COVID-19 Equitable Relief and Recovery Fund

January 9, 2021

In a year like no other, a global pandemic tested us all. We found ourselves face-to-face with unprecedented job losses, business closures, concern for our own, our family and our loved ones’ health and safety. Intimate, work, and social relationships were strained and most of us are overwhelmed with COVID fatigue.

In 2020, the St. Louis American set out to go beyond fear and the negative reality of Black people comprising disproportionate numbers of coronavirus infections, deaths and layoffs from a virus that has crippled our country. With support from organizations such as the Deaconess Foundation and others, we set out to personalize the pandemic with stories and photos of those affected.

It was a year that started with great loss and ended with great hope based on the development and distribution of coronavirus vaccines. Through it all, our newsroom worked to help our readers understand, talk about and rise to the challenges of the unfolding pandemic. With individual-focused stories, photos and narrative, we did indeed put faces on dire statistics.

Read More

January 12, 2021

Since the spread of the coronavirus began in early 2020, many in the health care professionals have expressed sentiments of burnout, fatigue and increased anxiety about their physical or mental health. Dr. Moyosore Onifade is not among that group.

An internal medicine physician with BJC Health and a primary care physician at the St. Louis Primary Care Center in north St. Louis County, Onifade has a different, more upbeat take on her profession during the pandemic.

“It’s made me more determined about my career. For many of us in the health care community, it’s made us think differently about taking care of our patients.” 

Read More

January 12, 2021

Seeking signs of hope for a post-pandemic world

"Where do we go from here?"

The question raised in the title of The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s book is as apropos today as it was when it was released a year before his assassination in 1967. Perhaps more so.

Although the coronavirus is still with us, vaccines to combat it provide a hopeful glimmer of a post-COVID world. Yet, in its wake, African Americans will be left with the disproportionate health, economic, social and deadly ruins exacerbated by the global pandemic.

Read More

January 22, 2021

“If we don’t make it plain, we’re never going to address it or get through it."

For a few days after May 16, 2020, Dr. Matifadza Hlatshwayo Davis was in a safe space or so she thought.

Hlatshwayo (pronounced “Shla-ch-why-o”) Davis, an infectious disease physician at Washington University School of Medicine, was on maternity leave at the time. Isolated at home with her newborn and her 4-year-old daughters, she was temporarily sheltered from a pandemic that was raging across the globe. But then, nine days after delivering her baby, another harsh reality invaded her sanctuary: the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Media images of the killing struck her on several levels. As a mom, it was difficult watching Floyd die while calling out to his dead mother. As a doctor, it was hard to watch a man expire while given no medical attention. And, as a woman of color, she was once again reminded of the fragility of Black life at the hands of police.

Read More

January 25, 2021

"The Hair Doctor" instigates political discourse

Maurice Mosley, owner of Paradise Beauty Salon in Downtown St. Louis, has been cutting and styling hair since he was a teenager growing up in East St. Louis. His career spans decades of evolving Black hair styles such as press and curls, “blow outs,” the process, finger waves and the infamous “Jheri curl,” which he swears he introduced to East St. Louis in the 1980s.

Paradise Salon, at 1923 Washington Ave, like many other neighborhood beauty and barber shops, is a hotbed of heated conversations about local and national events.

Mosley, popularly known as “The Hair Doctor” (also the title of his 2017 self-published book) considers himself news-savvy. He has been the lead instigator and provocateur in his shop on all topics Donald Trump-related. The former president, Mosley said, was a “disaster.” 

He liberally applied that word to what he described as Trump's bungling of the coronavirus pandemic. At 68 with a heart condition and high blood pressure, Mosley fears contracting the disease. He has managed to keep his shop open. He and his workers instituted safe practices, but unknowns about the disease have kept him uneasy.

Read More

February 6, 2021

Audrey Hammock, a teacher at Patrick Henry Downtown Academy, defines herself as “hood rich.” The East St. Louis native used the term to describe her approach to interacting with her students and their parents.

“Students who behaved badly or were cutting up in class, know I’m walking home with them at the end of the day, Hammock said. “I’m not going to lie; I’m bold like that.”

Patrick Henry is located just north of downtown within the 63106 zip code. It’s an area of high poverty and high crime that researchers from Washington and Saint Louis universities deemed one of the “most vulnerable” as it pertains to the social determinants of health.

Hammock said growing up in East St. Louis, with its impoverished areas, makes it easier for her to navigate the neighborhood, visit homes and develop relationships with parents.

“I’m just one of those cool teachers. Once they (parents) realize that I have genuine concern about their child’s wellbeing, they tell me things you might not expect them to share. It’s about getting to that level of comfortability.”

Read More

February 13, 2021

'A little nudge or encouragement won't hurt...'

“Why Are 1/3 of Black Americans Suddenly Anti-Vaxxers?”

