Civil Rights
With gun deaths climbing, Missouri lawmakers push to loosen firearm restrictions
While Missouri continues to struggle with one of the highest rates of gun deaths in the country, Republican lawmakers are advancing a litany of bills aimed at further loosening the state’s gun laws. One proposal would allow guns on college campuses, while another would ban churches from prohibiting guns in places of worship. Others aim […]
Gov. Parson signs bill to approve $324 million for rental assistance
Gov. Mike Parson signed into law Thursday legislation allocating $324 million in funding for rental assistance — part of the COVID-19 relief package passed by Congress in December. The funds are available for both tenants and landlords through the Missouri Housing Development Commission (MHDC). The federal Emergency Rental Assistance Program includes up to 12 months […]
‘Road to hell’: Students who faced abuse at Missouri boarding schools call for action
Thrown to the ground and restrained for hours. Forced to eat food they had thrown up. Silenced with duct-tape over their mouths. Beaten without immediate medical care. Those were just some of instances of the horrific physical and sexual abuse former residents, parents and staff described witnessing in youth residential facilities within Missouri and across […]
Senate resolution condemns 1852 Missouri Supreme Court decision in Dred Scott case
For two brief periods of his life, Dred Scott was a free man. The first period of freedom began with the decision of a St. Louis jury in January 1850 and continued until March 1852. During that time, Scott and his wife, Harriet, were emancipated because Missouri law recognized they were freed when their owners […]
Federal appeals court sides with journalists who were tear-gassed in Ferguson protests
On the fifth day of the Ferguson protests in August 2014, St. Charles County sent their SWAT team in armored military vehicles to help block off West Florissant Avenue, which was considered “Ground Zero” for the protests. Ash-har Quraishi, Marla Cichowski and Sam Winslade — reporters who were working for Al Jazeera America news network […]
Ag nominee Vilsack battles skepticism from Black farmers ahead of confirmation hearing
WASHINGTON — Tom Vilsack, the president’s pick to lead the Agriculture Department, will likely face questions about his treatment of Black farmers and his record on civil rights at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Agriculture Committee on Tuesday. President Joe Biden’s decision to tap the former Iowa governor, who also served as USDA chief […]
Missouri takes steps toward tightening accountability for law enforcement
Brian Williams grew up in Ferguson, where Michael Brown Jr.’s shooting death sparked a national movement for police accountability in 2014. Four years later, he was elected to the Missouri Senate as a Democrat representing his hometown district. Williams, now 37, recalls times of being pulled over for “just driving while black.” “I was handcuffed […]
Missouri housing advocates look to Biden administration to strengthen eviction moratorium
Freezing rain was pouring down when sheriff deputies knocked on Anthony Stinson’s apartment door in Kansas City. It was 2:15 p.m. on Jan. 6. At that time in Washington D.C., armed insurrectionists had begun battling police officers at the U.S. Capitol. While people across the country were gasping in horror, Stinson’s children — a two-year-old […]
Effort to stop charging 17-year-olds as adults has stalled in Missouri
Khadijah Wilson had a bully during her junior year at Francis Howell North High School in St. Charles. She told her principal and teachers about the name calling, and how the other girl constantly threatened to beat her up. But no one intervened. It went on for several months. “I reported it more and more,” […]
Record number of women, Black and LGBTQ lawmakers serving in Missouri’s legislature
Missouri’s 2021 legislative session will be barrier breaking. The number of women serving is at an all-time high with 52 women lawmakers. It will have the most ever Black lawmakers serving with 25. There will be five openly LGBTQ lawmakers — what is believed to be another record. And the first Asian American woman was […]
Controversial aerial surveillance proposal in St. Louis moves forward
St. Louis aldermen have advanced a bill proposing a three-year contract with a controversial aerial-surveillance program that claims to help solve and prevent murders. After more than four hours of testimony Tuesday, an aldermanic committee voted 6-1 to approve a contract with Persistent Surveillance Services for the company to fly three surveillance planes over the […]
Prosecutors try to keep people out of pandemic-clogged courts through diversion programs
When Julia Fogelberg was a public defender in St. Louis County, she saw how the criminal justice system could often do more harm than good. Now working on the prosecutor side, she’s grateful that she can provide a different solution — like in the case of a single-mother of two she met this summer. The […]