Residents of Ferguson, Mo., reflect on how the city has changed since a white police officer killed a black teenager in 2014. The death of Michael Brown sparked huge demonstrations.
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A decade ago, Ferguson, Mo., a predominantly Black city just outside of St. Louis, was thrust into the spotlight. A white police officer killed Michael Brown Jr., a Black 18-year-old. His death sparked months of demonstrations and calls for police reform. And Ferguson residents say there has been some progress over the last 10 years, but there are still challenges. St. Louis Public Radio’s Andrea Henderson reports.
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ANDREA HENDERSON, BYLINE: Ten years ago, one corner of West Florissant Avenue in Ferguson became ground zero for demonstrators. It had been the site of a gas station, but enraged protesters set it on fire after the police killing of Michael Brown Jr. Now, the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis and the Salvation Army operate a community hub where there’s job training and other services. In recent days, a memorial art exhibit about Brown’s life has been on display.
MALIK TAYLOR: As soon as you walk in, you just basically just feel, like, the chill.
HENDERSON: That’s Malik Taylor, a local rapper and the community center’s youth job coach. Taylor takes a look at the photos of the Black Lives Matter protest, a huge painting of Brown that hangs from the ceiling and a life-size sculpture of him as a student.
TAYLOR: You know, you feel like it’s 10 years ago again, kind of. And I think that’s the purpose of it – to have to put you in that mindset so that we don’t forget.
HENDERSON: Melanie Randels, a community organizer, helped put the exhibit together. The 38-year-old mother moved to Ferguson three months before the uprisings. She says, over the past decade, it seems Black people in Ferguson have learned to take better care of themselves.
MELANIE RANDELS: So understanding mental health to understanding the stages of grief, how PTSD had inadvertently affected many of us.
HENDERSON: Still, Randels says many Black residents suffer from the trauma of overpolicing in Ferguson – a condition the Department of Justice noted when it investigated Ferguson’s police and municipal courts after Brown’s death. The DOJ found the courts violated residents’ civil rights and called for changes, including requiring police to wear body cameras and changing policies around use of force. In the past 10 years, there’s been five permanent police chiefs in Ferguson. Randels says Black drivers may not be pulled over as much, but the relationship with police is still frayed.
RANDELS: You just keep changing the people that’s going to have to keep operating under the same system. Until the system that we are fighting against is dismantled and a new system is created, we are fighting an uphill battle.
HENDERSON: The head of St. Louis County NAACP, John Bowman, agrees that policing is still a concern, but he says there has been improvement in other areas.
JOHN BOWMAN: You even have health care centers built over there now. The other thing, I think, that has really been a positive direction is the number of Black business owners in Ferguson. They have grown tremendously.
HENDERSON: And include restaurants, coffee shops and clothing boutiques. Bowman says one of the movement’s greatest accomplishments, though, is the rise in younger Black politicians, community organizers and activists. One of those politicians is Ella Jones, Ferguson’s first Black mayor, who was elected in 2020.
HENDERSON: At the grand opening of a community center in the area, Jones says there’s still much work to do when it comes to race relations in Ferguson. She says, her toughest challenge is getting more people involved in city government to help create inclusivity.
ELLA JONES: You have to be mindful that no growth, no equality, no diversity can happen without people. And it cannot happen without people who are not willing to work together to move not only their ideas forward but move the community forward.
HENDERSON: And residents here say that’s exactly what’s needed to make sure there’s positive change in their cities 10 years after the uprisings.
For NPR News, I’m Andrea Henderson in Ferguson.
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