At the annual memorial commemorating the 4th anniversary of Michael Brown’s death, this woman, among hundreds of others, gathered to pay their respects to a life lost way too early for all the wrong reasons. The death of Michael Brown, Jr. in Ferguson, Missouri, spawned the Black Lives Matter movement in the United Sates. Michael had just graduated from high school a few months before his death. Photographed on August 9, 2018.

The 4th annual memorials to Michael Brown, Jr. on Canfield Drive, a residential area of Ferguson, Missouri, the emotions run high with speeches and proclamations by the family, elect4ed officials, civil rights activists, and friends of the family. Photographed August 9, 2018.

From the 5th anniversary memorial for Michael Brown, Jr., showing the actual spot where the young unarmed youth was murdered by a Ferguson, Missouri, police officer on Canfield Drive. Photographed August 9, 2019.

Scene from the 9th anniversary memorial for Michael Brown, Jr. prior to the event. Mourners prepare the site of his death each year with stuffed animals to emphasize that this was an unarmed teenager who was gunned down for no other discernible reason that he had jaywalked across the street. Photographed August 9, 2023.

Scene from the 10th anniversary memorial for Michael Brown, Jr.  Along with mournful reverence, there is always a sense that the work of the Black Lives Matter movement is not finished with racism existing in all parts of American society. The raised fist is a graphic symbol of resistance to those who would oppress anyone because of their race, color of skin, gender, religious beliefs, country of origin, or any other factor. Photographed August 9, 2024. 

On the 10th anniversary of murder of Michael Brown, Jr. the crowd chanted, held moments of silence, vowed to fight against this type of injustice in America ever again, and prayed. Photographed August 9, 2024.

After Michael Brown’s murder, continued violence against Black men by metropolitan police forces caused protests to continue throughout the region. They were organized to spread the message that Black Lives Matter, working inside and outside of the system to heal the past, call attention the present, and reimagine the future. Ultimately, public awareness and law suits against cities and police departments caused reforms. But even today ,work remains. Notice that almost all of the protesters here, in front of a downtown circuit courthouse, are white. This is indicative of the popular support this movement was attracting. The protest leader, shown in the foreground, is longtime BLM activist Ohun Ashe. Photographed on October 14, 2017. 

Two protesters touch fingers in a Michelangelo “Sistine Chapel & David” moment as they stand atop a public bus shelter in downtown St. Louis to lead chants during the Stockley protests there. Photographed on September 15, 2017.

A protester, wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh to protect from tear gas, stands in front of a police line in a cordoned-off street in front of the St. Louis Municipal Courts protesting the acquittal of St. Louis police officer Jason Stockley after he had shot and killed Anthony Lamar Smith, an unarmed black man. Over 160 people were arrested in the first three days of demonstrations that were largely peaceful, resulting in law suits against the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department for unnecessary use of force against civilians, protected by the First Amendment. Photographed on September 15, 2017. 

This police line was ordered to contain the Stockley protesters in downtown St. Louis. The young female officer’s concern is vividly apparent in her expression. Later that day, the police employed a tactic termed “kettling” where protesters are surrounded without a way to move away, then commanded to leave causing chaos, and then the opportunity for the police to arrest them for not obeying the order to disband. Photographed on September 15, 2017. 

Protesters gather during a march for slain Anthony Lamar Smith, after police officer Jason Stockley had been acquitted of his murder. Stockley, a known rogue officer, was reported to have stored his personal AK-47 assault rifle in the trunk of a police car to use to pursue those he perceived as criminals. This group of protesters marched from the Delmar Loop business district to the corner of Skinker Avenue and the Forest Park Parkway, blocking traffic along the way to call attention to the continued killing of black men in situations where white men are usually only detained or arrested. The look on their faces tell a vivid story. Photographed on September 16, 2017. 

