St. Louis Observer: July 8, 2022
NAACP calls for end to police chases; racially-restrictive covenants repealed; Missourians respond to the repeal of Roe v. Wade; arrest warrant for Emmett Till's kidnapper found in courthouse basement
Editor’s Note
Abortion did not begin with Roe v. Wade in 1973.
For as long as women have been able to get pregnant, abortion has always existed. And for thousands of years, abortion was a normal part of women's and pregnant people’s everyday existence. Colonial textbooks included abortion “recipes” and herbal concoctions to induce labor, alongside basic arithmetic and life skills. In fact, white evangelicals in the 1970s really didn’t even care about abortion as a political issue.
The early efforts to organize against abortion access stem from defending racial segregation at evangelical institutions after the IRS rescinded nonprofit tax exemptions for white-only universities. But leaders of the Religious Right in the 1970s found that maintaining racial segregation was not an energizing issue for their voter base.
Enter: Phyllis Schlafly, her Texan sidekick Lottie Beth Hobbs, and the birth of the Christofascist movement. Schlafly unsuccessfully ran for congress - thrice - in southern Illinois before founding the St. Louis-based Eagle Forum, an ultra-conservative advocacy group that fought against the equality of women and the LGBTQ community. Hobbs founded “Women Who Want to be Women,” the radical homophobic political group with ties to the Ku Klux Klan.
Disguised as the “good Christian woman’s” response to the Equal Rights Amendment, Schlafly and Hobbs morphed the Eagle Forum from a book club of conservative women to religious extremists who fought against abortion access, LGTBQ equality, and the rise of feminism. Undeniably, the ERA opposition efforts were rooted in white supremacy.
Under the façade of religion, the two women helped to elect Ronald Reagan to the White House and leveraged their wealth, privilege, and whiteness to promote what they deemed to be “Christian” values: a church-going heteronormative family with the husband working outside of the home and the mother staying at home to raise a clown car’s worth of children. Schlafly and Hobbs called this the “pro-family movement,” and for decades, their predecessors have infiltrated state legislatures, governor's offices, and even Congress, to push a new history of the United States and the founding principles of this country.
In order to get its foot in the door at all with the American public, the “pro-family movement” had to rewrite history, which not only included the elevation of the Founding Fathers’ benevolent, slaveholding “Christianness,” but the erasure of women and their struggle in the early United States. This also meant writing a new history where abortion - which has been around since the dawn of human existence - was not as abundant and frequent as it actually, historically was. But in attempting to retell the story of American history through their lens, Schlafly and Hobbs ultimately launched the Christofascist movement that we still see and experience today.
Those fanatic parents showing up to school board meetings, bringing violence and demanding that their children NOT be taught the accurate history of race and racial politics in Missouri? Schlafly helped to establish the channels and systems used today by white parents to gaslight their children and attack teachers and education professionals.
The anti-science rhetoric when the COVID-19 vaccine started to roll out? The Eagle Forum - or what’s left of it - helped to galvanize and lead vaccine resistance during the pandemic. And speaking of resistance - we would be remiss if we did not mention the Eagle Forum’s own involvement in planning and promoting the failed insurrection attempt on January 6.
The anti-abortion movement relies on revisionist history, white supremacy, outright lies, coups and insurrection, and other anti-democratic tactics in order to successfully manipulate and exploit everyone. Now, the U.S. Supreme Court has become an active participant in this amended American history, where the country’s highest legal authority now parrots those dangerously inaccurate talking points.
But what the anti-abortion movement best highlights is the need for intersectionality and coalitions built around that understanding. No one person lives a single-faceted life, and the protection of reproductive justice relies upon that understanding. But to protect access to abortion, we must first remember our history and the consequences if we don’t.
