CRE 287 The Future Before Us: Fundamental change has eluded movements that flourished in Ferguson: But their promise is still unfolding

 

CRE 287 The Future Before Us: Fundamental change has eluded movements that flourished in Ferguson: But their promise is still unfolding

1.      On the night that the body of Michael Brown Jr. lay on the streets -Ferguson was in the midst of a riot.

2.      What makes a single event far outlive the moment of its occurrence

a.      Causes it to become a part of history

b.      No one could have predicted the repercussions of August 9, 2014

                        i.      And endless series of street executions by cops patrolling St. Louis and it surrounds

              ii.      That cop was white the boy black

c.      Something else happened that day, something was broken by force and intent

d.      It was a time of breaking -the peaceful façade of coexistence

e.      Young black dissidents have taken over the streets

f.        They were not protestors or activists

g.       They were the vanguard of resistance against an oppressive force

h.      Called into question the nature and origin of oppression.

3.      Something was also being created out of grief, the rage =new solidarities were formed

a.      new visions, fueled by the organizers, visual artists, musicians, photographers, and storytellers of St Louis

b.      Ferguson -suburban municipality of 20,000 people

                      i.      Transformed into universal symbol of struggle for human rights

        ii.      Dignity that traveled from Hollywood to the White House

            iii.      Across the ocean to the United Nation

                iv.      Homegrown rebellion -changed the debate in public life across the globe

                 v.      Leadership was listening to the voices of thousands of young black people and their allies

 

1.      In the streets, county councils, and shopping malls.

 

2.      Their voices shouted -let’s make a deal -your peace for our justice.

4.      New vocabulary proliferated reflecting a new consciousness

a.      New words such as white privilege, systemic racism and racial equity

5.      Subsequent months and years have forced many to acknowledge that the region would have to change

a.      high profile Department of Justice investigation of corruption and abuse within criminal legal system of Ferguson

                                                              i.      also implicated St. Louis region

                                                             ii.      established largest federal Promise Zone in country

1.      promise being an infusion of millions of dollars into majority Black North St. Louis city and County

2.      wave of appointed and elected Black leadership at city, county, and municipal levels

3.      sustained pressure, legislation, and litigation driving down St. Louis notoriously high levels of tickets, warrants, and debtors prison revenues

 4.      statewide progressive policy changes through popular ballot initiatives

    a.      minimum wage increases in 2018

    b.      marijuana legalization four years later    

    c.      slew of commitments made to honor the 189 calls to action crafted by public engagement process and recorded in the report by the Ferguson Commission

5.      These shifts/concessions were answers to different set of questions forged from flames of uprising

    a.      About who we are, how we have come to this place, and what is required for us to escape fully

    b.      What is our collective ambition to upend prevailing social relations,

    c.      Reconceptualize major pillars of our public life from safety to housing to democracy, rearrange the economic order and dismantle racial capitalism

    d.      The response -very little.

6.      The fundamentals have remained unchanged as the propensity for honest introspection has diminished

a.      Liberals and centrists argue that we must moderate radical impulses lest we lend fuel to the neofascist flames now raging.

b.      While some argue that moderation only serves to preserve the system

c.      We cannot deny the courage of the youth that forced us to contemplate the revolutionary possibilities of the moment and the future

d.      The future is indeed unfolding, and it challenges us to envision a liberatory political reality.

7.      The condition of social and economic precarity disproportionately afflict Black people in this country

8.      A result of generational theft, malicious social policy and poorly concealed structural violence

a.      The problem is not blackness but structural racism and systems of oppression.

b.      It is not black pathology but pathological systems

9.      What remains from the mainstream narratives is the recognition of the sheer genius of the rebellion.

a.      Took the form of powerful oratory and creative rhetorical strategies

                          i.      Reflected in chants, songs, signage, and social media hashtags

                      ii.      New forms of digital organizing

                  iii.      Effective and distributed leadership

 

