ST. JOSEPH — As of Monday night, a petition started by St. Joseph High School students in support of a Black Lives Matter street mural to be painted outside their school had been signed by nearly 1,700 people. The goal is 2,500.
St. Joseph High School senior Norah Judge, 17, started the effort as a member of the high school’s Social Justice Group. She said students interested in joining the group should contact her through Google Hangouts.
The petition reads in part: “We, the students of St. Joseph High School, want a Black Lives Matter mural painted in front of our school (on Stadium Drive) to voice solidarity with our twin city school, Benton Harbor High School and to support the Black community in St. Joe.”
Members of the Benton Harbor community painted a Black Lives Matter mural in front of Benton Harbor High School on Aug. 8.
The organizer of that effort, Trenton Bowens of Benton Harbor, asked the St. Joseph City Commission nearly a month ago to approve a similar mural for St. Joseph. There has been support voiced for the mural, but also a backlash to the proposal, and the commission has yet to act on the request.
At a Community Discussion on Social Justice hosted by the city commission Monday evening by Zoom, Mayor Mike Garey was asked about the status of the mural.
“We’ve done our research. We’ve met with our city attorney and city engineer, and we will make a decision at our next meeting Sept. 14,” Garey said. The mural is proposed for Stadium Drive, in front of the high school.
The petition also states, “The goal of this petition is to show the City Commission that St. Joseph High School students support this mural and to show the Black students at SJHS that the school supports this statement. While alternative options for the mural have been presented, we do not want to settle for options other than a mural that simply states ‘Black Lives Matter’ because we want our mural to mirror the one already painted in our twin city, Benton Harbor.”
It further states, “This is an opportunity for St. Joseph High School to show that we recognize that there is institutionalized racism and that we are going to take steps to fight it. It’s important to emphasize that this is not a solution to the problem, it’s only one step in the right direction. We want St. Joseph High School to be on the right side of history.”
The petition can be viewed and/or signed on the website Change.org by clicking on the Black Lives Matter murals tab.
Life expectancy gap
Also during Monday night’s meeting, the city commission and 30-some citizen attendees heard from commissioners who are heading up three Focus Groups: Public Safety, Arts and Culture, and History and Education.
Commissioner Lynn Todman, who along with Mayor Garey is heading up the History and Education Focus Group, reported on life expectancy gaps in Berrien County. She said the information will be included in the 2019 Community Health Needs Assessment report that will be released soon by Spectrum Health Lakeland.
Todman said that the life expectancy at birth of people living in Benton Harbor is 67.6 years, while life expectancy in Berrien Springs is 86.7 years. The next highest are Lincoln Township, 86.2; Shoreham, 83.1; Stevensville, 81.9; and St. Joseph, also 81.9.
“We’re talking about a 19-year discrepancy between Benton Harbor and Berrien Springs,” Todman noted. “Our work is about narrowing this gap by increasing the low.”
She said Berrien Springs is an anomaly, because of it is a higher-education community with Andrews University, and because of healthy behaviors that are specific to people who live in Berrien Springs.
Commissioner Peggy Getty reported on initiatives the Arts and Culture Focus Group is working on, including re-envisioning the Martin Luther King Day celebration held annually at the Lake Michigan College Mendel Center, a “100 conversations” effort that will involve reaching out and getting feedback from 100 people throughout the Twin Cities, encouraging the arts communities in St. Joseph and Benton Harbor to work together as one on some joint projects, and promoting a Brave Talks Community Read throughout September.
The city commission began hosting the bi-weekly Community Discussions on Social Justice following the death of George Floyd, a Black man, at the hands of a white police officer in Minnesota.
Garey said Monday the three focus groups that have evolved will begin holding their own meetings and will report back to the city commission at its regular meetings going forward.