This was the question Amber Ruffin asked her audience on her self-titled talk show last month. Anti-Vaxxers are people who disagree with the use of vaccines for a variety of reasons. Although the term has been used lately in regard to the coronavirus vaccine, the anti-vaxxer movement dates back to the 18^th century, when mostly religious leaders in the U.S. described vaccines as the “devil’s work.” The movement is so pervasive that the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2019, named the anti-vaccine movement as one of the top health threats globally.

Ruffin’s question was prompted by a Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) study in December that reported “35% of Black adults would probably or definitely not get vaccinated even if it was determined to be safe by scientists and available for free.”

Before giving a brief but sordid history of crimes committed against African Americans, in the name of “science,” Ruffin answered her own question:

“(It’s) because there’s a long history of doctors experimenting on black people to figure out ways to help white people.”

Read More

February 27, 2021

The late, great jazz trumpeter, Miles Davis once said: “Silence is more important than sound.”

Davis spoke to the artistry of music-making. But for Kasimu (pronounced KAH-see-moo), Taylor, 47, a trumpet player since the age of eleven,’ the “silence” Davis described has a more devastating meaning these days:

“My last paying gig was in late January. During the first month or two of the lock-down, I wasn’t doing anything. I had this lack of motivation because my whole livelihood was basically gone. I was trying to figure out how to keep income coming in. It was just a stressful time.”

COVID-19 was not the only stressor in Taylor’s life. He said he’s always been passionate about political, social and racial happenings. He recalled how his funk intensified in mid-May:   

“We had the whole thing with a crazy president and a totally stressful environment. I was not only struggling financially, I struggled with my purpose,” Taylor confessed. “What part does music play in this madness, what’s my purpose? And then the George Floyd stuff popped off.”

In a way, Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis policeman, sparked Taylor’s rebound:

“I felt I couldn’t do another show without addressing that (incident), Davis admitted.

Read More

March 12, 2021

A year ago, this month, Kavin Swan, 65, an executive with HOK, an architecture, engineering and urban planning firm, was living his normal, busy life. He traveled extensively to cities like Seattle, Reno, Atlanta and Houston, meeting with airport executives, overseeing projects and attending crowded conferences.

The virus was spreading globally, but Swan wasn’t overly concerned. This was around the time former President Donald Trump insisted his administration had “tremendous control” over the disease. Even though there were 100,000 confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. at the time, Trump insisted there was no need to shut the country down, predicting churches would be packed by Easter Sunday.

“Just tell the people the truth, man!” Swan said, referring to Trump’s comments last year. “There I was going to conferences with a thousand people, shaking folk’s hands. I probably would have never taken those trips if I had known better.”

Read More

March 20, 2021

After five grueling months, Thomas Brown, 61, has finally gone back to work. His job as a housekeeper with Drury’s Pear Tree Inn St. Louis Near Union Station, temporarily ended as the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered thousands of businesses. 

According to a study released by the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA), nearly nine in 10 hotels nationwide had been forced to lay off or furlough employees due to the deadly disease.

For Brown, the loss was devastating. Getting hired at the Pear Tree in 2019 was a life raft. It signaled the end of a two-year bout with unemployment, a chance to get caught up on mounting child support payments and the ability to keep a roof over his head. Just as things were looking up, the mysterious, vast-spreading disease reversed Brown’s fortunes.

In a way, this has been the trajectory of Brown’s up-then-down life.

Read More

April 3, 2021

It’s been a bit over a year since Elmer (El) Covington, 52, of University City contracted the COVID-19. The day before he was diagnosed, March 12, 2020, the World Health Organization had declared the novel coronavirus a pandemic. Covington had no idea that he was among the thousands of Americans who had already been affected. Five days later, the official U.S. death toll had surpassed 100 people. By March 26, the number of dead from the virus had risen to more than 100,000. 

Covington is one of four people The St. Louis American interviewed for a COVID-19 story last year. All had contracted the disease in March or April of 2020. One year later, they speak of recovery, residual effects and the mental and physical scars left by the illness.  

“Physically, I’m alright,” Covington said, adding: “But, I still have what I call ‘COVID brain’…these mental lapses where I forget things.”

Read More

April 15, 2021

"The majority of us have been pretty bummed out."

Sydney Neal, 24, doesn’t mind it if people refer to her as a “geek” or a “nerd.”

“I embrace it,” the Washington University PhD grad student confessed. “I love science, and the idea of what can be discovered. Being a 'nerd' has gotten me where I am today and I'm incredibly blessed.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has put a damper on Neal’s blessings and impacted millions of lives around the world. But Neal is among a demographic that has seen their schools and universities shuttered, that has had their social lives upended and been isolated from their peers. This is perhaps the pandemic’s biggest blow to teens and young adults, who rely on their network of friends to navigate the labyrinth of school life.

