 Judith Arnold is a professional Urban Planner with a passion for working in underserved communities. Her humble beginnings began in Cleveland, Ohio, where she grew up under her father’s music abilities, a well-known jazz artist and the music director of Quincy Jones. Her dad taught her the piano and an appreciation for the classics. Practicing renditions of Beethoven, Bach and Mozart were her daily routine, so was schoolwork. Judith was the first African American to graduate from St. Joseph Academy. She enrolled in Cleveland State University, earning degrees in Urban Planning and History. Her studies helped shape her outlook on life. She was mentored by Julian Bond, Fannie Lou Hammer, Don L. Lee, and the National Urban League Housing Director J. Harvey Kerns. She submerged herself in the readings of Angela Davis, Stokely Carmichael, and many more. Judith was fascinated by the Great Migration of African Americans to cities and focused on communities of color’s economics.
0 Comments
 Photo of Julia Allen and Family. Photo Courtesy of: Julia Allen Mrs. Julia is a 70-year-old resident of The Ville. The Ville was the cornerstone of the Black community and boasts an assortment of historical buildings and who’s who in the Black community. Growing up, Mrs. Julia attended Marshall Elementary, Turner Middle, and Sumner High School, respectively. She was raised with 4 siblings, a brother and sister, and she herself was a twin. Ms. Julia gave birth to two children, a son and a daughter who passed on.
Growing up in The Ville, the older residents pushed the youth to strive for excellence. Ms. Julia remembers one of her first jobs was working downtown for a company called Graymont selling dry goods. She also worked at Homer G. Phillips as a mail clerk and as a clerk in the radiology dept as a film librarian before they closed. She shared a story about the closing of Homer G. Phillips and how the community was outraged over the decision.  Photo of Eltoreon Hawkins (right) and Angela Drake (left) presenting to the Reclaiming Vacant Properties Center for Community Progress Conference. Eltoreon Hawkins is 26 years old and was born and raised in the small community of Walnut Park, located on the Northside of Saint Louis. In the early ‘90’s, Eltoreon and his three siblings, two sisters and one brother, were raised by a very overprotective mother, Mrs. Tryanna Pippen’s, who didn’t allow them to go outside and play in the community, so they spent a lot of time in the house being creative and entertaining themselves. Many times, Eltoreon found himself looking outside his window and seeing kids riding their bikes up and down the street and wondered what that would be like.
 Photo of Pamela McLucas in front of the Lewis Place Neighborhood Sign. Published on: TechArtista's Member Feature Pamela McLucas returned to her family home by heirship expanded by her perception of how the community is built. In 1986, her parents purchased a home with the expectation of gaining property equity and passing the investment along. In 1998 she was married, and Pamela and her husband purchased their own home in the Lewis Place Neighborhood.
 Bob Marshak, of Social Justice 4, All checks the tiny house built by geometry students at Eureka High School. Source, Jim Erickson photo. Bob Marshak was born and raised in St. Louis. The oldest of 3 children, he and his siblings went to University City schools, and after high school, he joined the military. That was at the beginning of the computer age, he had the opportunity to attend many IBM technical schools and learn computer technology at an Army data center in Virginia. After two years, he returned to St. Louis and started a family. Bob started working as a civilian for the Department of Defense and retired after over thirty years as Deputy Director of a systems design and development agency. Bob’s wife, Dianne, was always focused on homelessness and the inequities surrounding economic injustice. Together, they joined Bernie Sammons, a retired plant scientist, and formed a faith-based group in St. Louis County in 2016, determined to foster a greater understanding of the negative impact of racism and economic injustice in the St. Louis Area. Social Justice 4 All (SJ4A) joined The Ville Collaborative and has become a partner in many of their projects and efforts, with goals to improve the lives of the residents of the Ville and Greater Ville.
|
RSS Feed