In the St. Louis suburb of Richmond Heights, police escalation of a shoplifting event turned deadly with the shooting of a 23-year old black man, Terry Tilman. The events that unfolded were suspicious and ultimately pointed to excessive force by the police as the frightened man ran, only to be gunned down. It took 20 months for video to be released by the police that cast doubt on the officer’s story. Black Lives Matter protesters were at the Richmond Heights City Hall to call attention to this tragedy on a hot summer day as shown above. Photographed September 5, 2019.  

Michael Brown, Sr., father of Michael Brown, who was killed by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson on August 9, 2014, after he allegedly jaywalked across a street in a subdivision. That incident sparked an awakening to the “Jim Crow” tactics of police departments nationwide with protests and riots in Ferguson, a suburb of St. Louis. Reforms, including a federal consent decree, have forced Ferguson’s police department to adopt new rules, procedures, training, and more since then. And the work continues. This photo, taken five years after his son’s death on August 8, 2019, at a tribute Michael’s father organized under the banner of a new foundation, Chosen for Change, with a memorial at the Urban League offices in Ferguson.

The killing of Black men, young and old, continued after Michael Brown’s death like a plague. Here, prior to a candlelight vigil, family, friends and neighbors of 18-year old VonDerrit Myers, Jr., gathered in the Shaw neighborhood where he was gunned down by an off-duty St. Louis police officer pulling a secondary security guard job. The off-duty officer chased the 18-year old ultimately firing 17 shots at him before he was killed. The officer was not in uniform and did not identify himself as an officer, but began pursuing VonDerrit and two friends with his weapon already drawn, causing the trio to run. Photographed on August 8, 2015. 

A demonstrator, prior to a protest march, holds a copy of the day’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper with a headline that sounded the alarm for that day’s action. Hundreds of protesters showed up of all ages, races, varied socioeconomic backgrounds, and education to have their voices heard about their shock at the trial results. Photographed on September 16, 2017. 

Families of victims of Fatal State Violence (FSV) assembled on the steps of St. Louis City Hall to decry the continued killing of Black men and women by police. It was both a demonstration and a memorial for their deceased loved ones. Here, a mother with husband and son, remember their son and brother in a plea for restraint. Photographed May 24, 2022.

The parents of Isaiah Hammett at a memorial vigil outside the St. Louis Circuit Courts as they await a hearing into the death of their son by a SWAT team. Without a search warrant, the team entered the house where Isaiah was caring for his sick grandfather on June 7, 2017. Within minutes Isaiah was dead. The police report justified the shooting, but was later debunked. At this vigil, the family displayed morgue photos of the body, further debunking police claims about what happened during their raid on the home. Photographed September 20, 2023.

The First Amendment isn’t limited to public speech, demonstrations, or mass media reporting. ArchCity Defenders, a local non-profit and holistic civil rights law firm, who works with FSV victim families produced an exhibit of family stories at a local art gallery to dramatize the epidemic of Black men killed by the police in the St. Louis metropolitan area. This photo shows a visitor reading one account of family loss next to photos of the victims’ mothers. It was a powerful and effective way to let others understand these tragedies in a more personal way. Photographed on January 20, 2023. 

At a vigil in Kiener Plaza in downtown St. Louis: This unidentified woman led a prayer for Sonya Massey, a 36-year-old unarmed Black woman who was murdered by a white sheriff’s deputy in Sangamon County, Illinois (near Springfield). She had called 911 about a possible prowler. She was shot and killed by the officer as she stood at her stove holding a pot of hot water. He cited “fear for his life” to justify the use of lethal force. The officer was eventually found guilty of second-degree murder. Photographed on July 29, 2024. 

A family member of Sonya Massey kneels down at a makeshift memorial during the Say Her Name protest at Kiener Plaza in downtown St. Louis to pay homage. On January 29, 2025, Sean Grayson, the former Illinois sheriff’s deputy, who shot Sonya Massey, was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Photographed July 29, 2024.

Protester’s signs and speeches memorialize yet another senseless killing at the hands of poorly trained or racist police officers, who take an oath to protect and serve the public. Instead, too often, they take the lives of innocent people based on skin color, ethnicity, or being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Photographed July 29, 2024. 