The pandemic, with its ever-evolving threats to people of all ages, has had a particular toll on young people. Last year, the CDC released a study showing that 63 percent of young people reported significant symptoms of anxiety and depression as a result of the pandemic. The study also emphasized that young people have felt the same feelings that Neal experienced.  

Read More

April 17, 2021

A musician's effort to comfort his dying mother comes to a beautiful end

Staccato notes from a trumpet blare from a house along the 4600 block of Elmbank Avenue. The music is an unsolicited homage to the once culturally rich Greater Ville Neighborhood – an area that gifted the world Chuck Berry, Arthur Ashe, Dick Gregory, Josephine Baker and so many more notable African Americans. The single-family brick home is similar to many on the quiet, tree-lined street near Hickey Elementary School.

This was the neighborhood that Edward Nelson called home, an environmental engineer, and the place where he and his wife Pauline, an accomplished artist and photographer, raised their six children in the culture and tradition of Africa. Edward passed away in 2010. The house then went into disrepair as Pauline, 91, spent time in hospitals fighting the ravages of Alzheimer’s disease and other life-threatening maladies.

As COVID-19 spread rapidly last March, the Nelsons’ oldest living son, the musician, artist and educator Mike Nelson (affectionately known as “Baba Mike”) was forced to make a difficult decision. In September, he spoke with The St. Louis American about whether he should place his mother in a nursing home, or refurbish the family home so that she could spend her final days “transitioning” in accordance with African rituals and tradition.

Read More

April 22, 2021

“We were prepared for COVID.”

Kathy and Jerome Jenkins, owners of Cathy’s Kitchen in Ferguson, answered resolutely when asked how COVID-19 had impacted their business. Their answer was surprising, considering the disproportionate damage the pandemic has wrought on Black businesses, in particular. But the Jenkinses say their years as struggling entrepreneurs and the protests following police killings readied them for the economic chaos caused by the coronavirus. In fact, for the past year, the couple has posted photos and videos on social media of them and their staff dancing, singing, exercising and happily coping despite the restrictions St. Louis County officials put on businesses that negatively and drastically affected their operations and bottom line.

Staying publicly upbeat during the downturn of COVID wasn’t a marketing strategy, the Jenkinses insist, it was a manifestation of who they are and what they believe: “We don’t separate fun from business,” Jerome said. “You could see the stress on people’s faces,” Cathy added. “People were stuck in the house. Many had lost their jobs. They were so unhappy, so we set out to be happier.”

Read More

April 25, 2021

Throughout the year, and especially during National Volunteer Week, April 18 -24, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Missouri (BBBSEMO) is reaching out for help. The nonprofit located at 501 N. Grand Blvd., needs adult volunteers (“Bigs”) who will sign up for one-to-one mentoring relationships with children (“Littles”), ages five through young adulthood.

“We really want to get the message out that we need volunteers, especially more African-American male volunteers to sign up,” said Linda Robinson,Director of Volunteer Recruitment for BBBSEMO. “To have someone in their lives who looks like them can have a big impact in a young boy’s life.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized the need for extra attention in the lives of young people. A recent report from Mental Health America shows that children (aged 11-17) are experiencing the highest rates of anxiety and depression of any other demographic group. It’s understandable, considering that most aren’t mature enough to navigate the disruptions in their lives caused by the virus. The separation from loved ones, including grandparents, ongoing stress, fear, grief, isolation and uncertainty are just a few of the reasons why kids need additional sources of support.

The pandemic has also hindered how BBBSEMO recruits volunteers. Prior to COVID, their efforts were interactive and face-to-face through visits to universities, churches and corporations.

Read More

April 30, 2021

"It’s only back in full force for the people who truly want to do karaoke.” - Shantay Jones, karaoke enthusiast

Karaoke is a popular pastime for patrons of bars and clubs throughout the world. There’s a distinct difference, however, between commercial venues that cater to out-of-towners and cavalier weekenders and small, neighborhood venues that cater to locals. In the latter, karaoke DJ’s (or KJ’s) have their own loyal followers. The eclectic mixture of professional or wannabe warblers develop a family-like relationships that’s unique to each KJ or location.

Every Thursday night, Shantay Jones, Barbara Simpson and Yanulka (Yon) Myers can be found at KJ’s Bar & Grill on Broadway for karaoke night. The friends, who all graduated from Vashon High School, participated in cheerleading or pom, pom groups but never sang together. They attended the owner of the bar, Kenneth C. Martin’s karaoke shows for years at other venues. When he opened KJ’s about four years ago, the ladies, who go by the stage name “Exquisite,” were given a reserved table for their loyal patronage. When they enter the club, they are greeted with hugs and kisses from regulars. Crowds enthusiastically react to their standard favorites by artists like Vanity 6, George Michaels, John legend or LL Cool J (“I’m Bad” is a house favorite).

