Do you remember where you were on August 9th, 2014? I will never forget.

 

I was the Executive Director and co-founder of inspireSTL, a St. Louis-based direct service education organization focused on supporting young people from middle school through college completion. It was a special summer for our community of young people, their families, and our team. We were celebrating our first cohort of scholars entering their senior year of high school. We had just wrapped up an offsite team retreat, where we cast a vision for the year ahead. 

 

100% of our scholars, nearly all identified as Black, would graduate with financial aid to support their matriculation at top universities and be prepared to thrive as students and community leaders. 

 

I was doing “the work,” and I was proud. The young people I served daily were thriving and well on their way to realizing their academic and professional dreams.  

 

It was a summer Saturday. I was scrolling Instagram, and this picture showed up on my feed. While I didn’t know much beyond what the makeshift cardboard  poster said, I knew enough to know that his “unarmed son” was all of our “unarmed son.” His son was a scholar, just like the scholars we served at inspireSTL. And, the execution of this “unarmed son” could have easily been the execution of one of our Brilliant, Black scholars preparing for their post-secondary careers.

 

My life has forever been changed. St. Louis will forever be changed. And, this country. 

 

The execution of Michael Brown Jr. and the Ferguson Uprising has called me to a clearer purpose, a deeper set of responsibilities, and a stronger analysis of the root causes and the path forward on my journey to be accountable to young people. 

 

I now know this: 

1. The quality of a group of people's lives directly correlates to the collective power they build and wield around a shared vision. 
2. Black people in St. Louis and everywhere must develop a shared vision for what we believe to be freedom and what it means to be safe and well.
3. Black people must act in solidarity with each other and other oppressed people, and through multi-racial coalitions, they must build and wield enough power to bring our vision of freedom and well-being to life. And we must do so while operating, especially when the going gets tough, from a set of values and principles that hold us accountable for the how as much as the what. 

 

Honoring Michael Brown Jr.'s legacy and the Ferguson Uprising has manifested in transformational ways among a subset of St. Louisans who have operationalized what I have come to know about vision, power, principles, and freedom. 

 

There now exists a shared language and comfort around discussing race and racism. Roadmaps now exist that address root causes, including The Ferguson Commission Report and The People's Plan. Institutions with growing infrastructure now exist, including Arch City Defenders, Forward Through Ferguson, Action St. Louis, Freedom Community Center, and WEPOWER. There have been policy and political wins, seeds that can sprout into the world we have been dreaming of – one where Michael Brown Jr. would have still been alive. 

 

But, now what? How do we move from remembering to honoring to transforming the conditions that catalyzed August 9th at a scale beyond a few leaders and institutions? 

 

If nothing else, our region’s leaders must quit exploiting the legacy of our “unarmed son” for personal and political gain; we must hold ourselves accountable for shifting outcomes that indicate the measurable improvement of Black Lives, and we must not retreat from the vision and the work when it gets hard and takes a little more courage and discomfort than what we are used to.

 

Michael Brown Jr., his family, and every Black Scholar in this region deserve that. Ten years since August 9th, 2014, it’s time to move from remembering to honoring by achieving lasting results. 

 

As we root ourselves in the meaning of today, I invite you to read a brilliant piece from my colleague Blake Strode that reflects on where we’ve been and where we are headed. 

 

Love and liberation,