ferguson
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Five Years After Mike Brown, Police Brutality Is Still Harming Black Communities
It’s been five years since Mike Brown, an unarmed teen from Ferguson, Mo., was shot and killed by Darren Wilson, a white police officer. Ahead of the anniversary, I brought together three experts who tackle the issues of police brutality and anti-racism in their daily work to discuss what has—and hasn’t—changed in the half a decade…
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Lezley McSpadden Loses 1st Ferguson City Council Race
Lezley McSpadden, mother of Michael Brown, lost a hotly contested 3-way race for a seat on Ferguson’s city council Tuesday night. Had she won, McSpadden would have helped oversee the police force whose officer shot and killed her son in 2014. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Fran Griffin, a local activist and organizer who…
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Danye Jones' Death Is Being Investigated as a Suicide. But His Mother, a Ferguson Activist, Says It's a Lynching
A rally and news conference have been organized today by the family of Danye Jones, a 24-year-old man who was found dead, hanging from a tree on his family’s property, earlier this month. St. Louis County says they are investigating Jones’ death as a suicide. But his mother, Melissa McKinnies, a prominent protester who helped…
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Telling Untold Stories: Playwright and Performer Dael Orlandersmith Gets Under Our Skin
A community in the aftermath of unrest. The painful legacy of abuse, as experienced by black boys and men. The intimately insidious effects of colorism. The remembrance of a life lived and love lost, inspired by a chance encounter with a famously tragic jazz singer. Playwright and actor Dael Orlandersmith’s particular skill is to tell…
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Failed Ferguson, Mo., Prosecutor Bob McCulloch Headlined a Conference for District Attorneys. It Did Not Go Well
Nearly four years after failing to indict Darren Wilson in the death of Michael Brown Jr., a black man; only days after losing his re-election bid to Wesley Bell, a black man; an Oregon organization thought St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch would be the perfect person to headline its annual conference of district…
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Ferguson Uprising: Prosecutor Who Didn't Bring Charges in Michael Brown Shooting Loses Primary to Black Councilman
The ashes of the Ferguson, Mo., uprising have given way to the ouster of a longstanding St. Louis County prosecuting attorney who not only led the investigation into the shooting death of unarmed teenager Michael Brown by white police officer Darren Wilson, but took a moment to chastise the public who demanded that Wilson be…
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The Edge of 17: For Ahkeem Is a Coming-of-Age Story in the Age of Ferguson
Fun fact: I was expelled from preschool at age 4 during a brief stint when my mother and I had moved to Dallas. From the little I recall, I was one of very few black students at my private day school. My expulsion came after I defended myself against another little girl—not black—who’d been harassing…
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Exclusive: Lezley McSpadden on Why She’s Considering a Run for Ferguson, Mo., City Council
On April 23, something unexpected happened to me. I woke up that morning to fly to Boston for a screening and panel discussion about my new documentary, Stranger Fruit, at Harvard’s prestigious Institute of Politics. The panel—with the film’s director, Jason Pollock, and my attorney, Benjamin Crump—was very moving. At one point during the panel,…