A Black-owned ‘Sanctuary’ opens in Clayton
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Dr. Mati Davis resigns as city health director ‘A joy to lead this department’
By Alvin A. Reid and Sylvester Brown The St. Louis American Dr. Mati Hlatshwayo Davis doesn’t speak loudly, and she is small in stature. However, she was a force in guiding St. Louis through much of the pandemic with valor, determination and skill as she helped save countless lives with her dedication to the community. Davis’ influence thundered as she battled gun violence, infant and maternal mortality, heroin addiction, and other health issues that have long plagued the city. Former Mayor Tishaura Jones named Davis the City of St. Louis director of health in October 2021, and she immediately began transforming her office into one of the best in Missouri and the nation.
See DAVIS, A7
Vol. 97 No. 4 COMPLIMENTARY
Mayor Spencer suspends Building Stabilization Program By Sylvester Brown, Jr. St. Louis American
Photo courtesy of Dr. Mati Hlatshwayo Davis’ Office
Dr. Mati Hlatshwayo Davis has resigned as City of St. Louis director of health.
In January 2023, former Mayor Tishaura Jones, using American Rescue Plan (ARPA) funds, announced she was launching a pilot program called “Stable Communities STL.” The program, Jones said, would address vacant and neglected properties and stabilize buildings in St. Louis. Further, it n “This program would stabilize privately owned was well-intenproperties “so tioned but, unfor- they can then be tunately, very renovated and poorly executed.” become, instead of neighborhood sores, – Mayor Cara neighborhood Spencer at gems,” Jones Tuesday’s press added. conference Jones told a group of business owners last year: “Under this program, if owners fail to make needed repairs, the city will exercise our right to hire contractors to complete this work and send the absentee owner a bill. If you are an absentee property owner, read my lips: neglect is no longer welcome in the city of Saint Louis.” Newly elected Mayor Cara Spencer has just pulled the plug on that program. “This building stabilization program was well-intentioned but, unfortunately, pretty poorly executed,” Spencer said during a Tuesday afternoon press conference. “As we have seen in previous media
See SPENCER, A7
100 days of chaos
Photo courtesy of The Arch Gateway National Park
The Old Courthouse offered a “sneak peek” tour before the official grand reopening after major renovations that is scheduled for Saturday May 3, 2025. The “Journey to Justice” Festival will begin with a ribbon cutting at 11 a.m. The event will include “Fountain-side Chats,” with Lynne Jackson, great-great-granddaughter of Dred and Harriet Scott, and Jenifer Lewis, award-winning actress and St. Louis. St. Louis television host Chelsea Haynes will serve as the festival’s emcee, with events throughout the day on the community stage in Kiener Plaza.
By Alvin A. Reid St. Louis American
America is still on its journey to justice, and one of the most important locations on its trek stands in St. Louis
near the Mississippi River. It is the Old Courthouse, site of the first two trials of the pivotal Dred Scott case in 1847 and 1850. In 1847, Dred Scott, with his wife Harriet, sued for, and were granted, their freedom. After many appeals, the U.S. Supreme Court finally ruled that slaves were property. The Old Courthouse was also the site where the Virginia Minor case, which sought a woman’s right to vote, came to
BUSINESS
Missouri Supreme Court upholds Prop A
The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld Proposition A, the voter-approved law expanding paid sick leave and minimum wage rises each year.
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Word In Black
trial in the 1870s. Enslaved people were auctioned from its steps, and the site is listed in the National Park Service’s National Underground Railroad Network To Freedom, which recognizes sites, programs and facilities with verifiable associations to the Underground Railroad.
Given his first term, President Donald Trump’s second go-round in the White House was expected to be chaotic. With Republican majorities in both houses of Congress — and the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority — the hard-right, war-onwoke agenda he promised to unleash was expected to strain the country’s political guardrails, if not smash through them. But few experts anticipated Trump’s sweeping, rapid-fire attacks on institutions, policies, and laws that benefit or protect Black America to go this far, this fast. And the damage he’s done through 139 executive orders — and counting — in just 100 days could take decades to fix. An early target of Trump’s was the Department of Education, which guaran-
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See TRUMP, A6
Old Courthouse has grand reopening on May 3 ‘Journey to Justice’
Trump’s return to the White House
SPORTS
Prep track luminaries light up Ladue lanes
Lightning-fast performances struck the track during the Phil Brusca-Connie Strobach Invitational at Ladue. Sprinter Havyn Smith won both the 200- and 400-meter dashes.
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