for September 9-10, 2016 at Christian Hospital Atrium, 1111 Dunn Road St. Louis, Mo 63136. For more information, please contact: Meredith Wayne Farrow, 314.521-8540, Robert Collins, 908.313-5002 or Marilyn Edwards Simpson, 341.837-7746. Facebook, soldan class of 1966 or email: stlsoldan1966@yahoo.com.

Sumner High School Class of 1956 will celebrate its 60th reunion July 15-17,2016, at the Sheraton Westport Plaza Hotel.

For more information, please contact Gloria at 314-438-7339 with your contact information (address, phone number, e-mail).

Sumner High Class of 1964

70th Birthday Gala will be held Sat. Aug 13. 2016 at the Norwood Hills Country Club at 6:30 pm. Please contact Joyce Camp for additional information 314-423-8821 or Yvette Allen 314-997-2214 or Fannie Clark Rogers 314-3554337 your Gala Committee.

Sumner High School Class of 1966 is planning their 50th Class Reunion. Please contact Ella Scott at 314-436-1696, Els2188@sbcglobal.net with your name, address and email or join the Sumner Class of 1966 Facebook Group page.

Sumner High Class of 1971 is planning its 45th year reunion for August 12-14, 2016 at the Holiday Inn Earth City. Contact: Rita Shields at 314-868-7989 or email ritashields@att.net, Al Wilhite 314-302-3448 or email 27alhouse@sbcglobal. net for more information.

Sumner Class of 1976 will celebrate its 40th Reunion July 15 - 17, 2016 at the Holiday Inn Earth City and Shalom

Church City of Peace. Contact B. Louis at 314.385.9843 or email: sumnerclassof76@ yahoo.com for info and/or with your complete mailing address and telephone number(s) or join our Facebook page Sumner Class of 76.

University City High School Class of 1976 is planning its Fabulous 40th year class reunion for June 24-25, 2016. We need your contact information. Please email your information to: weareuc76@ gmail.com or call the UCHS Class of 76 voicemail at 314301-9597.

Vashon January and June Classes of 1966 will celebrate our 50 year reunion October 7-9, 2016 at the Hollywood Casino, 777 Casino Center Drive, Maryland Heights, MO 63043. Contact Marilyn Stuckey, Chairperson, 314-438-8338, email: masystucup@att.net or Janice Holland, Co-Chairperson, 314-727-1695, email: jholland1695@att.net for more information.

Vashon Class of 1967 is planning its 50-year reunion and is need of contact information for all alumni. Contact JoAnn Alvoid at alvoidjoe8@gmail.com;

Reunion notices are free of charge and based on space availability. We prefer that notices be emailed to us!

However, notices may also be sent by mail to:

Kate Daniel, 2315 Pine St., St. Louis, MO 63103

Deadline is 10 a.m. on Friday. If you’d like your class to be featured in a reunion profile, email or mail photos to us.

Our email address is: reunions@ stlamerican.com

Sarah (Taylor) Robinson at srobinson647@hotmail.com; or Sonya (Walker) Smith at 314.381.8221, with your address, email and phone.

Vashon Class of 1986 will be celebrating its fabulous 30th Class Reunion in beautiful Las Vegas Nevada, July 21-23, 2016. For more information contact, Claudette at 314 3681502 or cctreze@att.net.

Happy 21st Birthday to my daughter, Brandy Lee, on June 19. Love you, Nooka Nook, and God bless you!

From pain to ministry

Evangelist Cynthia Bennett uses her experience to encourage women in abusive relationships

By Marjorie Moore

For The St. Louis American

Going through a personal and private experience such as an abusive marriage, one woman exposes her past pain and has also pivoted her pain towards a positive direction. The outcome of her distressful experience has resulted to the birth of an organization as a method to help educate and empower other women concerning the effects of abusive relationships.

This Journey Ministries, founded by Evangelist Cynthia Bennett of St. Louis, was purposed as source to help women to overcome abusive relationships.

“I am a survivor of domestic abuse,” she said. “My first marriage was an abusive relationship. I know by experience and can identify that women don’t have to live in abuse and know that God loves them.”

Moreover, Bennett uses the internet as a platform to reach volumes of women concerning the subject matter. She launched an online magazine as an avenue for women who have suffered abusive or domestic relationships to bond, share and experience their commonalities as a support mechanism.

“This Journey” (www. thisjourney.org) consists of contributing writers, poets and ghost writers, as these writers have chosen the option to remain anonymous.

“We are not going to be

silent any longer,” Bennett said, as she encourages women to tell their stories.

According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, on an average nearly 20 people per minute are physical abused by an intimate partner in the United States.

The coalition reports one in three women are victims of some form of physical violence by an intimate partner within their life time.

This Journey Ministries helps women to make informed choices in their relationships regarding the word of God and available resources.

“God spoke to me that I would have a ministry for hurting women,” Bennett said.

“I heard the call and accepted it, but it came with a price. God said I would minister effectively out of my pain, and life experiences.”