“It’s like when you’re at work and you have a work family,” said Simpson, a senior grant management accountant. “When I’m down there on Thursdays, I’m with my KJ karaoke family.  When I walk in and see people that come every week, I make it a point to hug them. I like listening to them sing or having conversations with them.”

Read More

May 9, 2021

“It sounds like you had a stroke, but you don’t look old enough. What are you, about 30?”

Lisa Marie Bradley of Maryland Heights was confused by the EMT’s query:

“No, actually I’m 50,” Bradley answered. “There I was, in the back of an ambulance with this big ole cheesy grin on my face but the word ‘stroke’ never entered my mind.”

If not for her 13-year-old son, Bradley probably would not have called an ambulance. She did know something was not right in her head. The afternoon of March 1, while preparing to pick up another son who is 15, a strange feeling came over her.

“It’s hard to describe. It was like a dizziness and blurriness at the same time, almost like vertigo,” Bradley recalled.

She had bouts with dizziness before, but the episodes passed quickly. This time, although the wooziness subsided, she said she knew “something wasn’t right.”

Still, Bradley got dressed and told her son to meet her outside by the car. The boy noticed that his mom’s speech was slurring. Bradley said she had that feeling one might get after visiting an optometrist.

Her eyes were dilated, and sunlight was unbearable. Her son begged her to go back inside and call 911. She did…reluctantly.

“I didn’t want to make a big scene or fuss over me. It couldn’t be a stroke, I thought, because in my mind, a stroke would be much more painful.”

Read More

May 14, 2021

For a 12-year-old, Milo Marston has some very grown-up thoughts about politics and the spread of the coronavirus in the United States:

“It was so ridiculous that he (President Trump) politicized the virus in the name of delusional, macho posturing.”

Milo had an equally layered answer when asked about grown-ups who refuse to wear masks to ward off infections or who won’t even consider being vaccinated:

“That all seems kinda stupid to me. It seemed to be just another outgrowth of the fake news and political stigma that’s been cropping up over the years.”

It’s obvious Milo, a 7th grader at Kairos Academies Charter School in the city, is the product of engaged liberal parenting. His father, Brian Marston, is the director of Web Technology at Washington University. His mother, Amanda Doyle, is the published author of several books. Their passions seem to have impacted Milo who remembers attending rallies and marches on climate change and Black Lives Matter as an infant. The boy’s thinking provides an interesting glimpse into a demographic that will soon be eligible for vaccinations to protect against COVID-19.

Read More

May 23, 2021

“I want to make something very, very clear; We’re not pushing people to get vaccinated,” says Serena Muhammad, COVID-19 Regional Response Team managing director. 

At first, her statement seems at odds with her mission as part of a consortium of local agencies working with Washington University health officials to encourage vaccinations among black people.

The university was awarded $1.9 million in federal grants to monitor and respond to common myths about vaccines and inform black residents about clinical trials.

Read More

June 10, 2021

Making teachers more culturally proficient in classrooms

Sometimes, out of chaos comes creativity.

Such is the case for two Webster University professors, Vincent C. Flewellen and Marshaun Warren. The professors have launched an eight-week online course for K-12 educators, called “Social Justice and Inclusive Learning.”

Its goal, according to Webster University, is to give teachers the opportunities and tools to meaningfully “address systemic, personal and societal influences that impact culturally proficient instruction.”

The idea for the course, according to co-designers and co-instructors, Flewellen and Warren, came to them after the spread of the Coronavirus and the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis policemen last year.

“We were thinking in terms of how Webster can show up once again and lead critical conversations that are needed at a time when we’re faced with some serious racial reckoning,” Flewellen explained. “We wanted to figure out what we can do, not only for the internal community at Webster but the entire St. Louis region as well.”

Read More

June 21, 2021

The coronavirus changed the world as we knew it.

Safety protocols, health policies, everyday practices and personal priorities shifted as the deadly pandemic seized the lives of thousands each day around the globe. Institutions including colleges and universities had to quickly adapt in an environment of ever-shifting unknowns.

In a combined essay titled, “The Realities of COVID-College,” four 22-year-old college students serving as Campus Policy Fellows with The Scholarship Foundation of St. Louis, wrote candidly about how the coronavirus exposed shortcomings on their respective campuses.

“I was sort of in an oasis. I was happy, at peace and didn’t have to worry about violence,” said Kennedi Harmon, a St. Louisan who just graduated from Hampton University.  She was eager to escape the chaos of her hometown and attend college in Virginia. Everything changed once the university sent students home.

Read More

July 19, 2021

“He was a superhero that we didn’t know was a superhero.”

