Racial Discrimination

The St. Louis Reparations Commission presented a draft of its harm report during the committee’s final meeting Monday at City Hall. The proposed report includes recommendations for recognition and redistribution, eligibility requirements based on lineage or proof of residency and personal narratives woven into issue areas like police brutality, health and housing discrimination.

A group of attorneys and researchers are stepping in to help community organizations and local and state reparations task forces get to reparative justice for Black communities. The African American Redress Network prepares harm reports, researches disparities or helps preserve a town's Black history.

The St. Louis Reparations Commission is working on its proposed 100-page report. It will include narratives and documentation that focus on housing, neighborhoods and built environment, education, public health, jobs and the economy, and state violence and policing. About 20 local and national experts will help write the final report.

Workers at Missouri Central School Bus say the company also pushes them to do the bare minimum to “Band-Aid” over glaring issues with brake systems and other mechanical problems.

Homeownership rates have increased for minorities over the past few years, according to the National Association of Realtors 2024 Snapshot of Race and Home Buying in America Report. Just 41% of Black Americans own homes in Missouri, which is below the national average.

The St. Louis Reparations Commission will be extended until Sept. 9. The commission was previously set to end this spring. Members asked Mayor Tishaura Jones for more time to engage with the community and to produce a final report.

Rockwood School District and its former diversity and equity director settled an employee discrimination lawsuit last month. Brittany Hogan alleged in the February lawsuit that the district ignored her complaints of racist abuse from parents.

The St. Louis Reparations Commission is preparing to create a race-based harm report for Mayor Tishaura Jones to review next year. Robin Rue Simmons created the Evanston, Illinois, reparations plan and got Evanston’s Black residents the country’s first reparations payout. Simmons talks about her strategy and what St. Louis can do to make its reparations process successful.

The Deaconess Foundation this fall will launch the Institute for Black Liberation to help develop Black leaders in the St. Louis region who can help their communities heal from internalized racism. Participants will learn tactics to help combat stereotypes and to celebrate Blackness in ways that help communities.

Black students at Eureka High School are upset that the Rockwood School Board eliminated its diversity and inclusion programs and want the school board to replace their programs or implement new ones. The students say that racist incidents at their school are weighing on them and that they need more diversity programs, which are safe spaces for them.