Nearly a year after Michael Brown's death, Ferguson residents move toward healing

Luke Skywalker · Aug 7, 2015

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[h=4]Nearly a year after Michael Brown's death, Ferguson residents move toward healing[/h]Along West Florissant Avenue, one of the city's main thoroughfares, buildings set ablaze by protesters have been demolished and cleaned away.

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A year after the shooting of Michael Brown, Ferguson, Mo., residents say the city is healing. With the community taking steps toward a change, they remain hopeful about the future. Yamiche Alcindor, Aaron Nah

This undated photo provided by the Brown family shows Michael Brown. Brown was shot and killed on Aug. 9, 2014, by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo.(Photo: Michael Brown family via AP)

FERGUSON, Mo.—*Nearly a*year after Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson killed unarmed black teen*Michael*Brown,*Dionne Henderson, who heard the gunshots and ran out to the street,*still isn't sure what to think of the incident.
Part of her believes Wilson, who is white, shot in self defense to*protect*himself, but she also*mourns the loss of an 18-year-old and feels unsettled when*she recalls his*body lying in the hot sun for hours just outside her Canfield Green apartment. She is sure of one thing, however: She wants to move out of Canfield Green Apartments, as many of her neighbors have done, before the Aug. 9 anniversary of Brown's death.
"I want to move out because soon it will be the 9th and I know people are going to be back here. I'll have to take back roads to get home," said Henderson, a retired bus driver who has lived in the apartment complex for two years. "In a way, I'm proud that all kinds*of people can stick together and protest. But, people were also out there so-called protesting, robbing stores and stuff like that. That's the sad part."
Hundreds of protesters descended on the city in the days after Brown's death.*A second wave of protests turned violent on Nov. 24, following a grand jury decision not to indict Wilson. In March, the*Justice Department announced it would not*bring criminal charges against the officer, saying in an 86-page memorandum*that Wilson acted in*self-defense.
USA TODAY
Ferguson burning after grand jury announcement

While Henderson, 42, contemplates her future, she and many other residents hope*this small St. Louis suburb*can one day shed its reputation as ground zero for America's race problems.*Residents and the city's leadership say life here is improving.
The city's new interim police chief, city manager and municipal judge say they are committed to helping change systemic problems that plagued the police department and court systems. National companies, such as Starbucks, plan to open stores here. A new*Boys and Girls Club recently opened.
Along West Florissant Avenue, one of the city's main thoroughfares, buildings set ablaze*by protesters*have been demolished and cleaned away. In the afternoons, people saunter around town, dipping into local restaurants and stores. Artists painted colorful images on boarded up*building, creating rows of cheerful murals.
Yet local businesses still struggle and some residents say they haven't fully processed seeing*protests consume their city.
USA TODAY
Michael Brown, Sr.: 'A piece of me is gone'

Charles Davis, who opened Ferguson Burger Bar the day before Brown's death, lost thousands of dollars over the past year as police shut down streets during the unrest. With customers unable to access the restaurant,*meat rotted and goods went to waste. Yet, Davis, who also lives in Ferguson, never boarded up his business and credits God for protecting it from any physical damage by looters. Business*is slower than he'd like, but he is convinced better days are ahead.
"Throughout history, it has always taken an unfortunate situation in order to make things better or have a positive change," Davis, 48, who is black, said. "The good thing is, this has brought people together who*never really sat down and talked to each other. It's brought different races together."
Doug*Taylor recently moved his auto repair shop into a space right next to where crowds of people burned down a QuikTrip convenience store*the day after Brown's death. The previous owner lamented last year that the protests damaged cars in for repair.*Now that man lives in Virginia, Taylor says,*and Taylor* is happily fixing cars of Ferguson residents.
Taylor, who is white, grew up in north St. Louis County and has hired Devan Lee, a black 22-year-old, through YouthBuild USA, a program that connects low-income young people with job training opportunities. Taylor said he feels confident that his business is safe and hopes people of all races will learn to put Ferguson's past behind them.*Next door, the Urban League has*plans to build an empowerment center to*give young unemployed or underemployed young people training before matching them with jobs.
"Everybody needs to get along with this black and white issue," Taylor, 50, said. "God put us here for a reason, to get along."

