It was a cool day, yet sunny beginning for a Saturday in St Louis. In addition, to the mini-conference by the St Louis City NAACP, downtown St Louis had a huge volleyball championship with Capitol Sports going on.
As a result, you can imagine parking was sparse and hundreds of tours and locals were everywhere.The Marriott Grand, a peerless gem, was the host hotel for the mini-conference and other events.
The conference featured guest speakers, and the man of the hour St Louis NAACP President Adolphus Pruitt. St Louis County NAACP President John Bowman was also on hand for the occasion.
During his latter part of the morning, Mr Pruitt touched bases on the importance of fair and equality for all races. He also pictured St Louis as a whole entity.
He wanted the guests to understand that there is still more work to do. Pruitt wanted the guest to revel in what a great region we lived in.
Moreover, he did point out the racial aspects with the city and county. And how a great city could be even great again if negotiate sustainability at some point.
Pruitt also want the races to turn the clock to what is now. Because he sees a St Louis that is still hooked on suburban flight and city despair.
There were four very paradigm speakers on hand to accept the baton. While Pruitt caught his breath from such a great forum beginning and ending.
The first speaker Debo P. Adegbile, he was the leader of the bunch and main topic of the conference. Debo is a partner at Wilmer Hale LLP/Civil Rights Commissioner. He was previously Senior Counsel to the chairman of the United States Senate Judiciary Committee.
Second, Andre M. Perry, Senior Fellow at Brookings Metro, a scholar-in-residence at American University. And a columnist the Hechinger Report. He is also an author of books: ‘Know Your Price: Valuing Blacks Lives and ‘Property in Amerca’s Black Cities.’
Speaker Kristen Broady, an Senior Economist, who is a fellow at Brookings Institution, spoke via virtual from two huge screens in the Majestic Ballroom. She is the Director of the Economic Mobility Project at the Federal Reserve in Chicago.
Finally, St Louis speaker, Byron Dalear, VP of Social Impact for Ygrene Energy Funds. Bryon is an expect on sustainability policy. He is the founder and former CEO of Energy Equity Funding (EEF), one of the nation’s pioneering Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program administrators.
He spoke on redlining of in St Louis city and how race has caused the ripple effect of good, bad and ugly within the dividing of the communities.In closing, he pointed out the National Impact Metric Community Benefit.
https://m.facebook.com/stlouiscitynaacp/videos/653537356100459/
The conference was later followed by St Louis City NAACP 110th Anniversary Celebration and Annual Freedom Fund Dinner:
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