As a child, Roderic Heard, 32, never really considered his father, Rodney Heard, a 20-year veteran of the St. Louis Fire Department, “a hero.” When one of his sisters recently made the comment, Roderic, the youngest of Heard’s six children, realized that his father was indeed a champion of family, community and public service.

Heard’s tour of duty ended on June 15, 2021, after losing his battle with the coronavirus. By all accounts, Heard, 54, was a soft-spoken, deeply religious and family-oriented man.  

Since his father’s passing, the youngest Heard has been blessed with countless stories from loved ones, firefighters and people in the community about his father’s influence on their lives. Heard grew up in the Cochran Gardens public housing complex on the near north side of downtown. Like many low-income individuals, Black fathers are often missing from homes.

“One of my friends from Cochran recently told me that my dad was his father figure,” Heard recalled. “He filled that role of love and structure that most Black boys are missing. I didn’t realize the role he played for the whole community until I was an adult.”

Read More

July 26, 2021

“I just knew he was gonna be OK. He was the miracle man.”

Marsha Bonds sadly recalls the day she learned that her husband of 40 years, Larry D. Bonds, was diagnosed with the coronavirus. Marsha tested positive first, on June 3. The next day, her spouse learned that he was also infected.

“Well, it’s you and me babe,” she said, recalling her husband’s words and upbeat attitude.

Both were confident they’d beat the virus. The couple had been vaccinated. Marsha Bonds likened her symptoms to a “bad cold.” Mostly, though, she just knew her husband would pull through.

In the early 2000s, he suffered a heart failure. For six months, while waiting for a donor heart, he survived with the help of a left ventricle assist device (LVAD), a mechanical device that pumps blood to the aorta and throughout the body.

On November 18, 2008, a heart became available from a donor, Tommy Quertermous, 37, who was killed in a farming accident. The operation was scheduled the next day, Nov. 19. It was Larry and Marsha’s middle child Marlin’s birthday.

“Larry died three times that day,” Marsha Bonds said, recalling the number of times her husband had “flat-lined” and had to be resuscitated before and during the operation. Hospital officials called the family, saying that he wasn’t expected to survive.

Read More

July 30, 2021

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), less than a quarter of African Americans are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. This is a frustrating statistic considering there have been nearly 700,00 new cases in the month of July alone. The Delta variant, which accounts for more than 80% of new U.S. coronavirus cases, adds another layer of immediacy to the clarion call for more people to get vaccinated.

According to Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, current vaccines are not only effective against the Delta variant, but they are also “imperative” to preventing other mutations. During a recent MSNBC interview, Fauci stressed that 99.5% of COVID-related deaths are among the unvaccinated while 0.9% are among the vaccinated.

What will it take to convince the “vaccine hesitant,” particularly African Americans, to process the fear, facts and evidence and get themselves immunized?

Across the country and locally, individuals, agencies and DJs are addressing that question in a multitude of hip, informative and culturally relevant ways.

Read More

August 4, 2021

Sandeep Rohatgi, MD, a Washington University pediatrician with more than 25 years experience, is urging parents to get their children vaccinated - especially with schools opening as Missouri experiences surging COVID-19 cases.

“Vaccinating our children who are 12 and older can keep them, our families and our friends safe. Reducing the number of COVID-19 cases can keep our economy and our country moving and get us all back to doing what we love,” he shared in a commentary to the St. Louis American.

“We are close to a point where we can start to think about going back to more freedoms and normal social interactions for everyone.” 

It’s debatable how close anything resembling “normal” is, and that includes in the nation’s classrooms. Two months ago, optimism was high and there was a sense of achievement as the number of coronavirus cases seemed to be in decline.

In mid-May, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) announced that most fully vaccinated people didn't have to wear masks indoors or outdoors. In early July it said that vaccinated teachers and students would not need to wear masks inside school buildings.

Read More

August 4, 2021

Earlier this month, many were shocked by the news that COVID-19 is the third leading cause of death in St. Louis County. A report from the St. Louis County Health department stated this fact along with the grim news that as the virus surges, health disparities in African American communities increase negative health outcomes.

Kendra Holmes, senior vice president and chief operating officer of Affinia Healthcare, was not shocked by the news.

“We knew from the beginning that black people would be disproportionately impacted by COVID because they are disproportionately impacted by diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and other diseases. It’s so much more complicated than just COVID,” Holmes said, adding, “COVID is just another example of why we don’t live as long as white people.”

Holmes’ frustration is palpable but understandable. She has received countless awards and recognition (including the St. Louis American Foundation’s 2021 “Stellar Performer” in Healthcare Award) for Affinia’s frontline approach to battling the pandemic, especially in underserved communities in the city and county.

Read More

September 3, 2021

“I want to be where the people are… Up where they walk, up where they run, up where they stay all day in the sun, wanderin’ free...wish I could be part of that world.”

