The press’ rough draft of the history of race in St. Louis, Missouri and Illinois got most things wrong. In the early 1950s, a group of young civil rights activists – Irv and Maggie Dagen, Charles and Marion Oldham and Norman Seay – led a CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) sponsored sit-in of lunch counters
The nation’s fight about the meaning of America’s great promises of freedom and equality played out at St. Louis’ Old Courthouse in 1850 and before huge crowds in the seven Illinois towns during the Lincoln-Douglas debates in 1858. It took the death of 750,000 men to settle the issue. Five paragraphs beyond those stirring words
This month’s Democratic presidential debate descended into confusion when candidates discussed the Supreme Court and abortion. The candidates threw around jargon that probably confused many Americans and seemed to confuse each other. None of the candidates had a cogent answer and the press didn’t begin to untangle the mess. There was mention of the Ninth
At the end of year three and on the verge of impeachment, Donald J. Trump is destroying Enlightenment principles that undergird American Democracy and the First Amendment – the faith that science, reason, facts and empiricism can triumph over ignorance, superstition, lies and darkness. Our model democracy, our free press, our professional government, our world-class
Eliot F. Porter Jr. was a one-of-a kind. He was a brilliant thinker and writer. He was crusty, cantankerous, infuriating and funny. Sometimes at the same time. I first met Porter in 1971 when writing about his work as technical secretary to Lewis Green, the head of the Missouri Air Conservation Commission. Green and Porter