Equal Rights, Not Revenge: Activist at an equal rights rally in Kiener Plaza in downtown St. Louis where the campaign for a statewide anticipatory referendum to legalize abortion in Missouri was announced just prior to the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade. The SCOTUS decision returned Missouri to a state that banned abortions. Later the Amendment 3 vote passed with 51.6% of the vote restoring safe and legal abortions, and other reproductive medical services in Missouri. Photographed on May 14, 2022. 

God Is A Woman: This image was created just one hour after the U.S. Supreme Court announced that Roe v Wade had been overturned. Women’s Reproductive Rights advocates gathered at the Planned Parenthood Offices in St. Louis’ Central West End to express their outrage and disagreement with the decision, launching efforts to make abortion safe and legal in Missouri via referendum. Photographed on June 24, 2022.

Beating the Drum: A member of Joia World Music preparing to participate in a Women’s Reproductive Rights march and rally in the Dogtown neighborhood of St. Louis City to protest the Missouri State Legislature’s efforts to override the successful Amendment 3 referendum by Missouri voters to legalize abortion. Several women’s groups, along with male allies, marched and spoke out at this and several other later protests. Photographed on November 2, 2024. 

Billed as the Mother Lovin’ Rally, this Mother’s Day demonstration took place at the junction of I-64, Eager Road and Brentwood Boulevard in St. Louis County. It was centered on Women’s Reproductive Rights and Legal Abortions, a hot issue in Missouri. But, signs held by protesters for nearly three long blocks on both sides of the roadway targeted many other issues these voters have with the Trump administration’s agenda and actions. Photographed May 10, 2025. 

The Mother Lovin’ Rally for safe, legal abortions in Missouri, held on Mothers Day, brought out record crowds.When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, Missouri voters passed a statewide referendum to make abortions legal in Missouri once again. But, now, the majority Republican State Senate and House are working to invalidate that election by the people. Photographed May 10, 2025.

These are Trump supports who came out for the first Trump event in 2016 held at the then Peabody Opera House (now Stifel Theatre) in downtown St. Louis. Those attending did not match the attendance count released by the Trump Campaign for the indoor rally. Those in line to enter the event jeered at those attending the anti-Trump protest held outside of the venue. Photographed March 11, 2016. 

A small segment of the anti-Trump protesters assembling to demonstrate their opposition to a Trump presidency, carried signs and chanted themes that remain today as the anti-Trump stance has not changed, except to become more intense. Photographed March 11, 2016.

A broader view of the anti-Trump protest held outside of the Peabody Opera House shows the proximity to the Gateway Arch. The crowd was orderly but very vocal then. Already, clear lines differentiating the two political views were drawn along economic, racial, demographic, constitutional topics. Photographed March 11, 2016

The crowd attending the first “No Kings” protest in downtown St. Louis occupied the entire area of Kiener Plaza shoulder to shoulder, then spilled out into the City Garden west of the Plaza, and onto the side streets adjacent Kiener Plaza. While chanting was loud, and emotions high, the protest was peaceful and orderly with many guest speakers from politicians, to activists, to heads of organizations working for civic progress. Photographed June 14, 2025.

This gentleman, along with several thousand others, brought a sign that harks back to the 1940’s after the U.S. and its allies defeated Nazi Germany in World War II. Today, many politicians, partisans, and members of the Trump Administration are the recipients of this reminder. Photographed June 14, 2025.

Signs convey beliefs for protesters and display their priorities. This couple stood for hours in the heat to make their grievances known under their First Amendment rights during the “No Kings” protest in Kiener Plaza, downtown St. Louis, Missouri. Photographed on June 14, 2025.

This is from the first “No Kings” rally, held in downtown St. Louis. It began in Keener Plaza, then thousands of protesters marched from Broadway up Market Street to Tucker heading north to Washington, and then back down Broadway to express their dissent against the Trump administration’s policies and lawless behavior. Photographed June 14, 2025. 