This song from the Disney movie, “The Little Mermaid,” was written more than 30 years before today’s coronavirus pandemic. Yet, for Ken Haller, associate professor of pediatrics and accomplished cabaret artist, Ariel’s ditty speaks to a life of isolation and a longing for a world unlike her underwater reality.

Haller’s musings, along with other contributors, have been adapted for “Celebration of Survival: Coping with the COVID Quarantine.”  The show/playback” will be presented by A Call to Conscience Interactive Theatre for Social Change (C2C).

Founded in 2012, the theater collective uses multimedia formats to dramatize historical themes that deal with the struggles of the oppressed. In this show, C2C will present testimonials, interviews and poems revolving around COVID-19.

Read More

September 8, 2021

Brandon Ford, 23, isn’t sure why the unmasked customer targeted him for a lesson on how the COVID vaccines have devastating impacts on black people.

Brandon, a Creve Coeur native and student at Northwestern University in Evanston Il., works as a driver for Uber Eats. In the early afternoon of August 19, he was delivering an order to a business complex in the Clayton area. The man who placed the order, who was white, identified himself as “a doctor” before verbally accosting Brandon.

“You look like a nice guy,” Brandon recalled the man saying. “Then he started bragging about never wearing a mask and not being vaccinated. He proceeded to lecture me about how Blacks and Latinos are more at risk and how the medical system has always had plans for us…he mentioned Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, and how abortions were started to wipe out the black race…all this crazy stuff! It was a pretty racist experience.”  

In retrospect, Brandon said he should have just dropped the food off and quickly left. As a journalism student, he said he’s well-versed in racial history and the pandemic’s disproportionate impact on minorities. He could have easily refuted the man’s racist banter but said he chose not to engage for certain reasons:

“As a black person, I feel like sometimes there’s not much you can say because usually white people are in positions of power like this particular guy. I didn’t say anything because I felt it would only hurt me.”

Read More

September 10, 2021

Pamela Merritt has been wrestling with feelings of unfairness lately. Her older brother, William (Bill) Edward Merritt III, 51, passed away from COVID-19 last month. The unfair part about “Bill’s” passing, Pamela laments, is that he had already suffered so much.

Last year, he contracted COVID and survived. During that time, he had two strokes and also fought on.

And then, this year, as he was healing and getting back to a challenging form of normalcy, COVID struck again. This time it was the delta variant, and this time he didn’t make it. He died on August 26, three days after his diagnosis.

Pamela Merritt is fighting against the seeming unfairness of it all. Blame, regret, sorrow, and anger go against her positive, upbeat nature. It betrays the memories and lessons she’s learned as one of her brother’s caretakers and guardians. He was diagnosed with autism at an early age. Pamela and her older sister, Crystal Merritt, saw their brother above and beyond his disabilities throughout their entire lives.  Caring for him in his adult years was not “a burden,” Pamela insists, “it was a gift.”

Read More

September 15, 2021

Cheryl Walker, a retired real estate investor and financial specialist, wasn’t particularly concerned about the coronavirus as she prepared for her 10-day vacation to Elmina, Ghana. She had been planning the trip since March and did the necessary research. Walker knew that Ghana is one of the African nations that has been praised for its effective COVID-19 strategies.

Ghana and other African nations, including South Africa, have been heralded by health officials for taking early, decisive action that initially appear to have COVID-19 under control. Ghana’s population of 30.4 million is about 10 percent of America’s 328 million residents. Yet, its confirmed 1,084 deaths from the disease are proportionately lower than America’s more than 650,000 coronavirus deaths.

Read More

September 23, 2021

Jamala Rogers, in her Sept. 12, commentary in this newspaper, held BACK no punches when she wrote about the rising cases of children infected with the COVID-19 Delta variant and how she’s lost patience with unvaccinated and those who refuse to wear masks

“This selfishness has deadly consequences. I have no sympathy for the fearful, misguided, lazy, unrealistic, timid, distrustful, ignorant, stubborn, ideologically inflexible, foolish, dishonest, conspiracy theorists and racist (whatever shoe fits, put it on).”

Last year it was believed that children were less likely than adults to get seriously ill from COVID-19. But with the predominant delta strain, more children are being hospitalized with the coronavirus than at any point during the pandemic.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are surging across the country with a 240% increase in pediatric cases since July. With kids having already returned to in-person schooling and winter approaching, those officials are concerned that health matters could get worse.

Read More

September 30, 2021

“Forget me not…

when the sunshine breaks the sky…

Forget me not…

when the moonlight shines bright…

Remembering the good times, remembering the bad and all the times we had…

Forget me not.”

