Congratulations to Dana Malkus, JD, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Director of the Entrepreneurship and Community Development Clinic at Saint Louis University School of Law, recipient of our 2023 Transparency & Trust Award!
The Transparency & Trust Award recognizes a person who:
Works with honesty and openness and isn’t afraid to be vulnerable, especially when things don’t go as planned.
Co-creates work with the people and partners they serve and works to build shared trust so that all at the table feel supported and valued as part of the process.
Embraces mistakes and weaknesses in the open as opportunities to learn and grow.
Richard Rothstein had been working on the book The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America when Michael Brown was killed. He didn’t have it done yet, but so much happening at that time aligned with his research. So he put out an article in 2014 called The Making of Ferguson: Public Policies at the Root of its Troubles. And when I read it, I found it really compelling because there’s a lot of deep research on St. Louis and segregation here. He weaved together much of St. Louis’ long history, explaining how we got to where we are. Well, a few paragraphs in the piece talk about the Shelley v. Kraemer case and racially restrictive covenants. He tells the story about how there was a neighborhood group called the Marcus Avenue Improvement Association that tried to enforce the covenant and that they were sponsored by the Cote Brillante Presbyterian Church, which at the time was an all-white congregation in an all-white neighborhood. In that case, the covenants were struck down. After the decision, the neighborhood experienced a lot of change and white flight. The church closed. Eventually, it came back to life as a new congregation. And when I read about the association and the church, it was really striking to me because I didn’t know that piece of the case. And it was overwhelmingly sad to see that the church had been involved in that way.
Dana: I Googled the church, wondering if it still existed, and that’s how I found Reverend Clyde Crumpton. So I emailed him, told him about the class I teach at SLU Law, and how I thought it would be helpful if my students could see the church, hear the story, and see the Shelley House to make it more real rather than just reading about it in an article. So we came several years ago and we’ve kept coming most semesters since. Rev. Crumpton talks to my students about the neighborhood, the church, and his involvement, and it’s a really powerful eye-opener. Many of my students are from St. Louis, but they don’t know the history. Even for the ones who aren’t from here, the story of St. Louis is, unfortunately, the story of many cities all over the U.S. So it’s relatable whether you’re from here or not or you practice law here or somewhere else. I’m a law professor. And part of why I think it’s important for my students to understand this history is because if you’re going to be working in community development, you have to understand your client, a bit of the background, and how we got to where we are today. It deeply saddens me that the Church is segregated and that it has been throughout its existence in the U.S. I am part of the Church. And it bothers me that the problem of segregation even affects the Church. That it was involved in enforcing racially restrictive covenants is wild but true. It’s important we face that.
Rev. Crumpton: We, the Black community, were not surprised that the Church supported the Kraemer family. Even today, the Church is divided among conservative, liberal, and racial lines. One of the reasons I applaud Dana’s work is because she continues to expose some of those divisions. And a lot of them are fabricated for the potential to control the public and the narrative of the nation. In addition to her classroom and coursework, I’m glad she’s given me and her students more exposure to the Shelley vs. Kraemer case. It’s also a segue to where we are today, socially and ethically, and touches on the importance of having our story told. Bringing Dana and her class in helps us tell the story. And the more you tell the story, the more you know the story.
One of the reasons I applaud and am so happy to have met Professor Malkus is because she’s helped us understand better and better tell our story. This is also social studies, psychology, and biblical — when people are aware of their ancestry, there’s a responsibility to that ancestry to teach it, to protect it, to build their lives on it. And with that comes pride, self-esteem, and value. A lot of that’s missing from our community, which as a result, in the streets of St. Louis, we see on the 5, 6, and 10 o’clock news. And I’m saying, in order for us to change that behavior and mindset, we need to teach them who they are, from where they’ve come, the responsibility that is within their history and culture, and why they’ve been deprived of it to formulate the behavior we see. To prevent us from teaching that, we now have legislation that says we can’t teach Black history because it’s Critical Race Theory, which it’s not. But, behind that, what’s being said is, “We want to continue to control the narrative, Black community.” We want to keep you oppressed, we want to keep you ignorant, we want to keep your behavior the way it is because we don’t have to come in and lynch you no more. You can kill each other. We have just tricked you to believe you are your own enemy and not your brother’s keeper. From a biblical standpoint, who do we trust? God or legislators?
