Listen to story:

Download: mp3 (Duration: 18:50)

FEATURING BRIAN WILLIAMS - On August 9, 2014, a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, shot and killed a Black teenager named Mike Brown in the middle of the street. His body lay where it fell for four hours in the hot sun. Residents posted details about the gruesome murder to social media and called local news outlets and soon protests began and ballooned into what became known as the Ferguson uprising. The slogan Black Lives Matter, which had been coined a year earlier when Trayvon Martin’s killer was exonerated, became a popular rallying cry in Ferguson and beyond. Brown’s killing alerted the nation to the fact that Ferguson’s Black residents had been subjected to decades of systemic harassment, targeting, and discrimination by police. Now, on the 10th anniversary of the summer that set the stage for the 2020 racial justice uprising, we look back at where Ferguson is now.

Already have an account? Sign in