With My People: Life, Justice, and Activism Beyond the University

A memoir of hard-fought lessons and the price for justice.

When the local government in Ferguson, Missouri, and federal authorities failed in their duty to serve justice in 2014, college sophomore Jonathan Pulphus committed to being in the streets and battling for justice in the wake of Michael Brown Jr.'s murder. This story traces a nine-month journey toward justice. Despite mistakes, student activists made extraordinary strides toward transforming the community. Many people aspire to fight for something larger than themselves and to make an impact. Few understand what it takes to sustain a movement. Even fewer know the expenses at which gains are made.

People would like for you to believe protest is an ineffective tool for change, but history tells us that student activism has been a formidable force leading to substantive change throughout history. Student activism has played a large role in societal transformation--consider the 1964 Mississippi Delta or Apartheid Soweto. Today's students continue this legacy but tell a new story, like that of the Ferguson Uprising.

We know why people, especially students, become involved in community organizing. But how should students organize? With My People answers this fundamental and crucial question by bringing together ethnography and notes on community-building, taking readers on a yearlong journey from the front lines of Ferguson to undergraduate campus life at Saint Louis University. Using Pulphus's account of events and notes to students, With My People reveals how youth can navigate setbacks to resist state violence and create opportunities for justice to prevail.

Jonathan Pulphus (he/him) is an equity advocate and organizer. He is from St. Louis, Missouri, and graduated from Saint Louis University in 2017 with a BA in African American Studies and a minor in Women and Gender Studies. While in attendance, he was awarded the James D. Collins Award for academic excellence and the Jamala Rogers Young Visionary Award for community service. Pulphus's commitment to service and organizing helped lead to the signing of the Clock Tower Accords, an agreement from SLU to work and equity. He served as the president of Saint Louis University's Black Student Alliance and was cofounder of Tribe X, a community organization.