Dana: We learn through stories. A lot of the work I do with my students involves legally forming neighborhood groups like the one Rev. Crumpton is involved in. So we’re the lawyers that do the paperwork and help our clients understand how to operate. Because to get access to funding and resources, you’ve got to be able to check some of these boxes. So as lawyers, we provide help with nonprofit formation and help groups know how to function so they can fulfill their missions. Still, it’s important that my students understand, from the community side, the purpose of the groups we help legally form is to create a vehicle for taking collective action and building on assets. We help build a structure to make that happen, not to tell the group what they need to do or judge what they need to do but to help allow them to do what they need to do. Coming here every semester, I hear the Shelley vs. Kraemer and the church’s story, and it helps me remember what we’re doing. We’re transactional lawyers, so we don’t go to court. But our work isn’t simply about drafting or filing documents. Yes, those are lawyering tasks. But to be a good lawyer you actually need these other pieces. You need to understand your client.
Rev. Crumpton: What Dana’s brought to us with her students has been so valuable. Learning all about how we can operate as a nonprofit… We had the name but needed to register with the State. And the attorneys helped us to continue our formation by meeting with us biweekly over the past few years. Even though they change students every semester, the process continues. It’s a learning experience for them as much as it is for us when it comes to our effectiveness in how to better serve this neighborhood. This relationship from the beginning has evolved and transitioned into more than just a Shelley vs. Kraemer thing. It’s moved into hands-on work that’s action-oriented. It’s really a blessing.
When the students and I come here and it’s not raining, we walk down the street to the Shelley house and almost every time there will be people also walking or sitting out on their front porch and Rev. Crumpton knows every one of them. He’ll say hi, they’ll have a brief conversation, and he’ll introduce us. That makes me tear up because it would be easy for the neighbors and Rev. Crumpton to see us as outsiders and not welcome us in. They would have every reason to do that, so I’m just really thankful they don’t. My clinic works a lot with vacant and abandoned properties because they’re a big challenge for our region. The work we need to do to deal with this challenge happens through neighborhood organizations, so my clinic helps strengthen those groups. The perception of neighborhoods that experience a high degree of vacancy is that the neighborhood is empty or abandoned or people don’t care. And when we walk down the street and everyone comes out to talk, it’s an antidote to that. It’s a reminder that a neighborhood is made up of people. And it’s the connections between people that really matter. That’s why having strong neighborhood groups is so important because, legally, it’s the way neighbors can take collective action.
We’re not trying to rewrite the story, we’re just trying to get the truth be told. The rest will take care of itself. Kingsville developed because the area where our church sits was part of Kingsway East and the Greater Ville Neighborhoods. Hence the name. So Professor Malkus and her student lawyers helped us form the Kingsville CDC. We are still an organization. We organize. And we have structure. We also needed to form our identity, to better address our mission to improve our neighborhood and be able to function legally. It has helped the church be the church and be more intentional with our neighbors and neighborhood. Kingsville started from the church. Before COVID, we were meeting once or twice a month. For example, we have a community garden. Some neighbors wanted to start it, they thought the property belonged to the church, so I just said okay. We started gardening and found out the land belonged to the City. We negotiated a price and now we own it. That helped the church members help out the neighbors. One of the responses from the neighbors was, “You church folks aren’t so bad after all. We usually see you come and go on Sundays and you’re good folks.” So that's the relationship. And the church is doing what it’s supposed to be doing. Within the last year, we were also able to reactivate the church bells. They sound every hour from 8 AM to 8 PM. So I asked the neighbors, “What do you think about the bells?” “Aww, man, that’s awesome. It helps us realize the presence of the church.” And that establishes pride in the neighborhood. This isn’t just a church. It’s an active well-maintained church. And a component of the neighborhood.
