Social Media and the Civil Rights Movement
The Gateway Journalism Review Ferguson Special Report features stories that highlight the impact following the events surrounding the death of Michael Brown, in Ferguson, nearly 2 years ago. The report portrays the role that history, social media, and reform have played in our region. Ultimately, it “tells the story of how the unprecedented outpouring of social media dominated the Ferguson narrative and organized activists into a new civil rights movement and new reform efforts.”
For the Sake of All is featured in the “Reformers” section and highlights the For the Sake of All 2014 report which “tied health disparities to social determinants such as education, quality of neighborhoods, and economic status.” The interview with Dr. Jason Purnell, For the Sake of All Project Lead, depicts a city wrought with health disparities that are rooted along racial lines. Throughout the interview, Dr. Purnell outlines strategies to help alleviate disparities such as opening school-based health clinics and institutionalizing child development accounts in the region. He also reflects on the lack of a collaborative culture that has historically prevented progress in our region.
According to Dr. Purnell, “St. Louis needs the civic infrastructure for a deliberative reform process. This is how he describes that process: Collect the data and research evidence, identify best practices used in other places, make recommendations, implement programs that use best practices, evaluate and track the data that comes out of the reform strategy and start all over again.”