Dr. Philip A. Woodmore plans to share his original composition, “Forget Me Not,” during the “Requiem of Light Memorial for St. Louisans Lost to Covid” on Saturday, Oct. 2, at Art Hill in Forest Park. Woodmore, a longtime member of the St. Louis music community and creator of the off-Broadway play “Antigone in Ferguson,” will serve as artistic director for the memorial concert.

Read More

October 22, 2021

Earlier this month, many were shocked by the news that COVID-19 is the third leading cause of death in St. Louis County. A report from the St. Louis County Health department stated this fact along with the grim news that as the virus surges, health disparities in African American communities increase negative health outcomes.

Kendra Holmes, senior vice president and chief operating officer of Affinia Healthcare, was not shocked by the news.

“We knew from the beginning that black people would be disproportionately impacted by COVID because they are disproportionately impacted by diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and other diseases. It’s so much more complicated than just COVID,” Holmes said, adding, “COVID is just another example of why we don’t live as long as white people.”

Read More

October 27, 2021

It was a frantic day in early August for Dr. Ebony Carter, a high-risk obstetrician at Barnes Jewish Hospital’s Women and Infants Center. A patient in the hospital’s COVID isolation room was about to deliver her baby. Carter remembers how she and her obstetric resident hastily donned their N95 masks, face shields, gowns, and gloves in the decontamination room.  Significant decisions had to be made quickly, like would the-soon-to-be-mother require a c-section if the baby began showing signs of distress from her COVID infection, too?

As Carter entered the delivery room, she could see the woman was having trouble breathing. The patient, Carter recalled, was angry when “this should have been one of the happiest times of her life.” The patient declined support to help her breathe. Carter recalled how she “begged and pleaded” with the “coughing and hacking” woman to put her on an oxygen machine but to no avail. 

The OBGYN’s worst fears came to fruition when the woman’s respiratory status deteriorated to a level where her team could no longer care for the patient on her floor. She had to be transferred to another room where a tube would be placed down her throat and into her lungs so a machine could breathe for her. 

Read More

October 29, 2021

At the age of 25, Malik Wilson, co-host of “Show Me St. Louis” on KSDK Channel 5, seems to have mastered the art of drafting his own destiny. 

Before entering the news business, Wilson was a wide receiver with a Canadian football team, the Saskatchewan Roughriders. A torn hamstring, just months into the game, motivated him to pursue his first love, mass communication.

While attending North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro, North Carolina, Wilson interned with the school’s radio station before going off-campus to intern with 107.5 KZL FM radio station and, later, WLXI TV, a Christian television network in North Carolina, his home state. 

Read More

November 4, 2021

“COVID-19 case rates were 5.5 times higher among people incarcerated in U.S. prisons than among non-incarcerated population.”

This was just one of the dire statistics cited in “COVID-19 in Missouri Prisons and Jails,” a report released earlier this year by the nonprofit Missouri Appleseed. The agency, which is part of 16 chapters across the country, works on criminal justice reform and public health issues and champions the rights of society’s most vulnerable populations.

With financial support from Missouri Foundation for Health, Missouri Appleseed studies the COVID-19 containment policies of Missouri prisons and jails. COVID-19 case rates, according to the report, were 2.5 times higher among people who work in correctional facilities. Those staff members more than likely carried infections from those facilities into the wider community. 

Read More

November 9, 2021

It was enough to break almost anyone.

By late March of 2020, Mantra Lotus made the tough decision to close her business. The pandemic and safety precautions to contain it kept customers away from Regeneration, the daycare and homeschool she had operated in North County for 25 years. A month later, in April, Lotus’ twin sister died from a drug overdose. Lotus already had temporary custody of her twin’s two daughters. Due in part to the pandemic, Lotus was overloaded with emotions and great grief. Suddenly, the mother of two grown daughters, caretaker of her sister’s children and a grandmother who had just closed her business, found herself feeling like she had to do more.

“I was losing it,” Lotus recalled. “But I realized that everybody was in a place of trying to figure out their lives and what they were going to do. The world as we knew it had stopped. It helped to realize I wasn’t the only one who had to make moves, get ingenious and figure out what we were going to do.”

Read More

November 12, 2021

"COVID-19 case rates were 5.5 times higher among people incarcerated in U.S. prisons than among the non-incarcerated population.”

This was just one of the dire statistics cited in “COVID-19 in Missouri Prisons and Jails,” a report released earlier this year by the nonprofit Missouri Appleseed. The agency, which is part of 16 chapters across the country, works on criminal justice reform and public health issues and champions the rights of society’s most vulnerable populations.

Read More

November 15, 2021

Rufus Shannon of Tom Powell Post #77, the Nation’s First All-Black American Legion Post, on the meaning of Veteran’s Day.

Signing up to fight in the Vietnam War wasn’t on Rufus Shannon’s to-do list. 

