Officer who killed Akeelah Jackson should be charged
@stlouisamerican
@stlouisamerican
See page A5
St. LouiS AmericAn The
91 years serving, empowering and advocating equity in St. Louis
CAC Audited JANUARY 2 – 8, 2020
Vol. 91 No. 41 COMPLIMENTARY
stlamerican.com
McKee silent on ‘whitewashing’ of Homer G. Phillips Hospital Dr. Will Ross can’t get an answer from developer about his name for urgent-care facility By Chris King Of The St. Louis American Perhaps no one living has a closer to connection to Homer G. Phillips Hospital, St. Louis’ historic black teaching hospital that was closed in 1979, than Earle U. Robinson Jr., MD. His namesake father reported to the hospital in 1937 as part of its first group of interns, and
History Museum in 2018. So Robinson is trying to understand why a real estate developer who has stated plans to revive the hospital’s name Robinson followed him there in 1958 for for a small new facility has not contacted a four-year residency in OB/GYN. him or anyone else he knows connected Robinson’s living-legacy connection to the historic hospital to find out what to the hospital is no musky secret buried they think about the idea. Earle U. in an archive or the memories of obscure “I don’t think you can build a Robinson elderly people. Rather, his story is told facility and just take the name ‘Homer Jr., MD. in a documentary film, “The Color G. Phillips Hospital’ and put it on a of Medicine,” that received widespread local new structure without having it be screened or publicity when it premiered at the Missouri examined by people with the closest ties to the
Kwanzaa in St. Louis
hospital, especially those who worked there or who lived in the Ville,” Robinson told The American. “I definitely wouldn’t want someone to do a hospital as part of a real estate deal for whatever reason and attach the name without some input from those who feel the most deeply about memorializing Homer G. Phillips Hospital.” It added another level of puzzling irony that the developer plans to erect the new facility in the footprint of the former Pruitt-Igoe
See ROSS, A6
Supreme Court given chance to make history on Lamar Johnson
Kunama Mtendaji and the Nan Foule Folklore Society performed at the Kwanzaa 2019 Unity In Diversity Festival in the Ferrell Auditorium at the St. Louis Art Museum on Sunday, December 29.
Appellate court transfers case, with guidance to Legislature as well By Chris King Of The St. Louis American
Photo by Wiley Price
Talking about white supremacy Keynote to first St. Louis Racial Equity Summit breaks down ‘racial “The economic inequality’ foundation of white supremacy is racial economic inequality, and the foundation of racial economic inequality is the racial wealth divide,” said Dedrick AsanteMuhammad of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.
By Rebecca Rivas Of The St. Louis American Often when Dedrick Asante-Muhammad gives a talk about race and economics, it’s to audiences who might not have a base level of understanding. That was not his audience at the region’s first St. Louis Racial Equity Summit, he said, so he decided to be more clear with his language. “We say ‘racial inequality,’ but what we’re really trying to talk about is white supremacy and deconstructing white supremacy,” said Asante-Muhammad, of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition and an expert in racial economic inequality analysis. “I want to name that.”
See RACIAL, A7
Photo by Lance Thurman
The Missouri Court of Appeals for the Eastern District delivered a gift on Christmas Eve to both the Missouri Supreme Court and the Missouri Legislature in its unanimous decision on Lamar Johnson’s appeal. Appellate Judges Robert M. Clayton III, Robert G. Dowd Jr. and Roy L. Richter gave the Missouri Supreme Court an opportunity to make history and gave the Missouri Legislature direction on writing a statute that, if enacted, would make it easier to do justice on new cases like this. “This is the first case Lamar challenging a conviction based Johnson on an investigation by the recently established Conviction Integrity Unit of the City of St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office,” the appellate court ruled in a crisply written, tightly argued 11-page opinion. “Following an investigation into Lamar Johnson’s 1995 murder conviction, Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner filed a motion for new trial claiming there was newly discovered evidence demonstrating his innocence.” Johnson was convicted of murdering Marcus Boyd on October 30, 1994, though evidence shows that Johnson was at a friend’s house and would not have been able to commit the crime. On July 19, prosecutors filed a 67-page motion that provides
See JOHNSON, A6