The sky put on a show above St. Louis last night, and many of us stopped to watch it.
As a brief rain spell ended, a delicate, pink-hued rainbow arched over the city. Naturally, St. Louisans whipped out their smartphones and started posting pictures.
Many took the rainbow as a sign that something good is coming….
…or as a message from above.
But as photos of the rainbow and following sunset spread across social media, they began to reveal a deeper truth about the state of St. Louis. Two groups were most likely to be outside and see the rainbow: baseball fans enjoying an unseasonably cool night at Busch Stadium and a crowd gathering five miles away, protesting the police killing of an African-American teenager in north St. Louis’ Fountain Park neighborhood.
At Busch Stadium, Cardinals fans shared photos of the brilliant sky.
A 15-minute drive northwest, at the intersection of Page Boulevard and Walton Avenue, a different scene was unfolding.
St. Louis Metropolitan Police shot and killed 18-year-old Mansur Ball-Bey near the intersection while serving a search warrant Wednesday, on the one-year anniversary of the police killing of Kajieme Powell. Police say two officers, both white men, fired after a suspect pointed a gun at the officers.
The shooting drew protesters and concerned onlookers almost immediately. What happened next was a familiar sight to St. Louisans: SWAT gear and armored vehicles, thrown bottles and bricks, tear gas and fires. There were nine arrests.
Even through tear gas, people at the protest couldn’t help but notice the rainbow.
Last night, St. Louis felt like two cities—divided by race, culture, and geography—but united for a moment beneath one brilliant sky.
Contact Lindsay Toler by an email at [email protected] or on Twitter @StLouisLindsay. For more from St. Louis Magazine, subscribe or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
