The last time NPR’s Michel Martin was in St. Louis, tensions were high and wounds were fresh. Martin hosted a heated St. Louis Public Radio community forum in August.
Martin is returning to St. Louis and Ferguson on Monday, when she will again moderate a community forum.
“I think that we accomplished something when we were last together,” Martin told “St. Louis on the Air” host Don Marsh on Tuesday. “I think that we offered people to have some kinds of dialogue that they had not had.”
Martin said she hopes that’s also true at Monday’s forum.
“When you’re in a crisis, you can often feel that it’s just happening to you. But one of the things that I feel that I can offer is that a lot of communities, perhaps with less explicit trauma and under less dramatic and painful circumstances, but a lot of communities are going through this, and a lot of people are having these kinds of conversations,” Martin said.
Since the August forum, there have been some changes in Ferguson, including the Department of Justice’s report on civil rights in Ferguson. As that report stated, problems identified in Ferguson are not unique to Ferguson; there are racial tensions and problems in surrounding communities as well, which is something Martin said she plans to discuss next week.
“It’s always interesting to me when people who live so closely together have such a limited understanding and awareness of each other’s reality,” she said.
Martin will moderate a panel discussion Monday night at Wellspring Church in Ferguson. She also will be in St. Louis for the Gateway Journalism Review’s fourth annual First Amendment Celebration and the Aspen Institute’s conference on race relations.
Related events
“Ferguson and the Media” hosted by Michel Martin
- Part of the Gateway Journalism Review’s fourth annual First Amendment Celebration
- When: 6 p.m. Thursday, March 19, 2015
- Where: Edward Jones Inc. Headquarters, 12555 Manchester Road at I-270
- More information
“Ferguson and Beyond: Continuing the Community Conversation”
- When: 6 to 8 p.m. Monday, March 23, 2015
- Where: Wellspring Church, 33 S. Florissant Road, Ferguson
- More information
The Aspen Institute Community Dialogue on Healing the Racial Divide
- When: Beginning at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, March 24, 2015
- Where: Renaissance St. Louis Grand Hotel, 800 Washington Ave., St. Louis
- More information and reservations
“St. Louis on the Air” discusses issues and concerns facing the St. Louis area. The show is produced by Mary Edwards and Alex Heuer and hosted by veteran journalist Don Marsh. Follow us on Twitter: @STLonAir.
