By Jason Ethridge
The Scene staff
St. Louis attorney Kimberly Turner was one of five social activists who showed up for a panel discussion at Forest Park last month to encourage students to get involved.
“Everyone can be an activist,” said Turner, who also is a member of the Urban League Guild and NAACP. “You’re never too young or too old to advocate for change.”
The other panelists were Areli Reyes, a Forest Park student and a founder of Cosecha Missouri, a social-media page for undocumented workers and their allies; Megan Green, 15th Ward alderman for the city of St. Louis; Zaki Baruti, publisher of African News World; and Randy Rafter, president of St. Louis Black Pride.
Rafter works to support the LGBTQ community and people of color. He came to Forest Park because he thinks it’s important to be a role model for college students.
“I want to be the representation of who I am that I needed when I was younger,” he said.
About two dozen students and faculty members attended the panel discussion called “Know Your ACTivism” on Jan. 23 in the Highlander Lounge.
The audience included Coffee Wright, a poet, actress and community activist who told the group she was considering a run against U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill in this year’s election.
After the panel discussion, Wright said students should always remember the “power of togetherness.”
“It has to go beyond protests,” she said. “The current laws separate people from one another, and they must be changed. People have to make a choice.”
Forest Park communications chair Sandra Osburn moderated the panel discussion and invited people in the audience to ask questions. Topics ranged from general leadership advice to the current state of activism in the St. Louis area and even the validity of protesting.
All the panelists stressed the importance of letting one’s voice be heard, banding together and fighting for what’s right.
“Be conscious, get involved, pass your thinking on,” Baruti said.
Some of the panelists talked about the challenges they faced as activists in the age of Trump. Reyes said she understands why some people want to just give up and stay home.
“Ever since I started in the movement (to protect immigrants), there was so much stopping people from fighting,” she said.
But Reyes has hope that things will change.
Baruti, who has been a civil-rights activist for decades, also remains optimistic.
“(Challenges) don’t discourage me,” he said. “You have to have a love for people. … I see my job as being the keeper of my brothers and sisters.”
“There’s always someone to keep fighting for,” Green said.