On the long march from Kiener Plaza around the perimeters of downtown St. Louis, this father gave a piggyback ride to his daughter, giving a valuable civics lesson to her at the same time. Children and pets were active participants of this “No Kings” protest in St. Louis, Missouri along with college students, retirees, veterans, feminists, people of color and varied national origins. It was a true melting pot day. Photographed on June 14, 2025.

A protest and march to honor Renee Nicole Good, the 37-year-old mother and poet murdered by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was attended by thousands in the St. Louis County Seat of Clayton, Missouri. However, this was only one of two held that day at the same time. Typically, St. Louis is a liberal city with conservative leanings, but protests against the Trump administration are growing as discontent mounts. The lawlessness of ICE, along with its cruelty and obvious racism, fuels dissent, especially when American citizens are murdered in broad daylight for no legitimate reason. Photographed January 11, 2026. 

A protester peers from behind his sign, objecting to the murder of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Demonstrators were not joyous on this day and exhibited both mourning and anger that this is happening in America — so reminiscent of bygone slave patrols and gestapo tactics in Nazi Germany. Photographed on January 11, 2026. 

A couple stands in protest of where taxpayer dollars are being spent to militarize American communities where ICE roams and randomly abducts people based on skin color and accents, all while also detaining and arresting American citizens for no apparent reasons without court-ordered warrants or due process. The commitment that couples, families, neighbors and others make to each other strengthen the resistance to the tyranny and authoritarianism America witnesses these days. Photographed January 11, 2026.

The Free America Walkout occurred nationwide on January 20, 2026 at 2 p.m., one year after Donald Trump took the oath of office for his second term in the White House. For most Americans it was a year of chaos, turmoil, disappointment, frustration, and agony as they witnessed the decline of democracy and a rise in authoritarianism. This gentleman at the Tamm Avenue overpass above I-64 in St. Louis, Missouri, with his sign, proclaimed one key aspect about our tenuous First Amendment rights as ICE and other entities threaten its existence under the Trump regime. 

During President Trump’s first term, Americans were exposed to the first hints of authoritarian rule when ICE agents first started rounding up immigrants and were not transparent about where they were taking them. Then we learned that they were separating families — children from their parents, and keeping sloppy or no records at all that would allow reunification. A large group of citizens descended on the ICE headquarters in Troy, Missouri, just northwest of St. Louis to protest this behavior. Photographed June 30, 2018.

This could be today, but it was back in 2018, when folks were just as mad and scared by what the federal government was doing by detaining and disappearing people who had immigrated (both lawfully and without papers to the United States for work, as political refugees, or to be with family. But, instead of peaceful methods, with due process, court ordered warrants, and other legal remedies, they began a campaign of terror and kidnapping that has only gotten worse under the second Trump presidency. Photographed June 30, 2018. 

Protesters as they leave the ICE property and advance onto the a four-lane highway in Troy, Missouri. Blocking traffic is a way for protesters to spread their message to others quickly. Photographed June 30, 2018.

A view of the highway blockage during the ICE protest in Troy, Missouri. With the cooperation of the Highway Patrol, the shutdown of the highway was safe and fairly brief. It was an effective attention getter to what ICE was doing by separating families, sometimes as much as 1,000 miles away from each other. Photographed June 30, 2018.

The Tamm Avenue overpass connects the Dogtown neighborhood to the St. Louis Zoo in Forest Park over I-64, a heavily-traveled highway. On this day, Bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia Home was the topic of their free speech — alerting other St. Louisans of the illegal abductions of immigrants and citizens by ICE, per the orders of the Trump administration. Photographed April 26, 2025. 

Two young ladies protest in the Bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia Home protest in St. Louis, Missouri, where the message was to stop the abuse of power by the Trump administration and Homeland Security’s ICE to wrongfully enforce immigration laws by kidnapping, detaining, abusing, and deporting legal immigrants and naturalized citizens without due process. The protest was held on the Tamm Avenue and I-64 overpass in the Dogtown neighborhood. Photographed on April 26, 2025.

