“This is a call to action”: East St. Louis residents rally to end street violence
Sirens blared loudly on State Street in East St. Louis as members of the community paraded for change on Saturday.
The inaugural City of Champions Youth Stop the Violence Parade and Rally included home-grown politicians, educators, and dignitaries who spoke of unity and its role in stopping the violence that has long haunted the community.
East St. Louis Mayor Robert Eastern III served as the event’s DJ and took the stage to the gospel song “This Means War” by Charles Jenkins.
“We got the mayor himself out here DJ-ing. That speaks volumes,” said Terra “T’Baby” Jenkins, co-organizer of the event. “This is his community and that’s what we do. If they see the leader taking up leadership, you can’t do nothing but follow.”
“It takes a community and if we all come together for this one purpose it would help with the cause of stopping the violence,” said Danielle P. Moore, a sergeant for the East St. Louis Police Department and organizer of the event. “I was a school resource officer for 13 to 14 years in District 189, so I’ve seen many deaths with our youths. I’ve seen so many senseless killings.
“We need this.”
The target of the Stop the Violence Rally was the youth of East St. Louis and surrounding communities like Cahokia Heights, Washington Park, Venus, and Brooklyn. The goal was to show them a path to a more peaceful future, Jenkins said.
Various home-grown vendors were in attendance to show support. They included YouthBuild program and the T.A.K.E. initiative (Teens Against Killing Everywhere) where kids ages 16-24 can apply for summer jobs to gain work experience.
Champion Barber College and Miracle Miracles Barber School, both of Belleville, provided out free haircuts and Binky’s Sweet Treats served up snacks and snow cones.
Violence in East St. Louis has been so commonplace that residents have become numb to the sound of random gunfire, said therapist and author, Tyler D. Roy.
“We have begun to normalize the abnormal,” she said. “This is a call to action. It’s not normal that our young men consider making it to the age of 18 a milestone in our community. It screams hopelessness, defeat. It’s not normal.
“Previous generations dropped the ball on our youth, so now it is up to us to pick the ball back up and put a sufficient as well as efficient game plan together,” said Jenkins. “We are trying to get our youth involved and let them know that we haven’t forgotten about them and it’s still something positive in the community.”
St. Clair County Judge Tameka Purchase, an East St. Louis native, spoke as an example of what kind of success the city’s youth can embrace for their future.
“I am an associate judge for the 20th Judicial Circuit but I’m not here as a judge, or a lawyer, I am here as a community leader,” she said. “I am here as a mother, a daughter, a cousin, and as a member of this community who cares deeply about what happens here to us. ... I am here to echo one simple message: the reason we are all here and that is to stop the violence.”
State Representative Latoya Greenwood and State Senator Christopher Belt were both in attendance extolling their commitment to bring resources and programs to the city.
“We need opportunities for our children. We need opportunities for our adults,” Belt said. “It matters. If you are not at the table, then you are on the menu, and so we have to continue to put people in places that will look out for our least and under-served communities.
“Martin Luther King Jr. said it best, ‘Violence is the bridesmaid to poverty’ and so unless we give our kids a multifaceted opportunity to succeed, then we’re going to get violence.”
This story was originally published May 31, 2022 at 4:20 PM.