Diversity
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A Business Imperative 2016 Gold Cup Newspaper Missouri Press Association
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St. LouiS AmericAn The
CAC Audited JULY 27 – AUG. 2, 2017
Vol. 89 No. 19 COMPLIMENTARY
stlamerican.com
City jail under fire Heat wave hitting Workhouse without A/C stirs outrage, cries for reform By Sophie Hurwitz and Melinda Oliver For The St. Louis American Photo by Wiley Price
Inmates of St. Louis’ Medium Security Institution, otherwise known as the Workhouse, rallied from the inside along with citizens protesting their being detained pre-trial in a jail without air conditioning on Friday, July 21.
For inmates of St. Louis’ Medium Security Institution, otherwise known as the Workhouse, this past week’s heat wave has been unbearable. With no air conditioning in most sections of the facility, when temperatures went over 100 degrees outside, things got even worse inside –reportedly up to 115 degrees. Dozens of desperate inmates took to their
windows for help, screaming that the conditions inside the jail were unbearable. Matt Brown, 34, who was released from the Workhouse last Friday after one and a half months in jail for a parole violation, said many inmates attempted to get sent to solitary confinement, or “the hole,” to escape the heat. That’s “the only place that has air conditioning” that they were able to
See JAIL, A6
Parents as Teachers mom is new CEO Constance Gully fights to keep funding for national early childhood nonprofit By Sophie Hurwitz For The St. Louis American
Photo by Wiley Price
Michael McMillan, president and CEO of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, and Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League, greeted well-wishers at the opening of the Ferguson Community Empowerment Center at the site of the burnt-out QuikTrip convenience store in Ferguson on Wednesday, July 26.
Ferguson Community Empowerment Center opens ‘This is a historic moment,’ said Michael McMillan of the Urban League By Rebecca Rivas Of The St. Louis American Like a “phoenix rising from the ashes,” the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis and the Salvation Army opened the Ferguson Community Empowerment Center on Wednesday, July 26 at the site of the burnt-out QuikTrip convenience store, which became a symbol of racial unrest after a
Ferguson Police officer killed an unarmed black teenager in August 2014. The grand opening also kicked off the 2017 National Urban League Conference, which is being held in St. Louis on July 26 to 29 with a record-high attendance of about 4,000. Kitty Radcliffe, president of Explore St. Louis, expects new local expenditures from the conference to top $7 million. “We have come to St. Louis because we
n “He decided to think big with partners and friends – not alone.” –Marc Morial, on Michael McMillan’s leadership to create the Ferguson Community Empowerment Center
want to shine a bright light on how many of you are working and have worked every day for the past three years to convert anger into action,” Marc Morial, president and CEO of See CENTER, A7
Constance Gully, the new CEO of the national nonprofit Parents as Teachers, which is headquartered in St. Louis County, knows how the early childhood home visits that the program provides can help a family. “My son is 22, and he was a Parents as Teachers baby,” she said. “So I was a Parents as Teachers parent n “We work at one time, in Normandy School District. So I always in urban communities, tell people, about my PAT baby, that the only thing rural my parent educator didn’t communities, prepare me for was my baby growing a beard!” tribal Parents as Teachers communities, provides home visits to military new parents, starting during families. We pregnancy and continuing through the first few years are uniquely of a child’s life. Though prepared as the nonprofit was founded a model to in Missouri in 1984, it reach families has since expanded its where they footprint to all 50 states, 100 tribal communities, are.” and six countries. During Parents as Teachers (PAT) – Constance home visits, they coach Gully, Parents parents on childcare tips, as Teachers provide immunizations, screen children to identify developmental disabilities early on, and help connect parents with services. Though Parents as Teachers has grown significantly from its humble origins, the organization is still heavily invested in the St. See GULLY, A7