Historic St. Paul AME Honors Community Stalwart for Service
Historic St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church marked the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday with a powerful moment of reflection and recognition, honoring longtime community advocate Eddie Hasan with the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drum Major Award during its Martin Luther King Jr. Honorable Mention Worship Service on Sunday, January 18, 2026.
The service, held at the church’s Hamilton Avenue sanctuary, celebrated lives devoted to justice, faith, and service. Church leaders recognized Hasan for a lifetime of advocacy rooted in Dr. King’s call to confront injustice not only in word, but through sustained action that produces measurable change in people’s lives.
Hasan has spent decades working at the intersection of civil rights, labor, economic equity, and community empowerment. A central part of that legacy includes his leadership with MOKAN, where he emerged as one of the chief architects of the 1999 Highway 70 Shutdown. That bold act of protest brought regional traffic to a standstill and forced statewide attention on the exclusion of minority contractors from publicly funded construction projects.
The shutdown proved to be a turning point. In its aftermath, state officials were compelled to make concessions that expanded access and opportunity for minority-owned firms. For decades following that action, Hasan remained a leading voice and advocate for minority inclusion in construction and public contracting, pressing for accountability, fairness, and transparency in how taxpayer-funded projects were awarded across Missouri.
Beyond his organizing work, Hasan has also played a role in Black media and civic discourse as a past publisher of the historic St. Louis Argus newspaper. The Argus has long served as a platform for Black voices, community concerns, and accountability journalism in the region, reflecting Hasan’s broader commitment to institutions that inform, empower, and mobilize the community.
The service emphasized that Hasan’s life’s work embodied Dr. King’s vision of being a “Drum Major for Justice,” particularly in the later years of King’s ministry, when economic justice and structural inequity became central themes.
The worship service also featured remarks from State Representative Dell Taylor of Missouri’s 84th District, who reflected on Dr. King’s enduring relevance and the responsibility of today’s leaders to translate moral conviction into public action.
Congregants, community leaders, family members, and longtime colleagues gathered to witness the recognition, which was framed not as a conclusion, but as part of an ongoing journey of service.
In honoring Eddie Hasan, Historic St. Paul A.M.E. Church reaffirmed its commitment to lifting up those whose lives reflect faith in action, and to preserving Dr. King’s legacy not as a memory, but as a living charge to pursue justice, equity, and dignity for all.
