Missouri
was a slave state, so most
enlightened
people consider it to be more
Southern
than Midwestern. Then there’s
the
infamous Dred Scott case in St.
Louis.
Scott had petitioned the courts
several
times for him and his wife’s
freedom
before the big legal
sledgehammer
was dropped by the U.S.
Supreme
Court. Supreme Court Justice
Roger
B. Taney was emphatic, Blacks had
“no
rights which the white man was
bound
to respect.” The ghost of Taney
has
been colliding ever since with the
attempts
of Black folks to be free.
The
Taney opinion was so powerful that it
still
permeates every crack and crevice of
the
city’s bricks and culture. It hovers
like
an invisible cloud and disseminates
toxic
vapors when necessary that affect
people’s
behaviors and decisions. It
seems
to be more and more necessary,
but
the dates of May 16, 2023,
November
5, 2024 and April 5, 2025 are
memorable
ones for woke people in St.
Louis.
Those
are the dates that prosecutor Kim
Gardner
was forced to resign, and when
Congresswoman
Cori Bush and Mayor
Tishaura
Jones were forced out of office.
Comptroller
Darlene Green was
considered
collateral damage. All were
Black
women who were the first to hold
their
respective offices. They all shared a
common
reform agenda, and all shared a
defiant
attribute that made them targets
of
the white patriarchal system. Their
demise
was rejoiced on social media by
former
Missouri Attorney General and
now
U.S. Senator Eric Schmitt. He
declared
that one by one, they were all
gone
now. “Poof…like magic,” he gloated.
It
was not magic. It was a methodical
and
calculated plan that began with
character
assassination, disinformation,
amplification
of their missteps and bad
decisions,
then engaging other
opportunists
and misguided Black folks
to
fan the flames.
Making
St. Louis white again gathered
speed
after the election of trump.
Missouri
Republicans already had a
trifecta
in the state. They control the
House,
the Senate and the Governor’s
seat.
The trump victory emboldened their
quest
for white power. After knocking
Cori
Bush out the box, they saw the
chance
to change the color of the city’s
three-person
leadership structure. St.
Louis
has an archaic body called the
Board
of Estimate and Apportionment
(E&A).
It consists of the Mayor,
Comptroller
and President of the Board
of
Aldermen. The Board of E&A is
considered
the city’s executive branch of
government.
It has the authority over
city
real estate purchases, appropriations
and
the city’s annual operating budget.
They
who control E&A control the city
coffers.
For
the first time since 1988, the Board
of
E & A is all white. The April 5 General
Election
saw the stunning defeat of
Mayor
Jones and Comptroller Green. The
blame
game is being played and there’s
plenty
of blame to go around from a lack
of
unified progressive forces to a
disengaged
Black electorate to
accentuated
spotlights on mishandled
issues.
I strongly believe in summation,
but
let’s not let the real culprit off the
hook.
The
trump oligarchy is proving that it has
power
and will abuse that power. It has
shared
that playbook with its power-
hungry
minions on the state and local
levels.
In St. Louis, we are getting sucka
punched.
In addition to taking out the
Black
mayor and Black comptroller, the
MAGA
forces have seized the St. Louis
Police
Department from the citizens and
put
it in the hands of the governor.
Getting
local control of the police was a
20-year
People’s Victory. Voters also said
they
wanted abortion rights, an increase
in
the state minimum wage and earned
sick
leave. The GOP, drunk with power, is
trying
to take it all back.
This
is a cautionary tale to let you know
that
Blue seats, districts or offices are
not
exempt from the Red pestilence.
Don’t
be fooled by party affiliations.
Democrats
can be very undemocratic;
they
can even join forces with
Republicans.
That means the rest of us
will
have to fight doubly hard to stand
our
ground, defend our wins and
advance
a strategy to defeat the right.
This
means those who believe in
democracy
will have to accelerate our
efforts
because the longer it takes us to
build
a formidable, united front against
fascism,
the more ground we lose. And
losing
is not an option.