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It's been nearly one year since Michael Brown, Jr., was shot and killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo. His father talks about his son's impact and the ongoing changes in the St. Louis suburb. VPC

Lee, who had been arrested for*stealing cars,*agrees. He appreciates Taylor giving him a chance and hopes to turn his life around as well. "I really want to own my own shop in Ferguson," he said. "I see what this can do for the community and the state we are in now."
The protests prompted political change. In a city where 67% of the 21,000 residents are black, the majority of its political leaders at the time of the shooting were white.*Ferguson's police chief, city manager and a judge*at the time of the shooting, who are all white, resigned after the Justice Department issued its critical report.*Interim Police Chief Andre Anderson began*work July 22 and the city hired*Interim City Manager Ed Beasley on*June 9. Both men are black.
USA TODAY
Ferguson, Mo., police chief resigns

In April, Ferguson residents elected*two black city council members, putting blacks in control of the half the city council for the first time in Ferguson's history.*The election marked increased civic activism, with 29% of eligible voters casting more than 3,700 ballots*–*more than double the 12% of eligible voters who*came out for last April's mayoral election.
Wesley Bell, one of the newly elected black city council members, said Ferguson has an opportunity to implement broad, sustainable changes that can have*positive ripple effects around the world. He added, however, that the city is still wrestling with issues like institutional racism that permeate the country.
"You can't fully heal until you've identified not just the symptoms but the actual affliction," Bell said. "There are issues that have predated Ferguson. There are issues that have afflicted us nationally, regionally. Those issues have to be addressed before we can say that we are fully healed."
Ferguson's Mayor James Knowles*III, points to federal issues such as the No Child Left Behind law, a controversial federal program aimed at making every child in every state proficient in math and reading, and a lack of jobs across the country as things that affect Ferguson, but are outside of its leaders hands. Knowles said he will*embark on a "listening tour" to learn about residents' concerns after a recent petition fell 27 signatures short of forcing a recall election. The*best change from the past year's unrest, he said,**was an increase in political engagement by residents.
"My hopes for Ferguson this coming year are that residents who have begun to have their voices heard over the past year will stay engaged, will become part of the process, (and) will help bring this community closer together," Knowles, 36, said.

Police in riot gear pass one of their burning cars during clashes following the grand jury decision in the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., on Nov. 24.*(Photo: Jewel Samad, AFP/Getty Images)

In other aspects, the city has been slower to change.
Five months after the Justice Department found*the Ferguson police department engaged in a broad pattern of racially biased enforcement, federal authorities and the city's*attorney remain locked in negotiations about how to move forward. Just five of the city's 50 police officers are black, including the*interim police chief.
Sgt. Dominica Fuller, a 17-year-veteran of the Ferguson police department and a black woman, says she's never seen her colleagues display racist behavior.*She declined to talk about Wilson, but said she looks forward to more community policing so*officers can get*to know the people they serve. She's also welcomed the chance to use the city's new international status for good.
"In the beginning you didn't know anything about Ferguson, you didn't even know where we were in the city or county of St. Louis, Mo.," she said. "Ferguson has an opportunity shine,*to take something that was dealt to us and turn it into a positive."
Now, like many, Brian Fletcher, a city councilman and former mayor, hopes*Ferguson will turn the corner on its tumultuous past and become a model for the nation.
"If you look at Wikipedia and look up the history of Ferguson, it's primarily about Michael Brown, even though our city is 120 years old," Fletcher said. "I hope in a few years, it will be talking about how we rebounded both economically and how we've come together as a community to work together for the betterment of all people."

At the Michael Brown memorial.*(Photo: Nick Oza for USA TODAY)

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Nearly a year after Michael Brown's death, Ferguson residents move toward healing

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