A day after an informative Ward Connerly interview on The Real Deal Radio Show, The St. Louis American has a story about a group of demonstrators who protested Monday outside the National Baptist Convention. The convention is currently being held at the America’s Center downtown. As we reported last month, this is not the only trouble brewing for the Visitors and Convention Bureau.

Now, we’re all for free speech and peaceful civil disobedience, but protesting at a church convention???

From The St. Louis American:

By Alvin A. Reid

Activist Anthony Shahid led a boisterous protest outside America’s Center on Monday based on concerns that the St. Louis Visitor’s Convention Center does not hire enough African-American workers.

In a June 12 letter to CVC President Kitty Ratcliffe, Shahid called on the CVC to “level the playing field to avoid a mass boycott of (America’s Center), which would deter would-be convention vendors, participants and contractors from doing business with the City of St. Louis.”

The protest was staged during the National Baptist Congress 102nd Congress of Christian Education, which attracted more than 35,000 visitors this week.

A source close to negotiations between Shahid and Ratcliffe said the protest stems from a pair of dissatisfied Teamsters who were not hired to work during the National Rifle Association convention in St. Louis earlier this year. Read more…