In the News
Police, prosecutorial, and judicial accountability
Missouri has launched a new program through the State Public Defender’s office, becoming the third state in the country to establish a parole revocation defense team. Plans for the program launched after a federal judge found that the Missouri Department of Corrections was violating parolees’ civil rights by failing to provide them with legal counsel during parole revocation proceedings. Advocates say that the DOC should bear the cost of providing state-funded legal representation, not the Public Defender’s Office. [Missouri Independent/Rebecca Rivas]
A Missouri prison waited hours before calling 911 after an inmate was fatally stabbed, a federal lawsuit filed against the Department of Corrections alleges. The family of victim Joshua Hewitt was not informed by the Department after the attack or Hewitt’s death, and the suit claims that the victim’s family had to piece together what happened to him through hospital records. [Riverfront Times/Ryan Krull]
An arrest warrant for kidnapping has been found in a courthouse basement charging the white woman who falsely accused 14-year-old Emmett Till in 1955 of making improper advances toward her. Carolyn Bryant Donham’s unserved warrant was discovered by members of the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation and two surviving relatives. Family and protesters have demanded that the warrant be served on Donham. [Associated Press/Jay Reeves and Emily Wagster Pettus]
As a result of seven deaths in an 18-day period - all caused by police chases - the St. Louis and St. Louis County NAACP chapters are calling for a formal process to establish new policies that end high-speed chases. Nationally, high-speed police automobile chases have killed nearly as many people as “justifiable” police shootings. [St. Louis American/Alvin A. Reid]
Under a new law, the Missouri Department of Corrections must establish the Correctional Center Nursery Program within one of the state’s women's prisons by July 2025. The law permits infants born to incarcerated women to stay with their mothers through the prison nursery program for the first 18 months. [Missouri Independent/Rebecca Rivas]
Gov. Mike Parson signed into law new legislation that requires the Kansas City government to allocate more city funding toward its police department from 20% to 25% - an estimated $65.2 million increase. The bill still has to be approved by Kansas City voters in November. [Missouri Independent/Rebecca Rivas]
Economic development & housing
A new Missouri law has criminalized sleeping on state-owned land and further blocks some federal and state funds from being used to develop permanent housing. The law further authorizes the Missouri Attorney General to sue local governments that don’t enforce the state’s law, including a unilateral threat to revoke all state and federal funding for housing and homelessness. Advocates for the unhoused are urging the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to intervene. [Missouri Independent/Rebecca Rivas]
Last week, Gov. Mike Parson signed into law a bill that repeals en masse all restrictive covenants on real estate that barred ownership based on race, national origin, or religion. Although racially-restrictive covenants have been banned since a 1948 Supreme Court case (Shelley v. Kraemer, originating in St. Louis County), the discriminatory language still existed in tens of thousands of properties across the State of Missouri prior to the passage of this bill. [Missouri Independent/Rebecca Rivas]
Black farmers and farmers of color have waited for more than a year for the federal government to distribute pandemic aid relief money that is designated to pay off emergency loans and offset tax liabilities created by loan payments. Midwestern Black farmers are still owed billions to cover the same federal agriculture-related debts while most of their white counterparts have received their pandemic debts forgiven. [KCUR/Dana Cronin]
Change and Action for Racial Equity and the St. Louis Association of Community Organizations have partnered to build and install ten “Free Little Libraries” to promote childhood literacy. The birdhouse-sized structures will be constructed throughout North City and organizers hope to inspire kids and adults alike to be lifelong readers. [St. Louis American/Andrea Y. Henderson]
Further reading
In the wake of the overturn of Roe v. Wade, the LBGTQ community is bracing for the possible repeal of the rights to engage in same-sex relationships and marriages. Justice Clarence Thomas specifically identified those rights as ones to be reconsidered in future sessions of the Court, likely setting up those rights for repeal. [Riverfront Times/Victor Stefanescu]
Similarly, disability advocates have raised their concerns following the repeal of Roe, pointing to the history of forced sterilization and conservatorship that have stripped persons with disabilities from making choices for their own bodies. Pregnant persons with disabilities are often refused medical services at clinics and hospitals, including doctors refusing to examine them and improperly diagnosing and treating their conditions. [St. Louis Public Radio/Shruti Rajkumar]
Gov. Parson has signed into law a “wide-ranging” elections-related bill that reinstates the requirement for a government-issued photo I.D. in order to vote. The bill further prohibits touch-screen voting machines, requires election authorities to conduct cybersecurity reviews, removes Missouri’s presidential primary in favor of the dangerous caucus system, and establishes a two-week window to cast a no-excuse absentee ballot. [Missouri Independent/Jason Hancock]
Beyond the Paywall
To read these below articles in full, please visit SLPL.org and access these articles through the Digital Content tab. St. Louis City & County residents can read these publications for free using their library cards.
“St. Louis alderman backs tax break for low-income housing rehab that his predecessor blocked,” by Jacob Barker, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“NAACP wants St. Louis-area police to explore less-dangerous ways to stop fleeing cars,” from staff reports, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“St. Charles County prosecutor Tim Lohmar arrested on suspicion of DWI,” by Katie Kull, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“St. Louis school now honors pioneering Black educator after dropping Confederate’s name,” by Blythe Bernhard, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“St. Louis County jail inmate died at hospital Friday after suffering seizures, county says,” by Nassim Benchaabane, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“Many St. Louis-area students will pay for school lunches again when free program ends,” by Lisa Rathke, Associated Press
Legislative Update
St. Louis City Board of Aldermen
BB 26 and BB 29, sponsored by Ald. Green, would put before City voters the ballot issue of enacting a surcharge on developers who reduced the number of units for housing rehabs and redevelopment. The bills were assigned to the Neighborhood Development Committee on May 13.
BB 47, sponsored by Ald. Clark Hubbard (Ward 26), would strengthen the City’s Civilian Oversight Board and would add paid support staff, as well as create the new Division of Civilian Oversight within the Department of Public Safety. Finally, this bill would legislatively create the Public Integrity Unit through the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office. The bill was read for a second time before the full board on July 8.
BB 56, also sponsored by Ald. Clark Hubbard, would allocate emergency funding for rental and other housing assistance. The bill was passed out of committee on July 7 and read for a second time before the full board on July 8.
BB 61, sponsored by Ald. Annie Rice (Ward 8), establishes the Reproductive Equity Fund that would assist pregnant people in St. Louis with logistical support to access abortion services in other states. The bill was read for a second time on June 30.
Learn more about how a bill becomes a City ordinance.
Quote of the Week
The oppressor would not be so strong if he did not have accomplices among the oppressed.
- Simone de Beauvoir