2012 Year in Review Obama was re-elected, Nixon called to expand Medicaid, Superstorm Sandy and tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary.
Special Section
Vol. 84 No. 39
CAC Audited DEC. 27, 2012 – JAN. 2, 2013
COMPLIMENTARY
stlamerican.com
Bob Archibald resigns
IN UNISON Takes 6
‘TIME TO BRING AN END TO IT,’ SAYS EMBATTLED HISTORY MUSEUM PRESIDENT By Chris King Of The St. Louis American
Photo by Wiley Price
Grammy Award-winning vocal group Take 6 fronted the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and its IN UNISON Choir at the chorus’ annual sold-out Holiday Concert staged last week at Powell Hall.
The overlooked plight of black males An urgent action item for Obama’s second term By Michael Gerson Washington Post
More than 50 percent of young black men in inner cities are now dropping out of school – making high school graduation the exception to this dismal new rule.
NEWS ANALYSIS
A president’s first term is a fresh track in the snow. His second term moves on a set of rutted paths. The shiny cause has become a vast machine, its wheels spinning on internal impulses unrelated to presidential priorities or pressing needs. As President Obama moves toward his fourth State of the Union address, he will be looking for
policies that appeal to the country, but he will also try to rekindle the purpose of his administration. Inertia and intellectual exhaustion are fought with presidential initiatives.
Last week Bob Archibald, the veteran president of the Missouri History Museum known for his idealistic and aggressive crusading spirit in confronting issues of race, announced that he is resigning from his position, effective December 31. Archibald, 64, told The American his decision was due both to political pressure and personal concerns. “Very serious threats were made to eliminate tax support for the institution, and I think if I get out of the way and fall on the sword, that makes “I’ve been it more possible to undo here 25 that or have other kinds of conversations about it years and that are not about me,” suddenly Archibald told The had my American. reputation The museum receives approximately $10 mildragged lion from the tax-supthrough the ported Zoo-Museum mud. It’s District. taken a toll.” The current “conversations” about Archibald – Bob have been held relentArchibald lessly in the pages of the Post-Dispatch and at Zoo-Museum District meetings. The Post has based months of news and opinion coverage on Archibald’s approval of an over-valued price for a parcel of land on Delmar Boulevard that was sold to the museum by former Mayor Freeman Bosley Jr. and Bosley’s business partner. One of Mayor Francis G. Slay’s appointees to the museum district, Gloria Wessels, has been equally relentless in leading opposition to Archibald at public meetings. The land deal with Bosley and his partner See ARCHIBALD, A6
See BLACKS, A7
BUSTING UNION MYTHS
Author, organizer and activist Bill Fletcher discussed his new book “They’re Bankrupting Us! – And Twenty Other Myths about Unions” in St. Louis recently at Painter’s District Council 2.
Author, organizer Bill Fletcher speaks in STL By Jamala Rogers Of The St. Louis American According to Bill Fletcher, the genesis of his latest book, They’re Bankrupting Us! – And Twenty Other Myths about Unions, began while he was on a flight reading a book about global unionism. The book got the attention of the young women sitting next to him, who asked, “What is a union?” The state of the union movement is dire, but Fletcher believes that sparks of resistance like those of WalMart workers or the beat-back of leg-
“If you lose the moment, you won’t lose it for a few months, or even for a year; more likely it’s decades – it’s gone.” – Bill Fletcher
islation by Ohio workers for bargaining rights are optimistic signs. Speaking recently in St. Louis at Painter’s District Council 2, Fletcher was adamant that a significant course change for the labor movement is necessary, now. “If you lose the moment, you won’t lose it for a few months, or
even for a year; more likely it’s decades – it’s gone,” Fletcher cautioned. “This is not something to play around with.” One of the myths he takes on is “Workers are forced to join unions, right?” This claim is the scare tactic See FLETCHER, A7 Photo by Wiley Price
SPORTS
BUSINESS
FILM
The year that was – and almost was
‘Committed to diversity’
‘Django’ unwatchable
Steven Jackson and the St. Louis Rams were muchimproved over last season.
License Collector Michael McMillan won the 2012 St. Louis Minority Supplier Development Council’s Chairman’s Award.
Tarantino’s slavery-era take on the spaghetti western is long on N-words and short on entertainment.
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