Bennett said she experienced unusual and unexpected deaths involving many of her family members. Within a 10-year period, she said, her parents and her six siblings all passed away. During this time, Bennett was encouraged to continue to inspire others. She reached out to women via email and would send a one-page letter which contained words of encouragement and scriptures.

The newsletter was the foundation of her online magazine.

“I was faithful with the newsletter and never missed an issue regardless of what I was going through,” she said.

“I knew someone else needed to hear what God had for them.”

Bennett said she has a sense of fulfillment when she helps women. She loves to build them up and knows it is her life’s calling to direct women to a closer relationship with God.

“My words come from the heart, and women listen,” she said. “This Journey Ministry’s title derives from knowing everyone has a journey. This journey, our life, will always take place in present tense. It will always be in the moment, in the now.”

Bennett provides other resources for assistance, including biblical counseling sessions, on-site shelter support, job search skills, emotional support, crisis Intervention, parenting skills, preaching engagements,

presentations and workshops for women teens and children.

Bennett is a member of Faith Miracle Temple, 870 Pershall Rd. in St. Louis, where Apostle Larry J. Baylor is senior pastor. She served as the director of Women’s Ministry at the church for nine years. Bennett is happily married in her second marriage to Elder Michael A. Bennett Sr., a minister at Faith Miracle Temple, who assists his wife in the ministry. Together they have three children.

Bennett plans to organize 3K run on behalf of women and domestic violence on October 8; see www.raceforjadasa.org for registration and details.

To contact Evangelist Cynthia Bennett, email her at info@ thisjourney.org or call 800-2922146.

The

Power of a promise

Covenant is a word I definitely understand. However, its biblical significance is so dynamic that for most of us, it’s a stretch to grasp the concept of God establishing a “covenant with His people” and realizing that means you.

When all is said and done, this covenant thing is an agreement, a promise between us and God. If you’ve lived at all, then you’ve had people make promises to you that 1) they had no intention of keeping, 2) they failed miserably while trying to keep them, or 3) they didn’t care whether they kept a promise to you or not. You may have even been more of a promise breaker than a promise keeper. For now, let’s keep the focus on God here.

I’ve got to believe that if anybody is going to keep His Word, it’s God. Therefore this covenant, the one God made to Abraham, the one which Jesus came to fulfill, is the one we should take to our graves.

Because this apparently is a good example of how important it is to keep one’s promises, I submit to you that we should all be extremely careful about making them.

It seems that the basis of spiritual belief is rooted in a simple promise. To Noah, “Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you green plants, I now give you everything.” Exodus 19:5. From Jesus to the disciples, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood…for whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.” 1 Corinthians 11:25-26. Remember this is God talking about His promise to us. Have you made any promises to Him lately, to yourself about Him, to anybody you love or to someone who loves you? Have you kept them?

Many of us have heard and said the phrase, “Speak it into existence” and “Be careful what you ask for.” Because of its biblical roots, this covenant thing is a powerful truth to wrap your brain around. A promise is Godly. It has to be. The first promise was made to Adam and Eve. Everything somehow gets caught up in words and the understanding of words; God’s Word, our words. They have incredible power, if only we could understand them in the context of covenant. They are our vehicles for communicating with the original covenant maker. I am therefore accountable to a higher power for everything I say. And guess what? So are you. “So shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth…” Isaiah 55:11. If god can be counted on to keep His Word and I am made in His image, then honesty is the stuff my promises are made of. Remember that when you make your next promise. May God bless and keep you always.

Columnist James Washington

Evangelist Cynthia Bennett of St. Louis founded This Journey Ministries to help women to overcome abusive relationships.

Swag Snap of the week

RIP Tyrell Thompson. I just want to take a moment to send my condolences to the Thompson family in the wake of yet another tragedy. I’m am one of many who were heartbroken to learn on Thursday that Tyrell Thompson suffered the same tragic fate as his father Tyrone (nearly six years to the day). My heart goes out to the entire Thompson family – who had become advocates against crime and gun violence in the wake of Tyrone’s death. There are no words to heal this type of loss – and or it to happen to a father AND a son just makes the whole thing even more traumatic. I could go on about the epidemic of gun violence – especially in the wake of the tragedy in Orlando – but I will end here with a prayer that the powers that be will wake up and systemically address the crisis affecting our nation.

A new school throwback. I’ve heard a lot of buzz around him in the mainstream, so I thought I should check out soul singer Leon Bridges when he came to the Pageant on Wednesday. I know right now you are thinking “who is Leon Bridges?” Well, he’s like the Flo Rida of R&B. I know what you’re thinking… “Who’s Flo Rida?” He’s a rapper with a fan base that falls almost exclusively in the general population demographic. Anyway, the sold out show consisted mostly of assistant principals and librarians of West County and South County – who clapped along as Bridges crooned music that can best be described as pre-Motown. The gag of the century came as a few fans who thought Andra Day was still on the bill turned to me and said, “Who is this?” I said “Leon Bridges.” They said “who is that?” I said “the headliner.” They didn’t get the memo that Day was not being featured. And it only took them two songs to decide that Leon was not their cup of tea. They beat it before he even got a chance to formally introduce himself.

