The Power of NPower
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CAC Audited JULY 15 – 21, 2021
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Thompson remembered as great civic leader
Dr. Mamah named Excellence in Mental Health Awardee
U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones, Cathy Daniels (aka Mama Cat) pose with longtime community activist and state representative the honorable Betty Thompson at Juneteenth in Fairgrounds Park June 19.
By JoAnn Weaver The St. Louis American
Photo by Wiley Price / St. Louis American
By Gloria Ross St. Louis Public Radio In the mid-1970s, Betty Thompson sought a permit from the city council to build a swimming pool in the backyard of her University City home. Her simple request was met with derision. “Mrs. Thompson, no Black person who’s ever lived on the north side of University City can possibly afford to build a swimming pool,” she recalled in her
2018 memoir, “Rising above the Battle Scars: If You Can Take It in Life, You Can Make It.” That was the spark that caused her to run for the University City City Council several years later. She won and became the city’s first African American councilwoman. Thompson, whose life was defined by public and community service, died Sunday, July 11 of complica-
n “Wherever there was a need, I was sure to be there.” Betty Thompson, from a passage in her autobiography
Psychosis is a symptom of psychiatric illnesses including schizophrenia and some forms of bipolar disorder. These illnesses affect an estimated 3% of the U.S. population. Dr. Daniel Mamah, director of the Washington Early Recognition Center and associate professor of psychiatry at the Washington University School of Medicine, is a licensed psychiatrist who actively works in the community and conducts research in Africa. Mamah completed his psychiatry residency and Masters of Psychiatric Epidemiology (MPE) at Washington University Dr. Daniel and received his Mamah medical degree from Semmelweis University of Medicine in Budapest, Hungary. “My dad is from Nigeria and my mom is from Hungary; I grew up in both of those countries,” Mamah said. Mamah’s interest in the medical field sparked from him seeing the need for healthcare in Africa. “Growing up in Nigeria opened my eyes,” Mamah said. “In Africa, death at a young age was common because of relatively minor things like malaria due to the lack of healthcare.” This lack of access to healthcare made Mamah want to pursue work in medicine. “I wanted to help, which is what made me interested in the medical field,” Mamah said. Medicine brought Mamah, who has lived in St. Louis for 20 years, to the U.S. “When you’re in other countries, you look to the United States as being the land of opportunity where you can take your career wherever you want to,” Mamah said. “There are lots of great opportunities for healthcare and research in the U.S.” Mamah’s specialty area of medicine is psychiatry, which is the branch of medicine focused on the diagnosis, treatment and pre-
See THOMPSON, A6
Urban League named Health Advocacy Organization of the Year Michael McMillan, president and CEO of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, feels a war started in early 2020. “This virus has attacked us, and we have to do everything we can to fight back. It’s like we’re almost in a war and a war demands action that otherwise we wouldn’t have to do,” he said. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the pandemic “has unequally affected racial and ethnic minority groups.” This not only puts them more at risk of getting sick and dying from COVID-19, but the
COMPLIMENTARY
2021 Salute to Healthcare
She passed on July 11
By Sylvester Brown Jr. The St. Louis American
Vol. 93 No. 16
See MAMAH, A7
2021 Salute to Healthcare Dawn Cole, a teacher at Lexington Elementary School, takes her shot in the arm by Army National Guardswoman Pfc. Anna Shoenberger at Vashon High School on March 16. The event was in partnership with the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, the 2021 Salute to Excellence in Health Care Health Advocacy Organization of the Year.
n “It’s like we’re almost in a war…this virus has attacked us, and we have to do everything we can to fight back.” – Michael McMillan, President and CEO of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis
social determinants have disproportionately and negatively impacted how they live, learn, work, play and worship. See URBAN, A7
Photo by Jennifer Sarti / St. Louis American