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Black woman becomes face of Missouri following NAACP warning

This undated Missouri Division of Tourism ad shows Ashley Santana, a St. Louis-based actress, model and soprano playing a character named Mo for a campaign released Monday, March 15, 2021. Nearly four years after the NAACP warned travelers that their civil rights may not be respected if they visit the state, a Black woman has become the face of Missouri's tourism campaign. (Missouri Division of Tourism via AP). (Uncredited)

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. ā€“ A Black woman has become the face of Missouri's tourism campaign, nearly four years after the NAACP warned travelers that their civil rights may not be respected if they visit the state.

The Missouri Division of Tourism kicked off the campaign Monday, describing the woman the agency dubbed Mo as ā€œa character and tour guide of sorts," the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. She is featured in a promotional video hiking, watching a baseball game and riding a roller coaster. Pictures also show her posing as a Foodie Mo, Barbecue Mo, Lake Mo, History Mo and more.

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ā€œMo embodies Missouri and everything we have to offer visitors in our state,ā€ Stephen Foutes, director of the Division of Tourism, said in the release.

But Missouri NAACP President Nimrod Chapel said the groupā€™s travel advisory will remain in effect until Missouri makes ā€œmeaningful progress in the systemic abuses affecting people of color.ā€ The state group warned travelers to be careful while in the state in June 2017 because of what it described as a danger that civil rights wonā€™t be respected. The national NAACP took up the warning a couple of months later.

ā€œI donā€™t quite understand where theyā€™re going with the campaign, and why put a Black face on it,ā€ Chapel said.

ā€œMissouri is a place that has been marked by violence and Jim Crow,ā€ Chapel said. ā€œItā€™s good that theyā€™re trying to think inclusively for people they should invite to the state,ā€ but it's also unfortunate when the government ā€œhasnā€™t done anything to address those risks in a meaningful way.ā€

Ashley Santana, a St. Louis-based actress, model and soprano, plays Mo. She declined to comment through the agency that represents her.

In a statement emailed to the Post-Dispatch, Foutes did not directly answer whether the casting decision was related to the NAACP advisory.

He said Visit Missouri, the tourism website that features Mo, ā€œauditioned over 200 actors and actresses with strong ties to Missouri. As Mo came to life, we wanted to reflect the down-to-earth, easygoing and inviting personality of Missouri. ā€¦ Weā€™re proud to feature an African American and Missouri native in this campaign to welcome future visitors to Missouri.ā€

Brian Hall, chief marketing officer for Explore St. Louis, said efforts to position St. Louis and Missouri as warm and welcoming have become especially important since Michael Brownā€™s death in 2014 focused the nationā€™s attention on the regionā€™s unresolved racial justice issues.

Though systemic change is still needed, Hall said, the casting of Santana ā€œsends an important signal ... that our state is proud to feature an African American woman as a representative, an ambassadress, for our state.ā€


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