Construction training event for NGA West project Aug. 27
@stlouisamerican
@stlouisamerican
See page B1
St. LouiS AmericAn The
91 years of serving the St. Louis community
CAC Audited JULY 4 – 10, 2019
Vol. 91 No. 15 COMPLIMENTARY
stlamerican.com
Union protests conditions at Goodfellow Complex Management denies all requests in grievances based on OSHA report By Francene Bethune For St. Louis American
Members and leadership of the American Federation of Government Employees rallied to demand change at the Goodfellow Federal Complex in St. Louis on Saturday, June 29, after management denied a set of union requests based on OSHA reports of unhealthy work conditions.
On Saturday, June 29, members and leadership of the American Federation of Government Employees rallied to demand change at the Goodfellow Federal Complex in St. Louis, where cancer-causing chemicals have been a concern for decades. “No justice, no peace,” chanted the protestors, a group that included AFGE Local 1336 president Wil Grant. The union filed grievances on April 12 regarding unsafe and unhealthy working conditions at the federal complex at 4300 Goodfellow Blvd., which holds about 2,400 employees who work for the Social Security Administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Agriculture Department, and the General Services Administration. See PROTESTS, A7
Photo by Francene Bethune
Black and proud A man with a rainbow beard smiled his way down the parade route in St. Louis Pride Parade 2019 on Sunday, June 30.
Judge Draper will be next chief justice of Missouri After Judge Ronnie White, second AfricanAmerican to lead state’s highest court By Chris King Of The St. Louis American Judge George W. Draper will become Missouri’s next chief justice July 1, by order of the Supreme Court of Missouri. He will become the state’s AfricanAmerican second chief justice; Judge Ronnie White, the first black to serve on the Supreme Court of Missouri, was chief justice 2003-5. Draper was, however, the first AfricanAmerican chief judge of the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, from July 2004 through June 2005. Draper, a St. Louis native, attended Hamilton Judge George Elementary School in St. W. Draper Louis before his family moved to Silver Spring, Maryland, where he completed his education in the public school system. He received his bachelor of arts in psychology in 1977 from Morehouse College in Atlanta and, following in the footsteps of his father and his wife, Judge Judy Draper, received his law degree in 1981 from Howard University in Washington, D.C. He then clerked for the Honorable Shellie Bowers (also a St. Louis native) of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. Draper returned to St. Louis in 1984 as a prosecutor in the St. Louis circuit attorney’s office, for which was promoted to a team See DRAPER, A7
Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI
The education of Caroline Washington Rising Ladue senior has visited 78 college campuses – including 19 last spring break
See WASHINGTON, A6
Clay sponsors bill that would penalize states that restrict cities from reforming gun laws By Rebecca Rivas Of The St. Louis American
By Richard H. Weiss For The St. Louis American This story was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center. Education is an obsession for the Washington family of Pasadena Hills. Parents Theo and Denise will tell you that their studies were the means by which they got their purchase on the American Dream. Though both sides of their family come from humble origins, Denise and Theo’s son, Teddy, is a third-generation college student. And as a rising senior at Ladue’s Horton Watkins High School, Caroline soon will join him. So no one who knows the family would be surprised that Caroline, 17, has visited scores of campuses as the family considers her college choice. Or that Teddy,
‘Gun violence is a public health emergency’
Photo by Wiley Price
Caroline Washington with her father, Theo, brother Teddy, and mother, Denise as they go through family albums. The family members have been outspoken advocates for education and social justice over many generations.
Sitting in a car. Playing in the living room or in the front yard. Walking to the bus stop. These should be ordinary childhood moments, where children should feel safe, said Dr. Alexis Elward, chief medical officer at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. But instead they are moments that have limited, altered or ended their lives. So far this year, 40 children have arrived at the hospital critically injured by gunshot wounds — 80 percent of them being under 15. “For the health care professionals here, this is not political,” Elward said. “It is not just professional. It’s intensely personal. There is nothing in medical or nursing school training that can adequately prepare you to inform the mother of an elementary school child who she just kissed goodbye See VIOLENCE, A7