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Growing Up Apart

Will Rivers and Brandon King during their first reporting trip to cover a Ferguson Commission meeting at the Florissant Valley campus of St. Louis Community College that focused on youth issues.
Jane Bannester
/
Ritenour High School
Will Rivers and Brandon King during their first reporting trip to cover a Ferguson Commission meeting at the Florissant Valley campus of St. Louis Community College that focused on youth issues.

Now that we've looked at the jigsaw puzzle of St. Louis County, we consider the children. In a place where people from different backgrounds — and especially different races — seldom live next to each other, we ask the question: What does that mean for kids?

We met students from across the St. Louis region as they consider their views on race. Whether it's students from predominantly white high schools or predominantly black, they don't want to inherit the segregated system that exists now.

But changing it isn't as easy as they think.

We also met students in a journalism class at one of the few racially mixed high schools in the region: Ritenour. Will Rivers and Brandon King have been close friends for years. Brandon is white, Will is black. But it wasn't until they reported on a region-wide summit on race that they actually discussed race and racism with each other. We explore how that could happen as well.

Our theme music is written by Cassie Morgan. With additional music from The Bullitts Featuring Lucy Liu & Jay Electronica, Syna So Pro and Middle Class Fashion.

Special thanks this week to Jane Bannester and her students at Ritneour High School.

Emanuele Berry is a 2012 graduate of Michigan State University. Prior to coming to St. Louis she worked as a talk show producer at WKAR Public Radio in Michigan. Emanuele also interned at National Public Radio, where she worked at the Arts and Information Desk. Her work has been recognized by the Michigan Association of Broadcasters, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Radio Television Digital News Association and the Hearst Journalism Awards Program. Berry worked with St. Louis Public Radio from 2014 to 2015.
Tim Lloyd was a founding host of We Live Here from 2015 to 2018 and was the Senior Producer of On Demand and Content Partnerships until Spring of 2020.