A winning Whitaker Urban Series. For the first time in a minute I headed over to The Whitaker Urban Evening Series concerts that go down Thursday nights during the late spring and summer. The weekly outdoor concerts take place at St. Louis Place Park near Rauschenbach and St. Louis Avenue near Old North St. Louis. Will Robinson DID THAT as the main entertainment, do you hear me? It was billed as Stevie vs. Donny, but he threw in some Maxwell and closed the show out with a glorious cover of Purple rain in tribute to the late great (which still feels weird to say) Prince. It was packed to the gills with folks and was getting so much life that the creeping temperatures didn’t bother me one bit. Be sure to stop by before the final show on July 21 (there will be no show on July 7) and get a taste of some of the brightest musical talent in the STL.

NBA Finals at Knockouts. Now y’all know I don’t necessarily check for sports, but that didn’t stop me from showing love to Kevin Cunningham and company as they gave the folks in North County an option to catch the NBA Finals. I was pleasantly surprised by the robust crowd so early on in the game. The Hot 104.1 FM folks were in the building and it was a great spot to chill and watch GSW get busy on LeBron and the Cavs. I’m sure I’ll be back again before the finals are over in Game 6. Oh I just want to give a shout out to the ladies who came out in full nightclub regalia – stilettos, Hollywood eyebrows, lashes and the whole shebang. Y’all are going to get male attention by any means necessary.

Partyin’ in pink. Speaking of club wear, so the Pepto-Bismol pink freakum dress is apparently to 2016 what the striped body dress with side slits was to 1993. Can somebody please explain? Why this color pink? It is so unforgiving and the girls are not careful. I made my way to Element Saturdays for Porcha Lachae’s birthday party and couldn’t help but think “why are so many of the girls dressed like Blossom from The Power Puff girls? Is it ‘Hello Kitty’ night?” Miss Lachae had a nice sized crowd to show her plenty of b-day love though. It was definitely a good look.

Chillaxing in the Biergarten. Eat, Drink and Chill day party was first on my menu of Sunday activities and with the promotional power players BFree, Mo Spoon and Rhashad joining forces, how could they go wrong? They didn’t. It was such a win that folks were strolling through that pocket of Soulard like there was some sort of gallery walk underway. It was a nice look and the folks came through with class as they packed out the Anheuser Busch Biergarten. The vibe was chill, but if anyone had tried to turn up in that thousand degree Fahrenheit heat, I’m sure an EMT or two would’ve had to get involved.

Diggin’ the Daytox. The dueling day party action was in full effect yet again this Sunday. But it was so hot on Sunday that I had to make a pit stop to wash up before I went from one spot to the next. And I’m so glad that I did, because it was straight up Sub-Saharan heat when I tooted up to the balcony of Ballpark Village for Daytox. It was a good little time, though a few of the ladies should have tested their makeup to make sure it was heat resistant. I stopped by Eat.Drink.Chill first and thought it was going to be an easy win for them, but if I were a betting woman I would have lost because the Liquid Assets crew had a crowd of their own. There’s clearly enough room in the afternoon party market for everybody.

A day party night cap. While I expected the day party action to be a hit, I thought the odds were also against a repeat performance by the Eat.Drink.Chill team when they took their party over to the HG Sunday night. And once again, I couldn’t have been more wrong. It was pretty lit up in there. As the folks kept their day party clothes on and kicked it all night.

Jeanette and Dawn stayed in the shade @

The Anheuser Busch Biergarten Sunday for Eat.Drink.Chill

It was all about the dancehall for Zee Lauren, Countess Danielle and Dee Dee @ Mood Friday for Reggae night

Brittany, Spencer, Dominique and Jasmine soaked up some sun during DayTox Sunday @ Ballpark Village

Breanna and Jarvis were in the building for the Silent St. Louis Launch Party Saturday @ the Kitchen Sink

Toneta, London, Araiya and Zakia @ The Marquee for Element Saturdays

Elizabeth Donielle, Dr. G, Chris Simmions and Jada Berry made the most of the beautiful day Sunday @ The Anheuser Busch Biergarten for Eat.Drink.Chill

Singer Mai Lee and Orlando after Mai Lee slayed the Fair U City stage Sunday @ Heman Park

Jevon and Brittany were all smiles and full of good vibes Saturday @ Silent St. Louis @ the Kitchen Sink

Cearra and Tanjii chilled on the dance floor @ Mood Friday night

Abby and Ceiffawn @ The Anheuser Busch Biergarten Sunday for Eat.Drink. Chill

Teddy Blackett, Mo Spoon and Rhashad brought out the masses for their Eat. Drink.Chill Day Party Sunday afternoon at the Anheuser-Busch Biergarten.

Photos by Lawrence Bryant & John Scott