A year after Michael Brown's death, Ferguson has changed
A year ago, Ferguson, Missouri, was a mostly quiet working-class suburban town. The uneasy relationship between its growing black population and its mostly white police force barely registered in local headlines.
Everything changed on Aug. 9, 2014, when a white police officer named Darren Wilson shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old. The street confrontation on that sultry day launched the "Black Lives Matter" movement.
Now the city government, and the streets themselves, look much different.
The city has a new police chief, a new city manager and a new municipal judge - all blacks who replaced white leaders. All Ferguson officers wear body cameras. The city council has new members, too, several of whom are black. And the business district that was at the center of last year's sometimes-violent protests is slowly rebuilding.
The unrest that followed the shooting scarred a proud community, which has spent nearly a year trying to atone for past sins and move ahead.
Mayor James Knowles III acknowledged that events after Brown's death exposed fissures that had long existed.
"For whatever reason in the past - either through lack of communication, lack of outreach - there were segments of the community that really felt like they were disaffected and not really part of the community," said Knowles, who is white. "I think a year later, what you see is a community that's much more engaged, wholly engaged."
Adrian Shropshire, 62, and many other Ferguson residents applaud the changes, especially those aimed at overhauling the police force.
"When it comes to the community and law enforcement coming together, we've both dropped the ball,"...
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