On Saturday, the African People’s Education and Defense Fund (APEDF) held a grand opening of the Black Power Vanguards Community Basketball Court in north St. Louis. The event included a series of guest speakers and cultural artists, with live reggae music, the Dazzling Dancing Divas dance team and a ribbon-cutting with three-time Olympic gold medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee.
The celebration in the city’s Fairground neighborhood was attended by about 100 people, who stood along the court’s borders, sat on bleachers, and even perched on the trunks of their cars.
Established in 1994, the APEDF works to defend human and civil rights of the African community through interdisciplinary projects in Oakland, St. Louis, Philadelphia and St. Petersburg, Florida. Locally, the APEDF has built a community center, created gardens and murals and runs a farmers market in north city’s O’Fallon neighborhood.
In an area filled with vacant buildings and untrimmed lots, the basketball court is startling to the eye with its vibrant reds and greens. Ona Zene Yeshitela, president of the APEDF, described the court as a representation of the pride and economic development of the Black community in north St. Louis.
“The reason why we built the court was because when we drove up, [the kids] had makeshift basketball hoops in the center of the street, and the cars were passing by fast,” Yeshitela said. “So we decided to build a court to get them off the street, get them into physical activity that could help motivate them to do something more.”
In total, the APEDF has invested more than $1 million in the revitalization of north St. Louis, according to Yeshitela. The site on which the court was built previously held vacant buildings owned by the St. Louis Land Reutilization Authority.
“We are tired of living in circumstances where children cannot see the sky, and they can’t see the sky because of artificial limitations that have been imposed on us, in many instances at gunpoint,” said Omali Yeshitela, chairman of the African People’s Socialist Party and leader of the international Uhuru movement (and Ona Zene’s husband). “Instead of a sky, what they see is bombed out buildings all around us.”
The development of the court involved a two-and-a-half-year fundraising effort, as well as six months of construction. With donors from all over the world and in St. Louis, the APEDF raised $160,000.
The new court in north St. Louis comes amid recent city efforts to add basketball courts to Forest Park and Tower Grove Park.
Omali Yeshitela revealed that some older members of the community opposed the construction of the court, saying, “Black people are just going to come out and kill each other.”
“We have a responsibility ourselves as Black people to protect the kind of world that we want to live in,” he said. “We come here and create conditions where young people can see the future, so they don’t see each other as the enemy.”
An attendee, who gave her name only as Amber, watched people play basketball from the street, a hot dog in hand. Asked what she hoped the community would get out of the court, Amber laughed.
“Less killing,” she said. “Send the kids back outside because they don’t play anymore, they’re just on their phones. Hopefully they can get along now.”
Currently, the APEDF is working on fundraising for the construction of the Uhuru Wa Kulea Health Center, a Black-led wellness education center scheduled for completion in 2024.
“We are fighting for small businesses and the entire Black community to be able to transform our neighborhoods, our homes, and enterprises,” Ona Zene Yeshitela said. “This means that residents are empowered to participate not just in their voices, but with ownership of properties, resources, and control of our communities."
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