Ferguson marks the 10th anniversary of Michael Brown’s death. While some progress has been made, challenges remain.

“He was going to rock the world,” Brown said of his son. “So I guess that’s what we’re doing. He’s still doing the work from the grave.”

Brown’s death catalyzed a massive shift in Ferguson. In 2014, all of the city’s leaders were white in a majority-black city. Today, the mayor, police chief, city attorney and other leaders are black. The mostly 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 (paid mostly by poor residents), now collects only a fraction of that amount.

But problems persist. The current and previous mayors acknowledge that race still divides the community of 18,000 residents. Some worry that police, wary of criticism, are failing to enforce traffic laws, as serious and sometimes fatal accidents are common.

What happened on August 9, 2014?

Michael Brown and a friend were walking along Canfield Drive when Officer Darren Wilson approached them and told them to get on the sidewalk. A fight ensued and, fearing for his life, the teen ran away.

Although Brown was unarmed, Wilson described him as a menacing 6-foot-4-inch man and said he lunged at the officer. But nearby residents said Brown had his hands up in surrender when Wilson shot him.

Activist Zaki Baruti recalled the horror and fear felt by other black residents after Brown’s death.

“There was a feeling of shock, of not knowing what to do,” Baruti said.

James Knowles III, who was mayor in 2014, believes the widespread anger over Brown’s death was due to several factors. Social media allowed information — and sometimes misinformation — to spread quickly, he said. Neighbors were outraged when Brown’s body was left abandoned in the street for more than four hours on that hot August afternoon.

The night after Brown was killed, thousands of protesters marched down West Florissant Avenue near Canfield. A QuikTrip convenience store was set on fire and merchandise was stolen from many businesses. Months of fierce protests, in which demonstrators were tear-gassed, soon thrust the city into the national spotlight.

When St. Louis County District Attorney Bob McCulloch announced in November 2014 that Wilson would not be charged, protests erupted again.

What changed in Ferguson?

In 2015, a U.S. Justice Department investigation also found no grounds to prosecute Wilson, but the report issued a scathing critique of the police department, raising significant concerns about officers’ treatment of black residents and a court system that created a cycle of debt for many residents. A year later, the city agreed to a federal consent decree requiring sweeping changes. The decree is still ongoing.

Missouri lawmakers also stepped in. In 2016, they passed a law limiting the amount of revenue municipal courts could collect from fines.

In 2013, Ferguson collected $2 million in fines and court fees, according to data from ArchCity Defenders, a St. Louis-based civil rights law firm. In 2023, the city collected about $97,000, a decrease of more than 95%.

A new look for the police

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 resigned in 2015 following the Justice Department report.

In 2014, Ferguson had approximately 50 white officers, but only three black officers. Today, 22 of Ferguson’s 41 officers are black. Only four officers remain who were on staff in 2014. Today, officers receive training on implicit bias, de-escalation and community relationship building.

Doyle said he has worked hard to change the mindset of officers who might resist the court-imposed requirements. He even replaced uniforms and changed the look of patches, badges and police cars, worried that the old look would be “triggering” for 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 it a new image, but part of that new image was letting people know it was a new police department.”

Michael Brown Sr. said he noticed the change.

“It’s a weight that’s been lifted off the shoulders of the black community in terms of stop-and-frisk and assessing fines,” Brown said. “There’s a lot of things that still need to be done. Those things aren’t promised overnight. It’s a process.”

More jobs and a helping hand

Some businesses and organizations stepped in to create jobs and opportunities after the unrest in Ferguson, raising awareness of economic challenges in the community.

Centene Corp. opened a managed care services center in Ferguson in 2016, creating about 250 jobs. But after the COVID-19 pandemic and the transition 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, workforce assistance and other services.

Bob Clark, founder of the St. Louis-based construction company Clayco, created the Construction Career Development Initiative in 2015. Since then, 175 people have found jobs in the construction industry. Among them is Malik Johnson, a high school student who was homeless at the time of Brown’s death.

“My reality was divorce. My reality was being a mother with breast cancer, homeless, hungry,” Johnson, 28, recalls. “Not knowing what tomorrow will be like.” He is now married, has a job as a pipefitter and is planning to start a family.

But challenges remain

After serving three terms as mayor, Knowles left office in 2020 due to term limits.

Knowles frequently meets for breakfast with Ella Jones, who was elected Ferguson’s first Black mayor in 2020 and re-elected last year. Both acknowledge that race relations remain an issue.

“The city is going backwards,” Jones told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “It really is. Everything here is based on racial criteria.” The City Council has four white members and three black members, and little is done, he lamented.

Knowles sees it that way, too. He’s also concerned about public safety, as many drivers, aware that they’re less likely to be stopped by the police, break traffic rules.

He also believes too much money is being spent on the consent decree — money he says would be better spent on fixing streets, hiring more officers and restoring run-down parks.

The place where Black Lives Matter took off

Karla Scott, a communications professor and former director of the African American Studies program at St. Louis University, said 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 kind of an epicenter for a lot of us who remember where we were when we heard the news, or for people who came out to demonstrate in 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.”