1.      Strikingly femme and queer

2.      That kept ordinary people engaged, and mobilized for months after initial spark

3.      Politically savvy and highly sophisticated negotiation skills

4.      And artistic expression through visual arts, music, spoken words, literature, photography, videography and more.

10.  But the brilliance since 2014 continues

a.      Kayla Reed a pharmacy tech became a Ferguson Frontliner

                     i.      Constant and powerful presence in months of direct action in 2014-2015

                        ii.      Grassroots organizing collective out of a church basement -St Louis Action Council

                                                           iii.      Action St. Louis -Black feminist racial justice powerhouse

 1.      One of the most effective organization in the region

 2.      Challenges and questions police and prison, electoral justice and tenants’ rights

 3.      Others such as Brittany Ferrol, went to complete ba, ma, and pursuing PhD. In nursing science

 a.      While applying her education to organizing around issues of Black maternal health and directing a documentary film on the subject -you Lucky you got a mama.

4.      Another member -Mike Milton -became site director for Bail Project in St. Louis

 a.      Freeing thousands of poor St. Louisans jailed on cash bonds

 b.      Founded the Freedom Community center

                   i.      Organization aiding survivors of violence and end of mass incarceration through transformative justice approaches.

 

c.      Also founded the Faith for justice -radical faith-based organization she founded. Now senor pastor of St. John’s Belove Community in North St. Louis the church where the St. Louis Action council first convened.

                                                           iv.      Artists like rapper Tef Poe -cofounded Hands Up Uniting during the Ferguson uprising

1.      Continued to produce music infused with social and political critique

2.      One of early leaders of Black Men build

 a.      Grassroots membership organization committed to engaging black men through personal and political development

b.      Worked with Damon Davis to pro9duce award winning documentary Whose streets about the killing of Michael Brown and the activism it inspired.

11.  Only a handful of the people who partnered and worked in the collective struggle to produce radical change.

12.  The work of these activists is different than the past

 

a.      In the past the activists faced financial ruin and professional ostracism

 

b.      Now they have access to a philanthropic and nonprofit managerial class that believes and supports doing well while doing good

 

c.      Nonprofit industrial complex that is working for social change

13.  Material privilege can sometimes hide the complicated psycho0logical and emotional terrain

 

a.      Activists and their families have been demonized, belittled and disrespected

 

b.      The subject of coordinated campaigns by both political leaders and media outlets to diminish their work, delegitimize their ideas and cast suspicion on their motives.

           i.      Smeared, and sued, investigated and misquoted

                   ii.      Some have suffered premature deaths,

                         iii.      Yet they remain committed to their struggle

14.  How do you preserve a social movement in the face of misrepresentation, abandonment, and extreme and gradual decline in resources.

15.  From COINTELPRO to the FBI infiltration of the BLM protest in 2020

a.      History is replete with coordinated attempts to wedge Black activists against one another

b.      To alienate them from the oppressed communities they seek to organize

c.      Which only makes sustained solidarities even more difficult

16.  The Ferguson generation is tired but not defeated

17.  Problem not limited to city of Ferguson

a.      Core of political representation and governance in entire region

b.      Political class throughout the country and many municipalities

                                  i.      Although not as severe

                                     ii.      Equally blind to racial widening racial disparity and Black suffering

                   iii.      Many local organizers and new politicized youngsters made strategic decision to contest power in electoral arena

1.      Understanding tradeoffs this would produce

c.      Electoral politics embedded anti-blackness into American project

                               i.      Near inevitable betrayal of broken promises

                             ii.      Existential risk of fully ceding terrain to political elites

d.      W.E.B. Dubois articulated this in his 1956 essay I Won’t Vote

                                i.      Waning days of McCarthyism

                                ii.      Dubois declared he would not go to po9lls and would not register

                           iii.      Believed democracy had disappeared in the U.S.