Shannon, now 69, was 18-years-old in 1972, attending college and considering marriage when he received notice he’d been drafted. This was a time when anti-war demonstrations were sweeping the nation. It was five years after heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali boldly declared he wasn’t going “10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation” in the name of white supremacy.

Read More

November 21, 2021

St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner’s answer elicited robust applause from the audience attending the Nov. 17th event: “The St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office in Action,” held at Harris-Stowe State University. Longtime newswoman, Bonita Cornute, who served as moderator, started by asking Gardner about the challenges of her job.

In the first 20 minutes, the city prosecutor meticulously outlined the “action and reaction” parts of her vocation. This was in response to Cornute’s question about the possible misconceptions advocated by her adversaries in the media.

Gardner quickly noted how the local press, in particular the region’s daily newspaper, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, constantly criticizes and judges her by the actions or inactions of her predecessors.

“First of all, none of my predecessors were the first African American prosecutor elected to office since 1821. Let that sit with you for a moment,” Gardner responded before adding: “It’s like comparing 1821 to 2021…there’s no comparison.”

Read More

November 30, 2021

TeByron Graham, 46, couldn’t have predicted a pandemic sweeping the globe when he decided to open a new business. 

In late 2019, he signed a lease to a building at 1435 Salisbury Street, not far from downtown. He planned to open a restaurant even though the previous restaurateur had closed her shop. TeByron (who prefers to be called Byron or “TB”) wasn’t deterred. He was convinced he had a unique concept for St. Louis. The idea was inspired by a place he’d visited in 2018, “Lo-Lo's Chicken & Waffles.”

Self-taught, Graham operated a barbershop across the street from the building he settled on after a year-long search. Without blinking, he decided to step away from the profession he’d practiced for 21 years and open “Freddie G’s Chicken and Waffles.”

Read More

December 17, 2021

“I’m not even looking forward to Christmas, I’m not.” 

Kimberle Jones, 59, doesn’t mean to sound depressing. She says she’s not been herself lately.

“My son and my grandson say I’ve gotten mean. It’s true, I guess,” she said. “I know you’re not supposed to question God, but I feel cheated…this is not the life I pictured for myself.”

The American interviewed Jones in August, almost a month after her daughter, Erica Thompson, 37, passed away from COVID-19. Thompson was hospitalized for 50 days and died after the virus attacked her vital organs. She left behind three children Jones wants to raise in her home. That endeavor, she said, has only added to her grief.

Read More

December 18, 2021

Dr. Matifadza Hlatshwayo Davis doesn’t have the luxury to complain.

“I can sit here and say it’s very unfair that I inherited all of this but at the same time you don’t step up to the plate if you’re not willing to lead.”- Dr. Matifadza Hlatshwayo Davis, director of the city’s health department.

It was a critical time in the region when Mayor Tishaura Jones appointed Hlatshwayo (pronounced “Shla-ch-why-o”) Davis as the new director of the city’s health department. The health department was suffering from high burnout rates, increased staff turnover and a serious lack in funding. Gun violence and mental health illnesses were on the rise and the department was still struggling to combat misinformation generated by political and internet sources that complicated efforts to get people vaccinated.

Read More

December 29, 2021

I thought I was careful, cautious, and abided by COVID precautions. But it got me anyway.

“You have a POSITIVE COVID-19 Test Result.”

I can’t explain why those words from CVS Pharmacy were so alien to me. Somewhere inside, I knew something wasn’t right. For about four days, I felt crappy. Days earlier, my younger brother mentioned in passing that he, too, wasn’t feeling well.

“Must be a cold or the flu,” he said.

I told him about my usual emergency regimen of Emergen-C Flavored Fizzy Drink Mix, cod liver and black seed oil pills, B-12 complex and some other vitamins. In two or three days tops, I’m back to normal. Usually.

Not this time. Four days later, and I still had symptoms-body aches, chills, dry cough, night sweats but, thankfully, no fever.

Could it be? Maybe?

Read More

January 6, 2022

Sharifah Simms-Williams, director of communications for the Normandy School District, just doesn’t get it. 

According to recentdata released by the county, the number of students with COVID-19 in St. Louis County schools has doubled, with the number of infected staff almost tripling. As of Dec. 11, Normandy had 82 confirmed cases of COVID among students and 22 among staff members.

Yet, with signs the Delta variant is surging through North County and the region, Simms-Williams is perplexed with the pushback from parents and politicians opposed to mask mandates.

St. Louis County parents have staged protests demanding their mask-less students be allowed in public schools. In late November, a Missouri judge ruled local health orders imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the state are illegal and should be lifted. Since that ruling, multiple county school districts are considering ways to scale back COVID-19 mitigation policies. Lindbergh, Rockwood, Francis Howell, Parkway, and the Mehlville schoolhave all adopted resolutions to make masks mandates optional.

Read More