FERGUSON, Missouri — Michael Brown once told his father that “the world will know my name,” words that Michael Brown Sr. still takes to heart.
Friday marks 10 years since the 18-year-old was shot dead by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouriwhich turns the suburb of St. Louis into the focal point of the national reckoning with the historically tense relationship between American law enforcement and black people.
The elder Brown now devotes his time to the Michael Brown Sr. Chosen for Change Organization, a foundation that helps fathers, mothers and children cope with tragedies in their lives. It’s a legacy he feels obligated to pass on under the name he shares with his son.
“He would turn the world upside down,” Brown said of his son. “So I think we do. He’s still doing the work from beyond the grave.”
Brown’s death sparked a sea change in Ferguson. In 2014, every city leader in the majority-black city was white. Today, the mayor, police chief, city attorney and other leaders are black. The predominantly white police force of a decade ago now has more black officers than white ones.
The municipal court system that once collected millions of dollars in fines and fees, often for relatively minor traffic violations — largely paid by poor residents — now collects only a fraction of that amount.
But problems persist. The current and former mayors acknowledge that race still divides the community of 18,000. Some worry that police, wary of criticism, are failing to enforce traffic laws, as serious and sometimes fatal accidents are common.
Michael Brown and a friend were walking down Canfield Drive when Officer Darren Wilson drove up and told them to get on the sidewalk. A fight broke out and the teen ran away in fear for his life.
Although Brown was unarmed, Wilson described Brown as threatening at 6’3″ and claimed he charged at the officer. But some neighbors said Brown had his hands up in surrender when Wilson shot him.
Activist Zaki Baruti spoke of the horror and fear felt by other black residents following Brown’s death.
“There was a sense of shock because people didn’t know what to do,” Baruti said.
James Knowles III, who served as mayor in 2014, believes the widespread anger over Brown’s death was fueled by several factors. Social media helped spread information — and sometimes misinformation — quickly, he said. Neighbors were outraged when Brown’s body was left in the street for more than four hours on that hot August afternoon.
The night after Brown’s death, thousands of protesters marched down West Florissant Avenue, near Canfield. A QuikTrip convenience store was set on fire and goods were stolen from many businesses. Months of violent protests, including tear gassed protesters, quickly thrust the city into the national spotlight.
When St. Louis County District Attorney Bob McCulloch announced in November 2014 that Wilson would not be chargedprotests broke out again.
In 2015, a US Department of Justice investigation also found no grounds to prosecute WilsonBut the report contained a damning indictment of the police department, which important concerns about how officers treated black residents, and about a justice system that created a cycle of debt for many residents. A year later, the city passed a federal consent decree requiring sweeping changes. The decree remains in effect today.
Missouri lawmakers also took action. In 2016, lawmakers passed a law limiting the amount of revenue municipal courts could collect from fines.
In 2013, Ferguson collected $2 million in fines and court costs, according to data from ArchCity Defenders, a civil rights law firm in St. Louis. In 2023, the city collected about $97,000 — a drop of more than 95 percent.
Troy Doyle was a veteran St. Louis County police officer who worked in Ferguson during the 2014 protests. Nearly a decade later, in April 2023, Doyle, who is Black, was hired as Ferguson’s chief — the latest of several hires since Tom Jackson stepped down in 2015following the report of the Ministry of Justice.
In 2014, Ferguson had about 50 white officers, but only three black officers. Today, 22 of Ferguson’s 41 officers are black. Only four officers who were on the force in 2014 remain. Officers are now trained in implicit bias, de-escalation, and community relationship building.
Doyle said he has worked hard to change the mindset of officers who might resist court-ordered requirements, even replacing uniforms and changing the look of patches, badges and police cars, concerned that the old look was “offensive” to many residents.
“For some people who live in the community, every time they saw a Ferguson police officer, it brought back memories,” Doyle said. “I wanted to give us a new look, but part of that new look was to let people know it was a new police station.”
Michael Brown Sr. said he has noticed the change.
“It’s a burden that’s been lifted from the black community in terms of stop-and-frisk and assessing fines,” Brown said. “There’s still a lot of things that need to be done. Those things aren’t promised overnight. It’s a process.”
Following the unrest in Ferguson, a number of businesses and organizations stepped in to create jobs and opportunities, raising awareness of the economic challenges in the community.
Centene Corp. opened a managed care service center in Ferguson in 2016, creating about 250 jobs. But after the COVID-19 pandemic and a shift to virtual work, the center closed. In April, Centene donated the $25 million building to the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis for early childhood programs, employment support and other services.
Bob Clark, founder of St. Louis-based construction company Clayco, founded the Construction Career Development Initiative in 2015. Since then, it has helped 175 people find construction jobs. One of them is Malik Johnson, a high school student who was homeless when Brown died.
“My reality was divorce. My reality was a mother with breast cancer, homeless, hungry,” Johnson, 28, recalls. “Not knowing what tomorrow holds.” Now he’s married, works as a pipe fitter and is planning a family.
After serving three terms as mayor, Knowles resigned from office in 2020 due to the expiration of his term.
Knowles meets regularly for breakfast with Ella Jones, who was elected Ferguson’s first Black mayor in 2020 and re-elected last year. They both acknowledge that race relations remain a struggle.
“The city is coming back,” Jones told the St. Louis Post-Shipping. “That’s really it. Everything here is racially divided.” The city council has four white members and three black members, and little is being done, she lamented.
Knowles sees that too. He also worries about public safety, because many drivers — who know the police are less likely to pull them over — break traffic laws.
He also believes that too much money is being spent on the consent decree, saying that money could be better spent on improving streets, hiring more officers and restoring dilapidated parks.
Karla Scott, a communications professor and former director of the African-American studies program at St. Louis University, says Ferguson will survive because its residents are resilient and proud of their community, even after everything it has been through.
“But I think it will always be sort of the epicenter for many of us who can remember where we were when we heard the news, or for people who went there to show solidarity, to march in solidarity, to make their voices heard,” Scott said. “It will always be the place where the Black Lives Matter movement really took off.”
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This story is part of an ongoing AP series examining the impact, legacy and ripple effects of the so-called Ferguson uprising, which sparked outrage over police brutality against black Americans and broader calls for solutions to deep-seated racial injustices across the country.