Published in the St. Louis American, January 21, 2019

The year marks my 25th year of writing for The St. Louis American. I know, where did the years go?

I’ll do a brief recap of how I got my coveted spot for those of you who haven’t heard the story.

I was an avid reader of the newspaper. Back in 1992, while busy working on the mayoral campaign of Freeman Bosley Jr., I observed that there were only male voices doing commentary in The St. Louis American. I raised my concern to Publisher Donald M. Suggs. Read more

Published in St. Louis American, January 15, 2019

It’s that time of year where one of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s most famous speech will permeate the air. “I Have a Dream” is often quoted – even by the perpetrators of greed, racism and injustice. If half of us were truly carrying out the principles of Dr. King, the world wouldn’t be such a ball of confusion, with ruptured communities and massive chaos.

The brilliance and complexity of Dr. King’s work is his enduring analysis of this country’s three evils:  racism, war and poverty. Over five decades since his death, these three evils are alive and well and continually stoked by the likes of Trump. Dreaming won’t rid us of them either. Read more

Published in St. Louis American, December 24, 2018

Recently Michael Butler convened a gathering of black community stakeholders. The former Missouri state representative had the audacity to run against long-time politico Sharon Carpenter and the campaign savvy to take her job as St. Louis recorder of deeds. Butler’s main goal for the convening was to assess the level of unity in the room to forge a legislative agenda. Read more