Building up health care in North County
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St. LouiS AmericAn The
CAC Audited AUGUST 16 – 22, 2018
Vol. 90 No. 21 COMPLIMENTARY
stlamerican.com
McSpadden to run for Ferguson City Council
Homegrown BLAck mALeS
I. Am. A. BLACK. Man. By Rev. Starsky D. Wilson For The St. Louis American
Photo by Wiley Price
Lezley McSpadden was joined by attorney Benjamin Crump when she announced her campaign for Ferguson City Council at Canfield Green Apartments on Friday, August 10, nearly four years to the day after her son Michael Brown was killed there by a Ferguson Police officer.
‘When I’m elected, they will learn to respect us,’ says Michael Brown’s mother By Kenya Vaughn Of The St. Louis American Just like four years ago, it was a hot August day in the Canfield Green Apartments. Bears, flowers and other memorial tokens once again lined the stretch of Canfield Drive – as they did to mark the
place where Michael Brown’s body lay for more than four hours on August 9, 2014. On August 10, 2018, a small group of family, friends, media and supporters of the movement that his death sparked were present as Brown’s mother, Lezley McSpadden, prepared to make an announcement. The bright signs declaring “Lezley McSpadden
for Ferguson City Council” scooped her big reveal before she made her way to the front of the bronze memorial plaque that bears her son’s name. “It was almost exactly four years ago to this day that I met the family of Michael
See McSPADDEN, A6
Louis Payton died in a city jail, his family, activists demand answers Celestine Buford, a cousin of Louis “Lynn” Payton, said jail officials have not told her family about the details surrounding Payton’s death at the St. Louis Medium Security Institution.
When a prisoner in the St. Louis Medium Security Institution, commonly known as the Workhouse, died on August 2, the police wouldn’t release his name at first. Then, a group of activists who form the Close the Workhouse coalition did it for them. On August 8, they held a press conference condemning the Workhouse itself for the death of the man they identified as Louis “Lynn” Payton, age 48. According to the police report, Payton “suddenly collapsed” while at the Medium Security Institution and was transported to an area hospital where he was pronounced dead. At the press conference, the family of the deceased
See WORKHOUSE, A6
See BLACK, A7
Read 1,000 books before kindergarten St. Louis County Library program encourages early childhood literacy
‘Close the Workhouse’ By Sophie Hurwitz For The St. Louis American
Fifty years ago, a group of under-appreciated, underpaid black men who kept the city of Memphis healthy by purging its streets of waste, refuse and trash had to remind elected leaders and city fathers that they were indeed human. They held placards in public calling for basic dignity, stating simply “I Am A Man.” Four years ago, gatherings of unheard, unseen young people who held the hopes of America’s future by carrying the promise of progeny and reality of our pending racial majorities remixed the earlier assertion shaping my personal affirmation of identity. #BlackLivesMatter echoed and amplified the earlier Rev. Starsky claim of humanity. D. Wilson The “Black-ness” they declared is and was more than African-American status on census forms or college applications. Blackness is a sense of being, consciousness and solidarity, which transcends national borders and is rooted in a heritage and culture of struggle and triumph. I. Am. A. BLACK. Man. My identity and agency evolved between the articulations of these generations: planted in the 1970s, watered in the eighties, budding in the 1990s and blossoming in professional and family life since 2000. I was raised on a block called the black community. My family were the folks selling fish and washing cars to raise money for the Black Church. I learned my ABCs at the knee of a black kindergarten teacher with a PhD and basic life
By Ashley Jones For The St. Louis American A new St. Louis County Library program called “1,000 Books before Kindergarten” encourages families and caregivers to read 1,000 books with their young children before they start school. To get started, families should register at any St. Louis County Library branch and take home a reading log, then track books read with the child. Each time the child completes 100 books, the library will award a sticker. At 500 books, the child receives a free book and a small prize. At the completion of 1,000 books, the child receives another free book and a drawstring bag with school supplies. If a family reads one book a day with a child,
See BOOKS, A7 Photo by Carolina Hidalgo / St. Louis Public Radio
Check out “Boss Lady” Pam Champion’s inspirational video clip on “Saving Our Sisters,” and multiple videos online at www.stlamerican.com/video