A Reflection From the LJM Racial Equity Team
SMOS Racial Equity Team
~ My name is Beth DeBoo, and I am a member of the Racial Equity Team. For several years, our team has been learning from the Racism and Reconciliation Committee at College Church, who completed training through Crossroads Antiracism Organizing and Training Program. Crossroads’ guiding belief is that racism dehumanizes us all, and dismantling it brings healing to our communities.
Part of College Church’s mission is to share what they have learned with other faith communities. Several parishes are involved in this work, including St. Margaret of Scotland, St. Pius V, St. Peter’s, and St. Alphonsus Rock.
An important part of this process is learning about the history of the broader community around us and then gradually focusing closer to our own parish. This includes asking difficult but necessary questions about our role in racial inequality: How have we ignored it? How have we supported it? How have we worked to change it?
We invite you to join us at the Missouri History Museum, which recently opened an exhibit on the Mill Creek neighborhood, a thriving Black community destroyed by urban renewal in the 1950s. Although Mill Creek was located just a few miles west of downtown, it remains largely unknown to many St. Louisans. While urban renewal is often described as progress, in many places it led to the forced displacement of established Black communities.
Learning this history helps us reflect on what it means to be an anti-racist parish. Anti-racism goes beyond avoiding racism; it involves actively opposing and dismantling it while promoting racial equity. To do this faithfully and effectively, we must understand how institutions and systems have created and sustained racial inequality—and how we are called to respond today.
This work also speaks to the struggles we are currently witnessing, including the experiences of immigrant families affected by policies and enforcement practices at the federal level. Just as past policies displaced Black communities like Mill Creek, current systems and enforcement practices can create fear and instability for vulnerable neighbors. Learning our history helps us recognize patterns of harm and challenges us to consider how we are called to stand with those who are marginalized today and to work toward systems that protect, rather than diminish, the dignity of all God’s people.
Text Beth DeBoo at 314-269-3103 to learn more about our Racial Equity team’s work and/or to sign up to join us on February 22 @ 2:00 to visit the Mill Creek exhibit. Scan the QR code to learn more!
Throughout the year, we present an article in the bulletin each week on a variety of topics, written by a member of our Parish staff or ministries on a rotating basis.
