At the Table and Dismissed

10/24/19 • 28 min

17 Listeners

In the late 1970s, Dr. Will Ross was told to stay away when applying for medical school in St. Louis. He was told the city was too racist and that he’d be better off on the east coast.But Dr. Ross decided to dig in, and he’s spent a career trying to alleviate massive racial disparities in health outcomes. He’s convinced that the only way to clear a path toward meaningful policy changes is by unifying fractured governmental structures in St. Louis City and County. And a couple of years ago, that belief landed him at a crossroads. He would join powerful people who wanted to create a new way to govern a divided region. But things didn’t exactly go as planned. We tell the story of how Dr. Ross’ recommendations and his criticisms were received, because it says a lot about how race and power continue to work in one of the nation’s most segregated cities.

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New episodes coming soon!

The new We Live Here team have been working hard putting together new shows for our upcoming season! In the coming weeks, we’ll bring you stories of how race and class contributed to dozens and dozens of governmental divides in St. Louis City and County’s municipal courts, police departments and school districts. And uncover the stories and costs behind the fractured governmental systems that define the town we call home.

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BONUS: The Story of Black Jack

We collect sooo many stories while producing this show and we can't always squeeze them into a full episode. So we figured it would be cool to start sharing some with you as bonus episodes. We’re going to make them short and sweet, and we’re hoping that they give you a little more context to the larger stories we tell. This time, we tell the story of how black people now hold significant political power in a town that was explicitly created for racist reasons.