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Posts tagged as “William Lacy Clay”

What We Can Celebrate Today: Cori Bush Elected as Missouri’s 1st Black Woman in Congress

Nurse and activist Cori Bush, garnered a commanding 84 percent of the vote in Missouri’s 1st District to become the state’s first Black woman representative in the United States Congress.

“This is definitely a night to remember,” Bush told supporters during her acceptance speech.“This has been a historic day from the beginning to the end.”

To quote the New York Post:

Bush had the backing of the Justice Democrats — who helped propel Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to her first upset victory over 10-term incumbent Joe Crowley.

In her August Democratic primary, Bush had her own upset victory, defeating longtime incumbent, Missouri Rep. William Lacy Clay.

Bush got involved with the Black Lives Matter movement in 2014, when Michael Brown, an unarmed Black teenager, was shot and killed by a white police officer in Ferguson.

She joined the protests that erupted in the wake of the shooting and soon began leading the protests in her Missouri district.

Bush has remained engaged in protest work ever since, getting heavily involved in the recent protests surrounding the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

To read more: https://www.vox.com/2020/11/4/21538719/cori-bush-ritchie-torres-jamaal-bowman-election-results

Historic Shelley House in St. Louis Gets Official Recognition on New U.S. Civil Rights Trail

When J.D. Shelley and Ethel Shelley attempted to buy this house at 4600 Labadie Avenue in St. Louis in 1948, they were told it could not be sold to blacks. Their fight went to the U.S. Supreme Court, resulting in a ruling that struck down racial covenants in housing. (Photo: FrancisNancy via commons.wikipedia.org)

The historic “Shelley House” at 4600 Labadie Avenue in St. Louis was dedicated yesterday by the National Park Service as Missouri’s first official site on the new U.S. Civil Rights Trail. U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay and Aurelia Skipwith, deputy assistant Secretary of Interior, headlined the event.

The U.S. Civil Rights Trail, created by legislation written by Clay, aims to preserve significant places that had critical roles in the civil rights movement in the United States.

The Shelley House was at the center of the U.S. Supreme Court decision (Shelley v. Kraemer) which struck down restrictive racial covenants in housing in 1948. The nationally impactful decision pitted J.D. and Ethel Shelley, a black couple who wanted to buy the house, against Louis and Fern Kraemer, white neighbors who tried to keep them out.

Other notables in attendance were St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson, St. Louis NAACP President Adolphus Pruitt, and members of the Shelley family.

Source: https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/columns/joe-holleman/historic-civil-rights-house-in-st-louis-gets-official-u/article_2c7013a7-11db-511e-8955-80d61b1e85cf.html