One of the first Affordable Care Act demonstrations in St. Louis, Missouri was held at the corner of Skinker Boulevard and Forest Park Parkway where Kayak’s Coffee (now a Kaldi’s) resided. The young woman (right) in this photo is Melanie Shouse, an early healthcare activist. Melanie died on January 30, 2010 after a long battle with breast cancer. She had been a foot soldier for Obama and healthcare reform. The lack of affordable healthcare insurance was personal to Melanie. She said in an interview on KDHX radio, “I was only able to afford catastrophic health insurance coverage with about $8,000 in co-pays and deductibles,” Ms. Shouse said. “As a result, I put off getting preventive services and medical screenings and treatments.” Photographed October 20, 2009.

Two demonstrators hold signs for drivers to read in the early days of healthcare reform in St. Louis, Missouri. This location was chosen not only for its high traffic patterns, but also because it is caddy corner to Washington University in St. Louis where many of the students were finding it nearly impossible to afford health insurance and, for those who had a preexisting conditions, would not qualify for insurance. The location also border on the Delmar Divide, separating high income housing from lower income housing where healthcare was a desert. Photographed October 20, 2009.

A demonstration in front of St. Louis City Hall and a march down Market Street to call attention to the genocide and war crimes being committed against the Palestinian people. The event was largely sponsored by The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), but attended by allies from all major religions. Photographed May 14, 2018. 

When Israel continued its relentless attacks on Gaza and land theft in the West Bank, local Palestinians, Muslims, even Jews and Christians, as well as other allies came out to St. Louis’ Forest Park to protest the campaign of demolition, killing, and starving by Zionists. This continues today. Yet, a large part of the world has turned a blind eye similar to what happened when the Nazi’s were exterminating the Jews in Europe in the 1940’s (holocaust). History repeats itself, but in America, the First Amendment allowed dissent as this woman demonstrates. Photographed on April 27, 2024.

Protesters assemble in Forest Park to march to the Washington University in St. Louis campus nearby. They were demonstrating the continue genocide, land grabs, and war crimes committed by the State of Israel. Photographed April 27, 2024.

This elderly man, accompanied by his daughter, is old enough to remember when Palestine was partitioned by the United Nations in 1948, which proposed dividing British-mandated Palestine into separate Arab and Jewish states with Jerusalem under international control. Today Israeli Zionist settlers are chipping away at the West Bank by stealing (colonizing) land from Palestinians under the control of the Israeli Defense Forces. Gaza has been obliterated with genocide the form of bombings, snipers, starvation and imposed disease with all but a few hospitals remaining after bombings. Often with little electricity or clean water available. Photographed April 27, 2024.

An activist leads chants with a group who gathered to protest for a free Palestinian state. Chants are often used to state the common demands and goals of a protest, as well as to display the solidarity of those participating in a demonstration. Photographed April 27, 2024.

NAKBA Day being celebrated as a protest of the genocide still occurring in Gaza; it is also known as Memory of the Catastrophe, which comprised the destruction of Palestinian society and homeland in 1948, and the permanent displacement of a majority of the Palestinian people. Generally commemorated on May 15, this one took place at a corner of Tower Grove Park in St. Louis and was attended by Palestinians, allies and human rights activists to spread the word of the genocide that much of the world has ignored. Photographed May 15, 2025. 

This elderly couple attended NAKBA Day in Tower Grove Park and stopped to pray silently at several of the photos on display showing the effects of the starvation, destruction, and illness of the Gaza genocide. In addition speeches were made at the protest and participants stood at the corner of Grand Avenue and Arsenal Street with signs beseeching an end to the genocide carried out by Israeli Zionists. Photographed May 15, 2025. 

The financial crisis of 2008 continued to hurt American’s pocketbooks. In 2011 Occupy STL brought together working class citizens of all stripes for protests, marches and stirring speeches on the streets of downtown St. Louis. Union members, government workers, teachers, students, and others wanted change and sought that change by raising their voices together. Photographed October 18, 2011. 

