Families come together to seek justice in Stop the Violence rally in East St. Louis
James Alexander is out to do his part to help reduce violence in East St. Louis.
And in this quest, he organized a Stop the Violence rally on Saturday to raise awareness of the issue.
The rally was inside the former A.M. Jackson School on Summit Avenue. Alexander said a march on city streets was planned for Saturday afternoon but it was canceled because of the rainy weather. However, the rally went on as scheduled with a series of speakers.
“Basically, the reason for this is because there’s been a lot of senseless violence going on in the city of East St. Louis, a lot of killings as far as young men, young women and all the way up,” Alexander said.
“And a lot of families are grieving, and I just felt like nobody’s talking about it,” he said. “So at least if we talk about it and try to get this point across, maybe we’ll stop the violence.”
The city has had one of the nation’s highest murder rates in the country and has averaged about 24 homicides a year in the past two decades, according to a News-Democrat investigation. There were 453 murders in the city between 2000 and 2018, and 75% of those cases went unsolved.
So far this year, at least nine homicides have been reported in East St. Louis.
Alexander, who owns Neva Legal Promotions in East St. Louis, said the number of unsolved homicides is unsettling.
“When one life is gone, somebody is mourning about it, so if you get a bunch of people that’s going to mourn together and be sad … sooner or later, I figure, they’re going to start spreading the word.
“We need to stop this violence,” he said.
Remembering victims
Latatia Stewart of Cahokia attended the Stop the Violence rally with members of her family. They all wore T-shirts emblazoned with photos of her son, Gregory Stewart.
It’s all part of their effort to shed light on Gregory Stewart’s death.
He was fatally shot on May 29 at 2408 Bond Ave. in East St. Louis, and no one has been arrested. Gregory Stewart was 31.
“We will not stop until we get justice,” Latatia Stewart told the rally audience.
She’s frustrated because she believes there are people who have information about Gregory Stewart’s death but they are not cooperating with the police.
Stewart, whose pursuit of justice for her son was featured in a BND article last year, said she is planning a memorial for her son on May 29 at the spot where he was killed. She’s inviting supporters to attend a balloon release, candlelight vigil and to walk on the neighborhood’s streets to let people know about her son’s case.
This story was originally published April 25, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