What are some of the obstacles you’ve had to work through together?
Rev. Crumpton: Making biweekly meetings. We have different schedules and are involved in activities. The Kingsville leadership team has jobs. Some people have moved but remain active. Others are business owners and stay busy. Still, others don’t want to leave their house since COVID. So it’s difficult to get everyone to a morning meeting.
Dana: That highlights a bigger point which is challenging in almost all the work my students do with neighborhood groups and nonprofits and it has to do with privilege. If you’re fortunate enough to have time, maybe you can volunteer more easily. A lot of people don’t have that privilege. And oftentimes the same people seeing the needs and who have the energy and drive to see changes are people working full-time jobs or more already. They’re also most likely already taking care of someone or doing something in their community. They are doers and they are doing. So it’s a challenge, but one I use as a teachable moment for my students because you can’t come in as a lawyer expecting the client to bend to your schedule. We’re here to help the client. So sometimes that means thinking creatively about how and when we have meetings. What information do we need and how do we get it? Helping the students think through that is an important lawyering skill because whether you are doing pro-bono work or you go on to work at a big law firm and charge a lot of money, being able to get around barriers and figure out how to keep a thing moving forward is an essential skill.
Every semester, I have eight students who work in pairs and each pair has two to four clients they are responsible for. About a quarter of our work is working with small businesses and entrepreneurs. When we’re talking about community development, the lawncare and beauty shops are important to the fabric of a place. So we work with businesses like that who can’t afford market-rate legal services but need legal help with formalizing. Another quarter of what we do is with other kinds of nonprofits that might be working across the City, City and County, or State. And then the other half of our work is representing particular neighborhood groups like existing CDCs and neighborhood associations that need help updating their bylaws, understanding what they can and can’t do, or entering into an agreement of some kind. And some of that work also includes forming new entities and helping them get off the ground. Overall, we are working to increase the capacity of neighborhood groups. Neighborhoods are stronger when they can act collectively. So we want to support the structure for residents to be able to work together. The St. Louis Vacancy Collaborative created a map to show where neighborhood associations and other groups exist so we can see what’s being done and what can be done. And we’ve made progress on building the whole ecosystem.
I am thankful to have the job I have because I get to work with students all the time. They go on to do great work after they graduate and they pop back up. Part of how we keep this work going is to bring others into it to work on it together. And then we can better avoid the temptation to think that somehow it all depends on me. What you want to do is set up structures and systems that keep going no matter who is there. Building trust and doing the work is slow. The more I have done this work I just see trust as foundational to everything else. I don’t see how you can move forward on things without having trust. When we talk about community development especially, there’s so much history that is the basis for a lot of distrust. And acknowledging that, understanding it, and being able to sit with it can go a long way toward building trust. From a legal perspective, structures can also make trust happen a little better. For example, in places where there is not a lot of existing trust among residents— you know, “My block is not getting as much attention as yours and the community garden should go here…” — there can be some division and difficulty moving toward collective action. And in the paperwork of these neighborhood associations, we can build structures that reduce some of those barriers. So we can set up rules, like if there are eight board seats, then two people from each quadrant will be elected for representation. Sometimes I’ll suggest things and neighborhoods aren’t there yet. That’s okay. It’s that slow work we often see that doesn’t happen quickly sometimes.
In academia, you spend a lot of time reading things, talking about ideas, proposing solutions to problems — which is all good. I enjoy doing that. But I think this neighborhood, this church, this place is a concrete reminder. It reminds me of why we’re doing this work and that building trust is possible and worth doing. It’s slow work. And there is a richness here. Some of it for me is also just that I’m fascinated by history, especially stories about people, and there’s a lot of that here. That adds a layer of richness you can’t get from just reading an article or a book. It also reminds me that relationships are really important. As a lawyer, you can get caught up in filing paperwork, completing tasks, or drafting things. But you can’t forget that it’s the relationships that matter and that’s how things really get done. So I appreciate the reminder when I come here.
- Dana Malkus, JD, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Director of the Entrepreneurship and Community Development Clinic at Saint Louis University School of Law