Not unlike today, the gap between the rich and the poor in the United States was widening at a frantic pace. Inequity between the classes created hardships for many Americans from healthcare costs to housing, even putting food on the table. For a few, times were great, but for most it was scary and harmful. The chant of “One Percent” identified those privileged few who were oppressing the “rest of us” and caused protests to mount. This group of students said it all with their banner about how to fight the oppression, and they stood proudly just outside the doors of then Boatmen’s Bank in downtown St. Louis. Photographed October 18, 2011. 

In 2011, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department was less tolerant of First Amendment assembly and free speech than they are today. The tendency then was to confront, escalate and arrest protesters. Seen here, the police line sought to contain the Occupy STL march by limiting it to a few blocks. This type of aggressive policing, which ignored Constitutional Rights, often led to fatal state violence (FSV), highlighted elsewhere in this gallery. Photographed October 18, 2011. 

Tenants, lawyers, and social workers stand on the front porch of an apartment where the tenant is being evicted through unlawful procedures by an absentee landlord. The tenants were not notified in advance and caring attorneys were able to arrive to help quickly, along with social workers, neighbors and several affordable housing activists. Photographed on August 4, 2017.

Two activist allies who rushed to the scene to be available to help the family if evicted on that day stand off to the side waiting. This type of support is not unusual in the activist community, and are often referred to as “family.” Photographed on August 4, 2017.

The Workhouse, one of two jails in St. Louis City for many years, was known for its inhumane conditions. It was a medium security institution without air conditioning or adequate heating for inmates. The name “Workhouse” was derived as detainees were sentenced to forced labor when they could not afford to pay their fines, Later detainees were incarcerated there due to their inability to afford unconstitutionally high cash bail. Most inmates were awaiting trial caged and criminalized due to their poverty. This protest to Close The Workhouse was held in downtown St. Louis during the annual July 4 parade to call attention to the abhorrent existence of this type of jail. Photographed July 4, 2018. 

Here protesters face the July 4th parade with signs that inform City residents on Independence Day that the St. Louis Workhouse still exists and should be closed. Public outcry eventually closed the Workhouse after a three-year campaign and public opinion changed after the horrific conditions there such as extreme heat and cold, abysmal medical care, rats and cockroach infestations and mold became known. Organizations like ArchCity Defenders, Action St. Louis, and The Bail Project were instrumental in closing the derelict jail, and recently it was demolished. Photographed on July 4, 2014.

This protest at the St. Louis Justice Center (jail) focused on the overcrowded jail in downtown St. Louis due to an emphasis on setting high bail amounts to create revenue for the City. Families and friends, along with civil rights activists and defense attorneys organized a Mother’s Day Bailout rally to call attention to the plight of families who suffer when a relative is jailed for long periods of time waiting for their trial. Photographed May 12, 2018.

A spouse of one inmate speaks to a St. Louis Public Radio (NPR) reporter to explain the effects of high cost bail to poor families. First, many cannot afford the bail. Being in jail for months awaiting trial puts them into further risks. By not being able to go to work, they risk losing their jobs, or while not working, cannot pay rent and risk eviction. They also face having utilities turned off for lack of payment, and some even have fallen ill because of lack of medical attention and prescriptions while incarcerated, just to name a few possibilities in this inequitable system. Photographed on May 12, 2018.

St. Louis’ jails are infamous for the number of deaths, serious illnesses, and brutal treatment at the hands of jailers. Over the years, many efforts have been made to address these situations, and although some progress has been made, those who are detained in the City’s one remaining jail still face risks. This young woman was one of many who showed up to make demands for improvements to their loved ones, friends, neighbors, or people they do not know, can face due process without serious injury or death. Photographed on September 19, 2022. 

Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America held a protest rally in Kiener Plaza downtown after the dramatic increase of gun violence in St. Louis and throughout the nation. Mass shootings in schools and other places, along with a rise in drive-by shootings prompted the call for new laws regulating firearm sales. Photographed March 30, 2013.

