America should send young black citizens a thank you note for rescuing democracy. As I watched young people in Hong Kong fight for their version of democracy, I knew that for as long as there are black youth in this country, democracy will live.
When Michael Brown Jr. died at the hands of Ferguson Officer Darren Wilson, many were aghast at yet another police killing of an unarmed black male. The ensuing demonstrations and law enforcement reaction to the protesters had given me cause to question the security of democracy in America.
Scholars in the future will focus on two issues: the value of black life in this nation and who exactly gets to be an American citizen. In this and many periodicals, journalist and others have discussed the suspension of certain rights for mostly black people as they peacefully expressed their anger and determination to find justice for the killer of Mike Brown. In the process, people all over the world have observed just how fragile our version of democracy can be.
Historians writing about the Ferguson Crisis will have to mention two events that brought the black freedom campaign to light. The first is the use of technology (like Twitter and Instagram) to get beyond the images that conventional media portrayed. The second is the arrest of two journalists from the Washington Post and the Huffington Post.
The images of black people being violated shocked the world, but what rattled the nation was the idea that even professional journalists could be affected by the overzealous policing that was prevalent during the early days of the demonstration.
This, of course, has historical roots. Fifty years ago, the FBI launched civil rights investigations in Mississippi regarding the murders of black activist James Cheney and white activists Andrew Goodman and Mickey Schwerner. Black men had been dying at the hands of white racists for centuries in Mississippi, but when courageous white men lost their lives advancing democracy, mainstream America finally took note.
In Ferguson, black locals mobilized immediately after the death of Brown, but it took the violation of journalists’ rights to draw national attention.
When Ferguson police mobilized armored personnel carriers and armed themselves with military-grade weapons, they seemed to have prepared for war. As I drove my combat veteran (of both the Korean and Vietnam conflicts) father down W. Florissant Avenue, he pointed at the helicopters and the heavy police presence and declared that Ferguson had been occupied.
The residents, of course, were quite aware of that when they could not move beyond police barricades to get to their jobs or the grocery store. When I spoke with interviewers from Turkey, Germany, Spain, England, and elsewhere, they had troubles understanding how the Ferguson and St. County police, Missouri Highway Patrol, and eventually the National Guard could mobilize against U.S. citizens. I explained that, unfortunately, not everyone viewed poor and young black Americans as citizens.
I spent nights on W. Florissant and in the nearby neighborhoods, not because I am inclined to demonstrate in the streets but because my students had been pepper-sprayed, tear-gassed and pelted with rubber bullets. I had to go to see about them.
What I found was a large group of mostly young black people saving democracy. Many of those who rescued our democracy have typically been portrayed as thugs and criminals. When the police told them that they could not be on the street, or that they could be on the street but had to keep moving, these young people made a noise loud enough for the world to hear. They knew, as did the activists of the 1960s, that “the whole world is watching,” which was a popular chant then.
These young democrats showed the nation what citizens should do if they believe their constitutional rights are violated.
Few may realize it, but these youthful activists have already won some victories for democracy. In recognition of the thousands of activists and observers who have come to the region for Resistance Weekend, it should be noted that local black youth have caused municipal governments and countless Americans to reconsider how law enforcement should be allowed to police citizens. They have focused world and national attention on some of the inexplicable fine and warrant systems upon which city and county courts rely. And, they have inserted community policing into the dialogue surrounding long-term resolutions.
Mostly, as poet Langston Hughes did so many years ago, black youth have reminded their fellow citizens that they, too, are America.
Stefan M. Bradley is the director of African American Studies at Saint Louis University and author of “Harlem vs. Columbia University: Black Student Power in the Late 1960s.”
