Photography by John Fedele
Blackmon inside Christ the King United Church of Christ
The first female pastor of Christ the King United Church of Christ in Florissant, the Rev. Traci Blackmon was at the forefront of protests and turmoil following the killing of Michael Brown in August 2014. She was a member of the Ferguson Commission and was the host, at her church, of an October panel discussion on race that featured Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Last year, Ebony magazine named Blackmon to its “Power 100.” She is the mother of three adult children: Kortni, Harold, and Tyler Blackmon.
Michael Brown was not the first or last black man to be killed by police. Was his body being left on the street for four hours the key to triggering the public response to his killing?
Yes, it was very much triggered by that, because his body was left out in the middle of the street in the heat for four-and-a-half hours, without consideration for his family and his friends, particularly his mother. It was disregard for the humanity of Michael Brown and the humanity of those who cared about him. That was the catalyst for me and, I think, for many of us. We can’t stand by and take this behavior any more.That ignited the situation in ways that had not happened before, though it should have. Further evidence is that there have been several killings since Michael Brown, and there have not been prolonged times with the body lying in the street the way it was with his.
Do you view the world differently since the death of Michael Brown?
My understanding of the world as a black woman was not changed by Michael Brown’s killing. In some ways, I do think it will make people act differently. For the first time since Martin Luther King, the movement has protests across the nation. But what Ferguson started has caused people in high political places to pay attention and respond. They are rethinking how to react when these kinds of killings happen. I’m not sure hearts have changed, but behaviors have changed quite a bit. You have young people who have changed career paths or abandoned career paths because of what happened. We’ve had representatives of large institutions with great social and political power come together to listen to what is in the Ferguson Commission report, and hear about ways to move forward. There have been behavioral impacts because of the protests.
What sort of larger changes need to happen?
We need a system that creates educational equity. Because of the vast income gap in our region, there is no way that we can have an equitable public school system when property taxes so heavily impact the quality of education. I believe that to really address racial issues, one must also address class issues. One of the ways that could be done is to have educational money put into one pot and equally distribute it so every child’s education is the same. The other thing we have to deal with is jobs. We have to have jobs and a stable economic foundation that takes into account, in light of the inequities of education, that there are many people not prepared mentally or intellectually to take some of these jobs.
The Jennnings School District recently attained full accreditation, but it was the first time in 20 years. With Normandy and Riverview Gardens still unaccredited, though, does that show us that the structure of public schools needs radical change?
Absolutely. We have to look at what accreditation really measures and how it measures it. I’m extremely excited for [Superintendent] Tiffany Anderson and the Jennings School District, but I don’t suffer from any delusion that because Jennings is accredited, all the Jennings kids can read. That is what we are talking about. I baptized a young man who had finished the St. Louis Public School system, he was 23 years od, and could not read effectively. This is the problem. No matter what the test scores say, I’m talking about what really happens in the classrooms and what’s happening in school systems where you don’t have enough books to let kids take the books home to do homework and in some other school system you have computer labs. It’s the inequity, the inequity of access. that is a bigger problem for me.
Why did you agree to a public discussion with Hillary Clinton but decline a private meeting with Bernie Sanders?
I believe there are too many closed-door meetings around issues that involve the whole community. I have made a personal commitment that I will not collude with that. I take issue with political candidates who cherry-pick the people they think they need to talk to for the purpose of influencing the black community. The black community is no more monolithic than any other community. The only way to disrupt that kind of behavior is by requiring political candidates to speak publicly. With Hillary’s staff, the agreement was that anyone could come to the gathering at the church as long as it remained orderly and respectful, which it did. I’m not attributing any negativity to Bernie Sanders; I am simply saying the email from this staff was a request for a private meeting. I decided I’m not going to partake in closed-door meetings with political candidates. I do not speak for all black people; I do not speak for the black community collectively. Whatever kind of influence I have, I want to use it to open the door so that everyone can be at the table.
In June of last year, you were part of a 14-person delegation who went to Vatican City to meet with Pope Francis’ staff. How did that go?
It was a very positive experience. What was interesting was the amount of knowledge and awareness of U.S. current issues they had; they were intricately informed in ways that I did not expect. One cardinal we spoke with knew about the incident at a pool in Texas where the policeman wrestled a 14-year-old woman down to the ground. It was a bit of a shock that they were informed to that level of detail. They were in line and in support of the pope’s policies. We did not meet with the pope, in part because we were there the same time [Soviet Prime Minister Vladimir] Putin was there to see the pope. It was a great eight days. We met with many of the pope’s right-hand people. I felt it was a great utilization of our time and resources. We talked about not just racial issues, but also economic issues and issues of access to health care. These were all part of the universal themes that the pope stresses. I was honored to be included in the delegation, both as a non-Catholic and the only female minister. They listened well and responded to our presentations. It was great.
Is there any message you want to share now that the Ferguson Commission has ended?
I have great hope for St. Louis, the region, and Ferguson. I have never seen this as a straight racial divide. Even in the streets of Ferguson, in the heart of the protest, it was not a black or white issue. It’s never been a black or white issue. Black, white, and brown, people of all faiths, all genders, all sexualities stand on both sides of what they believe is right on this issue. This is a fight about justice, about right versus wrong. If you believe that the marginalization of any people is unjust and wrong, then you stand on the side of fighting for justice.
I have hope for this region because I believe that St. Louis, at its core, desires to be a place where all of its residents can feel safe and all of its residents can have the opportunity to succeed and excel, and hold on to that hope. That’s what keeps me fighting. I have long given up the notion of seeing a glass half empty or half full; I’m just grateful the glass is refillable. I hope we are going to refill it.
