Race, Identity & Faith

Washington University is the latest on a growing list of universities and colleges nationwide looking into the role they may have played in slavery.

India is currently the global epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic. The Hindu Temple of St. Louis is raising funds to help the country's collapsing medical system.

St. Louis-area activists are hopeful that a Minneapolis jury will find former officer Derek Chauvin guilty in the death of George Floyd last spring. But community leaders say they're bracing for the verdict. Emotions are high in St. Louis and across the nation because juries often acquit white officers charged with killing Black people.

Many mosques in the St. Louis region are planning limited celebrations during Ramadan — a month of fasting, prayer and reflection — to slow the spread of the coronavirus. They are offering virtual sermons, shorter nightly Quran readings and prepackaged meals to break the fast during an evening meal called iftar.

There are more than 3,400 St. Louisans who cannot vote Tuesday in the city’s mayoral election because they have not yet completed their probation or parole term. Missouri activists and lawmakers are pushing to restore voting rights more quickly to formerly incarcerated people so they can participate in local and state elections.

The Archdiocese of St. Louis invites people of different faiths on a tour Saturday from downtown St. Louis to north St. Louis to explore ways to eliminate racism in health care, education, housing and the criminal justice system.

St. Louis has asked Black clergy to encourage church members to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Pastors are preaching about it, talking it up at Bible study and even offering churches as vaccination sites.

People who work for organizations that help immigrants in the St. Louis region fear that many others are reluctant to get the vaccine. They worry that people who do not speak English won’t do so because of language access and a lack of information.

U.S. Rep. Cori Bush introduced legislation that would grant permanent residency to Alex Garcia, an unauthorized immigrant who has lived in a Maplewood church since 2017.

Today, Black artists are describing the trauma of police brutality, the agony of seeing friends suffer violent deaths and the pain of losing loved ones to COVID-19. Black artists in the St. Louis region will showcase works that connect grief and joy in a virtual exhibit from the Griot Museum of Black History on Saturday.