This group of moms and dads had come to the protest together and shared their stories of local gun violence, particularly about drive-by shootings and the increase in youth deaths by other youths. Photographed March 30, 2013.

This mom brought her son to the protest demanding action by both the Missouri State legislature and local law enforcement after their neighborhood had been plagued by drive by shootings recently. Photographed March 30, 2013.

One of the victims of firearm violence attended the Moms Demand Action protest to speak of his experience and to emphasize the need to make it more difficult to purchase firearms. Photographed March 30, 2013. 

During a controversial Stadium vote at City Hall. Protesters sit in the dangerous second floor gallery overlooking the Board of Aldermen proceedings to protest a procedural matter that would deny citizen comments to keep and pay for a football stadium in downtown St. Louis, built by the St. Louis Rams NFL team, but abandoned when they moved to Los Angeles in 2015. Citizens did not want to be shackled with extra corporate debt by Rams owner Stan Kroenke. Photographed on December 15, 2015.

When a large data center was proposed to replace a now defunct entertainment venue, residents throughout the City of St. Louis gathered for a town hall meeting to discuss the pros and cons of this type of development that could affect their “quality of life.” Small groups were formed to facilitate open discussions, as the one seen here. Everyone had the opportunity to weigh in with their point of view. Overwhelmingly, the attendees decided to oppose the data center development led by large contractors, unknown developers, and other special interests. Photographed October 12, 2025.

Attendees of the data center town hall meeting at Saint Cronin’s Catholic Church in The Grove neighborhood voted on key issues by raising either green sheets of paper for YES or red sheets for NO. Key issues included acceptability of higher electricity bills that result when data centers use huge amounts of power, but utilities spread the cost across their entire customer base; increased pollution to the environment from greater use of making of that electricity, and pressure on water resources needed to cool the machinery of a data center. These impacts were seen as negative when weighed upon narrow benefits from the companies operating data centers. Photographed October 12, 2025. 

Collective bargaining rights go way back in U.S. history, but the fight for fair pay, fair treatment by employers, safe working conditions, benefits, and employment security continues to this day. In 2023 the General Motors plant in Wentzville, MO, just west of St. Louis shut down due to a UAW strike as the workers demanded a workable new contract. The strike lasted 45 days. This photo is from one of the many picket lines surrounding the large manufacturing campus there, and this woman showed us the new face of a younger, more diverse workforce who depends on their union. Photographed on October 2, 2023.

Local 200 of the  Service Employees International Union (SEIU), representing diverse workers in healthcare, public services, and property services, came together on a very hot July day to protest the recent abuses of the Trump administration. At their “Families First Day of Action” rally, held in Webster Groves, a suburb of St. Louis, they stood up to protect care, education, and dignity for working families and against harmful budget cuts and policies that threaten our communities and the services we all rely on. Cuts to healthcare, education, and food assistance affect most American families whether they are blue collar or white collar. Photographed July 26, 2025.

This is a singular demonstration in many ways — he stands alone in his protest No colleagues or supporters. He claims to be a whistleblower for companies maintaining giant databases of human DNA that can (and are) being used by corporations, such as Amazon, in this instance. Verifying the veracity of his claims is difficult because online sources are sketchy and none include reputable mainline media outlets. But, the First Amendment gives this gentleman the right to say what he says and to assemble to say it. Photographed August 23, 2025. 

When workers at a local coffee house chain in St. Louis held a vote and petitioned to form a union, the company just ignored them. That caused a protest in front of company headquarters by an energetic group of employees, local union leaders, and the public who support collective bargaining rights. The baristas and café workers are mostly young and often work two jobs, so things like receiving schedules earlier so they can juggle their work commitments, higher pay so maybe they won’t need a second job, better and safer working conditions, and a voice at the table mean a lot to them. Photographed on November 5, 2025. 

Kaldi’s Coffee workers assemble to rally for recognition of the union they voted for and to publicly define why they need a union to speak for all of them. The protest was held outside the company’s headquarters building. Photographed on November 5, 2025.