                             iv.      Regardless of party

e.      Dubois’s sentiment overshadowed those of Ella Baker, Fannie Lou Hamer, Bob Moses, and Martin L. King jr

                                                              i.      And many others

                                                             ii.      Central pilar of their vision was multiracial democracy

f.        March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963

g.       Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1968

h.      Voting Rights Act of 1965

i.        Ongoing debate today as many questions electoral politics

j.        Key site of struggle for Du Bois -to combat the white political hegemony

  i.      Diminished voting power of Black people

1.      Resulting from poll taxes, literacy tests

2.      Today it is the voter ID laws and felon disenfranchisement

18.  Embracing Political power does not answer question of what it means to win

19.  Many local Ferguson activists have won elected office

a.      Rasheed Aldridge -teenage labor organizer in Ferguson became state representative

           i.      Now a member of St. Louis board of alderman

        ii.      Serves along with Alderwoman Alisha Sonnier -a student activist who first won public office to Board of education

b.      Francesca Griffen -from Fergoson was amongst the first to be involved in street protests won a seat to Ferguson City Council

c.      Most famously -Cori Bush -pastor, nurse, and activists currently represents St. Louis City and St. Louis county in Congress

20.  All of this demonstrates how electoral power was gained and demonstrated by the organizers and activists across S. Louis

a.      How they made the ballot a key site for shaping public consciousness and building power

b.      Shift in political center of gravity

c.      Challenged the power structure

d.      Too often local and regional leaders complained about the unruly activists and their presumed commitment to equity

e.      They produce only token programs rather than real social justice

f.        No systemic change which only yields frustration and disengagement.

21.  Sometimes electoral victories only result in arguments between various agencies, union, and officeholders

a.      All the while the activists are facing racist and sexist vitriol such as that of Circuit Attorney Garner when first elected in 2016

b.      For these and other reasons many fall short of the real changes that will help repair the systemn such as meaningful bail and pretrial detention reform

c.      Dismantling system of incarcerating poor Black people simply because they are poor.

d.      But the people still pushed for a grassroots campaign that led to the emptying and defunding of the Workhouse jail in St Louis in 2016

e.      Jones who led this fight finally won mayoral race in 2020

                                                              i.      But while many promises ere made such as Stimulus Advisory Board, reparations, and reallocation of the police budget to affordable housing, homeless services, victims support -none occurred.

22.  Enduring legacy of Ferguson Uprising is seen in electoral contest between Cori Bush and Wesley Bell

a.      Congresswoman Bush =rare, elected official emerged organically from grassroots activism of Fergoson

b.      Not only aligned with Black movement activists but fundamentally was one of them

c.      Self-described positivists -her term is an amalgamation of being a politician and activists

d.      Shocked world with her 20920 victories over a 10-term incumbent

e.      Supported Medicare, housing for all, canceling student debt, and defunding the police

f.        She refused to abandon Black organizers even when attacked by right wing pundits and mainstream Democrats who opposed her

g.       Bush leading progressive voice in U.S. capital

23.  Bush’s stance ultimately led to the attack from attorney Wesley Bell

a.      Financed almost entirely by pro-Isreal lobby

                       i.      Owes political fortunes to ferguson-inspired Black led organizing

           ii.      Beneficiary of Bye Bob campaign that unseated twenty-eight year incumbent prosecutor Bob McCulloch

1.      Infamously known for his failure to indict Ferguson policer that shot and killed Michael Brown Jr.

Bell won, in 2018 and pledged reforms that would lower jail population, enhance transparence and accountability for police misconduct, and increase number of cases diverted from criminal justice system

b.      None of these happened, the county jail population skyrocketed

                 i.      Along with an increase in wealthy doners from mainstream Democrats and centrist reform organization.

24.  Matchup between Bush and Bell =struggle to sustain local political movement

a.      Bell getting support from Bernie Sanders and the Squad

b.      While Bush getting support from AIPAC

c.       

d.       

25.  The contest represents two deeply divergent conceptions of politics after Ferguson

26.  These have produced disappointment, and a perception that the movement has failed

27.  But the fight continues -dozens of longtime activist appeared to St. Louis board of Alderman (April 2024) to expand homeless services and transitional housing, close the jail, and facilitate alternatives to detention.

28.  The vision to heal and repair remains

a.      Calls for reforms continue

b.      Organizing and activism remain almost ten years later

c.      But these do not replace the loss of loved ones such as Michel Brown, Jr.

d.