Girls prep basketball players to watch this season
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Enterprise pledges $55M to boost racial equity Recent announcement was part of a $120 million pledge also designed to fight hunger
By Karen Robinson-Jacobs For The St. Louis American
Girl’s Inc. is an organization that encourages all girls to be “Strong, Smart, and Bold” through direct service and advocacy. The St. Louis affiliate will be receiving about $500,000 from Enterprise Holdings to continue its work.
With a new $55 million pledge, the St. Louis-based Enterprise Holdings Foundation joins business and philanthropic organizations around the nation in responding to calls for racial and social equity in the wake of the widely viewed killing of George Floyd. Last month the Foundation, the philanthropic arm of car rental giant Enterprise, announced the five-year, $55 million commitment that, beginning in January, will help fund organizations that support youth of color in underserved communities. At the same time, the Foundation said it will add $65 million to a separate program, launched in 2016 called Enterprise Fill Your Tank, that’s already spent more than $50 million to address food insecurity globally. The $120 million total comes against the
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Photo by Lance Omar Thurman Photography for Girls Inc.
Gen. Lloyd Austin to lead U.S. defense President-elect Joe Biden has selected retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, the former commander of U.S. Central Command, to be his secretary of defense. If confirmed by the Senate, Austin would be the first Black man to lead the Department of Defense. Among his other accolades, Austin holds a master’s of arts degree in management and leadership from Webster University’s Platte City location. He was named a Notable Alum on April 30, 2010. He received the Distinguished Alumni Award on June 19, 2012.
SLPS board prepares to vote on school closings Stakeholders express concerns
By Dana Rieck Of The St. Louis American Disbelief, sad, heartbroken, inequitable, disgusted, unsure, concerned, and angry. Those were all one-word responses given during a virtual meeting Monday night of approximately 100 people to discuss actions that activists and others feel need to be taken after Superintendent Kelvin Adams recommended the closure 11 St. Louis public schools. Seven of those schools are located north of Delmar Boulevard. WePower, which hosted the meeting is an organization that works to engage communities for social change by providing education and other resources for activists, entrepreneurs and change Superintendent makers. The organization’s Kelvin Adams school campaign “What’s Next SLPS?” calls on St. Louis Public Schools to consider closing schools differently and asked the question: “What would school closures look like if SLPS partnered with the communities most impacted by them? The schools north of Delmar Boulevard recommended for closing are: Clay, Dunbar, Farragut, Ford and Hickey, all elementary schools; Sumner High School and Northwest Academy of
Fauci answers questions on corona vaccine
Officer not charged in fatal Galleria shooting Victim’s family requests video not be released
St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell on Tuesday closed the case of the August 2019 shooting death of Terry Tillman without charging the white police officer who fired seven rounds at the 23-year-old Black man more than 16 months ago.
COMPLIMENTARY
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Photo courtesy of The AP
By Dana Rieck Of The St. Louis American
Vol. 92 No. 37
“We recognize that it took too long to provide answers in this case,” Bell said in a news release. “The COVID-19 pandemic complicated the process of compiling the video evidence, but that is an explanation, not an excuse. All of us in law enforcement need to work toward providing closure more quickly, even in pandemic conditions and even in complicated cases.”
That video evidence, compiled into a 16-minute clip, was shown to members of the news media after Tillman’s family requested it not be released to the public, according to Bell’s office. The video shows Tillman getting out of a car’s passenger side at 2:59 p.m. the day of the
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By Sandra Jordan Of The St. Louis American With the U.K. starting the Pfizer-BioNTech version of coronavirus vaccines, Canada approving their use this week, the U.S. is expected to grant Emergency Use Authorization to Pfizer this week on its COVID-19 vaccine, and Moderna next week. The anticipation of a vaccine is as strong as the skepticism of those who question whether the vaccines were created too fast, and if any vaccines for the virus, also known as COVID-19, are safe for Black people. Dr. “Making It Plain: A Anthony Conversation with Dr. Fauci and Fauci the Black Community,” aired live Tuesday on the BlackDoctor. org Facebook page, where he attempted to answer questions about speed and safety of the vaccine’s development and addressed skeptics’ concerns and hesitancy about getting the vaccine when it becomes available. Cancer researcher Dr. Wayne Frederick,
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