Monday marked seven years since Michael Brown Jr. was shot and killed in Ferguson by an officer, sparking days of civil unrest in the city of around 21,000 people. A small crowd gathered Monday morning at the place in Canfield Green Apartments where Brown’s life ended, and the Black Lives Matter movement began.
U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, D-St. Louis, was one of many speakers who took to the mic during the rally. She said that the while the number eight represents new beginnings, the number seven represents completion.
“I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that every single time our feet hit the ground, every single time we watched somebody beaten with batons, every time the tear gas came at us, every single time we ran from the rubber bullets, every time they ambushed us from behind the trees, every time the white supremacists shot at us from up over those hills — every time that we stood, we know we saved lives,” she said.
Brown’s family and well-known activists sat in front of the spot where Brown’s body laid for four and a half hours after he was killed — marked by a rectangle painted on the road covered with flowers, stuffed animals, candles and chalk art.
As they’ve done in the past, the event included four and a half minutes of silence in Brown’s honor — one minute to represent every hour his body remained in the street after he was shot dead.
“Coming to this space right here, the energy is just like — it’s like the energy bounces off all the walls out here, it’s almost like it just happened.” —Michael Brown Sr.
His family also released a box of butterflies as a tribute to the 18-year-old.
His father, Michael Brown Sr., spoke towards the end of the event. He said that while some may call it completion, he calls it “Mike’s still not home.” He said through the foundation set up in his son’s name he helps ease the pain of other families, but he is still hurting himself. He believes he’ll live with the pain until he dies.
“Coming to this space right here, the energy is just like — it’s like the energy bounces off all the walls out here, it’s almost like it just happened. I can feel it in the energy of what was out here Aug. 9, 2014,” Brown said.
His wife and Brown Jr.’s stepmother, Cal Brown, spoke as well. She said the couple has served 1,156 families through the Michael Brown Foundation and reminisced that only eight days before he died, Brown had graduated high school and declared the world would know his name.
“That was the longest and the hardest four and a half hours for our family,” she said of the day he was shot. “And it’s even harder to come out here every year to the same place where so much hurt and pain came from. But the bigger reason that we do it is that we come out here and try to be here for the community that stood up for us, because I know whether we’re here or not they’re going to come so we want to make sure we’re here to support them.”
Several other people spoke, including Cephus “Uncle Bobby X” Johnson, Oscar Grant’s uncle; Tamika D. Mallory, a civil rights activist; and Ferguson Councilwoman Fran Griffin.
Ferguson Mayor Ella Jones spoke as well. She was elected as the first Black mayor of Ferguson on June 2, 2020.
Jones said the city’s consent decree agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice in March 2016 is working. The agreement is a proactive and robust mandate for reform of the policies, training, and practices of the Ferguson Police Department with specific agreed-upon corrective actions and time frames for implementation.
“We have not arrived, we are just getting started,” Jones said. “But we cannot do this work until everyone decides that they’re going to work together. It’s not about me, it’s about how we can work together and only when we work together and put people in those seats who want to make a change and not for their personal agenda … but the agenda of the people.”
People in the crowd on Monday morning said they felt like little progress has been made in the last seven years when it came to the community’s relationship with police.
Ferguson resident Steve Martin said he served four years in prison for second degree burglary in connection to days of unrest in Ferguson following Brown’s death.
He feels like there has been little change since Brown was gunned down. In fact, he said it feels like lethal police shootings of Black people around the country began to happen more frequently after Brown’s death.
“I feel like as a people, we’re trying to make a change by standing up for him and speaking out, but it seems like things haven’t changed,” Martin said.
Sharon Clark was also at the rally Monday, she’s a retired Jennings resident who photographed the unrest following Brown’s killing. She said Brown’s death hit hard because her grandson attended school with him. She also agreed with Martin’s sentiments.
“I’m not seeing a whole lot of progress here,” she said. “Some things have got to change, and we have to keep standing up …. And eventually, hopefully, something will change. But right now, I’m not seeing a whole lot of change, that’s why we’re here. We’ve got to keep at it.”