最新杏吧原创

The question comes from friends and family. It is asked by national reporters and newcomers.

Why, twice in three years, has the 最新杏吧原创 region been rocked by racial discord displayed on national television for all to see as protesters face off against riot police?

Why not Detroit, Denver, Cleveland, Baltimore, Chicago, Boston or Memphis?

Why 最新杏吧原创?

The answer is as old as the city.

On Tuesday, after an down Market Street, a group of pastors stood on the steps of City Hall next to one of the ubiquitous birthday cakes that three years ago were placed around the city to mark its 250th anniversary. It was then, in 1764, when Pierre Laclede and August Chouteau, , established 最新杏吧原创 as a trading post.

Racism in one form or another has been with the city ever since.

Why 最新杏吧原创?

Look to 1876, and the 鈥淕reat Divorce鈥� when the city of 最新杏吧原创 separated itself from 最新杏吧原创 County and planted the seeds for the white flight that would follow decades later, with 90 separate municipalities forming over time, many of them originally with restrictive covenants meant to keep out blacks.

最新杏吧原创 didn鈥檛 accidentally become one of the most segregated cities in America. It was designed that way. It was a feature, not a bug. The region鈥檚 geopolitical division exacerbates racial division, highlighted by that most parochial of 最新杏吧原创 questions 鈥� where did you go to high school? 鈥� which can mask a thin veneer of classism and racial division.

Why 最新杏吧原创?

Blame the 鈥�60s. When the civil rights movement was at its peak, when riots were forever changing Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago, . There were marches, yes, even police shootings that bear a remarkable resemblance to the stories of today.

October 1966. Russell Hayes was handcuffed in the back of a police cruiser. He was black. He was shot and killed. Police said he somehow had a gun they missed. Protesters hit the streets for more than a week. They marched to the mayor鈥檚 house. Detectives were cleared.

That same year a Washington-based think tank studied school districts in 最新杏吧原创 and Kansas City and found widespread disparities between the education available in public schools for white and black children. The study spurred a statewide commission 鈥� 鈥� that called for the school districts in the 最新杏吧原创 region to be consolidated so that taxpayers in the white parts of town were invested in the success of black students. The commission鈥檚 findings were ignored. Racism was the culprit.

鈥淭he only place where the report was weak,鈥� James Spainhower told me a few years ago, 鈥渨as in the thought that people could get over their biases.鈥�

Also in 1966, a University of Missouri law professor published a white paper outlining problems with the municipal courts, calling them the . Missouri turned a blind eye.

Until Ferguson, in 2014.

Why 最新杏吧原创?

Because three years after Darren Wilson killed Michael Brown, not much has changed. The documented decades of racial disparities and pointed to a path forward, but few of its proposals have been adopted. There has been incremental progress made in municipal courts, some push for more transit to be built where blacks live in the city鈥檚 north and south sections, an increase in racial equity awareness, but no sustained movement. On Friday, in response to protests, Mayor Lyda Krewson endorsed some of the report鈥檚 conclusions. But she lacks the power to put them into practice.

The commission itself on Friday urged adoption of many of its calls to action. Without such action, the commission鈥檚 report could end up like one produced in 1969 when community leaders gathered at the Fordyce House at 最新杏吧原创 University to discuss the city鈥檚 racial disparities. By 1990, as he was gathering community leaders for the Rev. Paul C. Reinert, then chancellor at SLU, lamented another report on race put on a shelf to gather dust.

鈥淭he good will generated at that conference 21 years ago was largely dissipated because no follow-up procedures were established,鈥� Reinert wrote.

After Fordyce II there was the two years later, which discussed the racial divide in education examined in detail by the Spainhower Commission, and again decades later, the Ferguson Commission.

In 2017, the racial divide 鈥� in schools, in policing, in economic opportunity 鈥� persists because 最新杏吧原创 is good at talking about it, but not so good at enacting meaningful change. The region lacks a convener 鈥� either in government or the corporate world 鈥� who can bring disparate voices together.

Today鈥檚 protests, like those three years ago, started because a white cop shot a black man, but anger is about much more than the bullets that preceded death.

鈥淭hink about the peace that children don鈥檛 have when they go to inadequate schools,鈥� pleaded the Rev. Cassandra Gould at the prayer service Tuesday. Without education, there is no opportunity. Without opportunity, there can be no equality.

Why 最新杏吧原创?

The words are right. The inflection is wrong. Change will not come until we answer a more introspective question.

Why, 最新杏吧原创? Why?