If Ferguson residents want a diverse police force that reflects the community, they need to elect someone who makes inclusion a priority, said Michael McMillan, president and CEO of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis.
In Ferguson – where an unarmed black teenager was fatally shot by a white police officer on Aug. 9 – the police department has three black officers and 50 white officers. The town’s population is 67 percent African-American, yet Ferguson has a white mayor and five of the six-member city council members are also white.
As the Post-Dispatch illustrated with a startling graphic on the front page of the Sunday paper, Ferguson is typical among county municipalities for its lack of representation of blacks in police and government.
Several local leaders are encouraging protesters fighting for justice in the Michael Brown case to keep marching, but also register to vote. The Urban League, NAACP, ministers and politicians have all organized volunteers to educate residents on the voting process and register especially African-American voters. In 2013, only about six percent of the eligible black voters cast their ballot in Ferguson’s municipal election, compared to 17 percent of white voters.
“The need for voter registration education and mobility has always been a cornerstone of the Civil Rights Movement,” McMillan said.
If African Americans are not registered to vote, they can’t serve on a jury, McMillan explained. St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch recently chose to have a grand jury consider whether Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson, 28, should face charges in the fatal shooting of Brown. The grand jury consists of one black man and two black women, and six white men and three white women.
Last week at the Dellwood Recreation Center, the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, St. Louis County NAACP and several other organizations joined together to offer food, rental and utility assistance and other services to the residents in the Ferguson area who were affected by the unrest following Brown’s death.
They also set up a table to register voters. McMillan said Urban League and NAACP volunteers have also been out talking with young people on West Florissant Avenue, where the protests have taken place, about becoming more engaged in their communities.
St. Louis City Alderman Antonio French, who was among the first supporters of the protest movement, is shifting his efforts into a project he calls “HealSTL.” French said on Wednesday that HealSTL organizers opened their first office at 9171 W. Florissant Ave.
“Our first mission: register and organize black voters in #Ferguson,” he stated on Twitter.
Metropolitan Congregations United, which represents more than 40 churches across St. Louis, recently called on all of its member churches to register 100 percent of their members and get 100 percent of them to the polls.
Interestingly, right-wing conservatives were quick to denounce these efforts.
“If that’s not fanning the political flames, I don’t know what is,” said executive director of the Missouri Republican Party, Matt Willis, on the website Breitbart. “I think it’s not only disgusting but completely inappropriate.”
McMillan said the comment went against “logical reasoning.” The Voting Act of 1965 helped to rectify the longtime oppression of African-American people in this country, he said.
“It is irresponsible to say it’s ‘disgusting’ to register African-American people to be part of their government,” McMillan said.
St. Louis County NAACP’s John Gaskin III recognized the familiar tune.
“These are the same people who worked tirelessly to pass voter suppression laws,” Gaskin said. “Those are the same people who don’t want us to vote.”
Gaskin said the NAACP’s voter registration campaign is focused on civic engagement on several levels. They want people to understand how to get their concerns on the agenda at city council meetings, for instance. They’re also handing out dates for fire department and school board meetings.
Many people don’t know how to actively and effectively participate in their local governments, he said.
“We don’t want to allow the newness of the situation to die out,” Gaskin said. “People still have to be excited about lifting their voices.”
During the NAACP’s Saturday rally, resident Debra Reed stood in the center lane of West Florissant Avenue with a handmade voter registration sign. Reed was not volunteering with any organization. She and her daughter are simply “two people who care,” she said. She believes voting brings about change.
“We do not have to accept police brutality,” she said. “We do not have to accept white boards in a 70 percent black neighborhood.”
Reed, who began protesting in the ‘60s, said, “This is déjà vu to me.”
In the ‘90s, police officers beat her bi-racial son, she said.
“I never thought that I’d get down on my knees and thank God it happened in the ‘90s because today he’d be dead,” she said.
“Grandma!” her grandson interrupted.
“I do not want a grandchild to be killed by police,” she said. “I don’t want a system ran by privileged white people.”
St. Louis American’s Bridjes O’Neil contributed to this report.
Follow this reporter on Twitter at @Rebeccarivas.