McKee won’t blaspheme Homer G. Phillips Hospital’s legacy
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St. LouiS AmericAn The
CAC Audited JANUARY 9 – 15, 2020
91 years serving, empowering and advocating equity in St. Louis
Vol. 91 No. 42 COMPLIMENTARY
stlamerican.com
Reimagining Public Safety
‘We suffer from not having a plan’ So-called ‘shadow mayor’ offers different response to homicide crisis than mayor By Chris King Of The St. Louis American This is the first in a series where we ask local leaders what we need to do differently to address the crisis in homicides in St. Louis. St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson has offered solutions to the city’s dramatic homicide crisis: eliminating the residence requirement for police
support our law enforcement so they can do that.” Krewson was responding, in part, to the deaths of seven people in St. Louis officers and boosting their pay to help the in the first 36 hours of the year, with department recruit more officers. This, six of those deaths – all black victims – she said at a press conference on Friday, suspected to be homicides. There were January 3, would address a staffing 194 homicides in St. Louis in 2019; 175 Tishaura shortfall of about 130 officers. of the victims (or 90 percent) were black. O. Jones “We have to solve crimes, we have The annual average number of homicides to make arrests, we have to hold those in the city from 2015-2019 was 192, with folks accountable,” Krewson said. “But you need nearly all of the victims black. law enforcement to do that. And we’re here to “Considering the circumstances, I think
Mourning those we lost
our police department is doing a great job,” Krewson said. In 2017, St. Louis Treasurer Tishaura O. Jones came within 888 votes in a crowded Democratic primary (where Krewson was the only white candidate) from beating out Krewson for this job. Jones’ enduring influence and popularity prompted a veteran Post-Dispatch columnist to dub her the “shadow mayor” in 2018 and recycle the term last September. What did Jones think of the mayor’s crisis
See HOMICIDES, A7
Homer G. Phillips was no 3-bed urgent care clinic
St. Louis Public Safety Director Jimmie Edwards stood with Ronda Boykin and Ronnie Robinson as they spoke about the loss of their son Breyon Robinson, whose burned corpse was found in a dumpster in 2018. Families Advocating Safe Streets held its 28th annual candlelit vigil honoring victims of violence and their families on New Year’s Eve at Williams Temple Church of God in Christ.
A history lesson about a treasured jewel in St. Louis’ black community By William L. Clay For The St. Louis American
Photo by Wiley Price
Felony diversion in St. Louis – and its discontents Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner says judges are trying to obstruct Gabriel Lockett her reform efforts helped his mentor, Darren Seals, stack bricks at the Sankofa Unity Center, a mentoring program Seals established in the Walnut Park neighborhood, on Monday, January 6. Seals coached Lockett through a felony redirect program established by St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner.
By Rebecca Rivas Of The St. Louis American The weekend before Christmas, 20-yearold Gabriel Lockett sat in the back of a long tow-truck bed — in front of six life-sized, lit-up reindeers. His mentor, Darren Seals, dressed up as Santa and sat in a sleigh, ringing a bell. Lockett’s job as one of Santa’s elves was to hand out presents to children throughout the Walnut Park neighborhood in North St. Louis. “I got a good feeling from it, seeing the smiles on children’s faces,” said Lockett, who regularly does community service with Seals’ Sankofa Unity Center and mentoring
See DIVERSION, A6
Photo by Wiley Price
Retired Congressman William L. “Bill” Clay submitted this piece in response to news reports that developer Paul McKee Jr. plans to use the name “Homer G. Phillips Hospital” for a new, small urgent-care clinic. “It is apparent that many in the St. Louis community are unfamiliar with the history of that magnificent institution,” Clay noted, “and what it means to n “Many in the St. the survival of blacks in the city and the Louis community health treatment of are unfamiliar blacks in every state of with the history of the union.” Homer G. Phillips that magnificent Hospital came into institution and being as the result what it means to of a 23-year struggle that began in 1914 the survival of to build a medical blacks in the city facility staffed and the health by black doctors, treatment of black nurses, black blacks in every technicians, and black state of the union.” administrations. It was a period when the health care of the city’s – William L. “Bill” black citizens was Clay criminally neglected by city elected officials and at a time when the placement of black medical students graduating from Howard University and Meharry Medical College had no hospitals to place their graduates for internship. A 1923 bond issue provided for spending $1 million to open a hospital for blacks, run and operated by blacks, but the city fathers diverted the monies for other purposes like street lighting and sidewalk installation. But the black community would not give up the idea of a facility to provide quality health for
See HOMER G, A7