October 4, 2024
(St. Louis, MO) – ArchCity Defenders is celebrating 15 years of service and action on Saturday, October 5, 2024, at the Saint Louis Science Center.
Since 2009, ArchCity Defenders (ACD), a holistic legal advocacy organization, has grown from its three founders volunteering part-time to a full-time staff of 36 providing direct services to people entangled by the for-profit municipal court system. In the past decade, the organization has increasingly challenged the legal system’s inherent proclivity for profit and punishment through litigation, media and policy advocacy, social services, and community organizing.
“For fifteen years, ArchCity Defenders has been committed to fighting back against poverty, racism, and state violence in St. Louis and beyond,” said Executive Director Blake Strode. “We are very proud of what we have accomplished in that time alongside our clients and partners. But we know that we have a very long way to go, so we are as dedicated as ever to carrying that fight forward in the years to come.”
Within the first five years, ACD began exposing and challenging systemic abuses of the legal system. Court watch and legal representation led to the authoring of a municipal courts white paper, which garnered significant attention during the Ferguson Uprising. During this time, ACD filed its first federal lawsuit, preventing police from further deploying teargas on protesters. At the time, the staff consisted of a small team of attorneys and paralegals, who went on to represent dozens of individuals’ municipal and criminal cases from the Uprising.
With increased interest in the work, ACD added roles to the team and expanded its public advocacy. A small civil rights litigation unit began bringing systemic challenges to policing, debtors’ prisons, jail conditions, criminalization of protest, cash bail, and other constitutional issues— initially in St. Louis, and later, outstate Missouri.
Between 2014 and 2024, ArchCity Defenders filed 52 lawsuits, alleging unlawful practices in 20 municipalities spanning across eight counties. Often working with local or national co-counsel, ArchCity Defenders filed 75% of these cases between 2014 to 2019. As of July 2024, 34 cases settled with monetary and/or injunctive relief (a court order requiring defendants to take up or refrain from certain activities to prevent future harm), four lawsuits were dismissed, and 14 remain pending. In total, the federal courts have ordered defendants to pay $26.7 million in monetary damages to thousands of people impacted by systemic abuses sanctioned by local governments through their police, courts, and jails.
Coupled with reforms and advocacy, the litigation effectively brought municipalities into closer compliance with existing legal requirements, notably curtailing the unconstitutional practice of jailing thousands of poor and primarily Black people in the St. Louis region. These cases also created influential precedents. In ten separate cases, federal district courts ruled favorably and denied motions to apply qualified immunity in police abuse lawsuits, expanding opportunities for legal redress.
ACD’s recently released project, “Pay or Stay,” which includes an updated white paper on municipal courts, illustrates how the mobilization, litigation, and advocacy on all sides of the issue led to the most sweeping municipal court reform in our state’s history. The paper states, “tickets and warrants issued, and revenue generation have significantly decreased” and cautions, “although the courts are not as profitable as they once were, they still operate as businesses sustained by their bottom line and as machinery to control the behavior and movement of its targets.”
“Compared to 15 years ago, people were afraid to go to court in St. Louis, and it didn’t matter which municipality you went to. Especially speaking about traffic, I hope it doesn’t go back,” said Nicole Bolden, an ACD client and plaintiff. “I also know that we have to keep pushing for a lot of change.”
“Expired tags are the new pullover. Now they’re checking your tags when you’re getting ready to go to the park on a Sunday to relax,” said Umi Okoli, a client and plaintiff of ArchCity Defenders. “Why can’t you get your tag? It’s usually a problem with paying taxes and money. Who does that affect? The underserved. People who are poor.”
“Our clients are at the core of ArchCity Defenders. Our legal representation, lawsuits, campaigns, media, and publications all stem from the experiences of our clients. Holistic, to us, means connecting all these pieces together,” says Z Gorley, Communications Director.
Since 2016, ArchCity Defenders has generated more than 1,000 news clips, collaborated with documentary filmmakers, produced the podcast “Under the Arch,” with Action St. Louis, and expanded its multimedia platform with over 100 videos, 20 publications, and 100 hours of audio content. ACD’s award winning “Justice for Some” campaign, scaffolded with in-kind support from HLK agency, reached 3.7 million viewers.
Since 2019, the team and partnering organizations have anchored three campaigns, Close the Workhouse, Defund. Re-envision. Transform., and We the Tenants; a policy platform called “The People’s Plan St. Louis”; the Fatal State Violence Project; and the Prosecutor Organizing Table. Together, these grassroots efforts have mobilized numerous organizations and residents to close a jail, pass right to counsel legislation, establish an impacted tenant’s fund, ban no-knock warrants, advocate for a reparations committee, and support a community-driven transformation of the former Workhouse jail and land.
Through the years, direct representation has remained a cornerstone of ArchCity Defenders, providing holistic legal services to thousands of clients impacted by the criminalization of poverty and state violence. ACD has successfully defended protesters in every local major protest movement. In 2013, ACD established case law protecting tenants’ rights that is frequently cited to this day. Since 2019, our team has made over 2,800 court appearances and resolved over 3,200 legal matters, securing at least 900 dismissals. ACD took on a multimillion-dollar corporation and won a class action lawsuit helping 250 tenants in Ferguson, Missouri. While the focus has been in St. Louis, the team has represented clients in 27 counties, and at every level of court in Missouri.
ACD has been providing holistic services to clients since our inception, and the formalization of the social services department in 2020 exemplifies one way it has grown as a client-centered organization. With a dedicated team, ACD has helped 400 people avoid homelessness or move into permanent housing, facilitated $617,000 in assistance, and helped hundreds of clients recover from the setbacks of being caused by the legal system. Year round, ACD supports clients struggling with unlivable wages, inadequate resources, and inflation by delivering food to clients and holding an annual gift drive.
Over the years, ACD’s holistic direct services have helped clients resolve legal issues and regain stability in such a way that they often become powerful advocates exposing the abuses of the legal system. Saturday’s Showcase will reflect on the organization’s 15-year history and invite supporters to get behind the work to build a more just future.
A limited number of tickets remain for Saturday’s event and may be purchased online: bit.ly/ACD15years nds of poor and Black people.
###
Media Contact:
Z Gorley, Director of Communications, ArchCity Defenders
zgorley@archcitydefenders.org
(314) 643-2463