Politics

Ferguson Voters Go to Polls to Elect 3 City Council Members

Published

10 years ago

April 7, 2015

In this photo made in March 2015, Ferguson Ward 1 city council candidate Ella Jones poses for a portrait in Ferguson, Mo. The city is preparing for an election on Tuesday when three of six city council seats will be decided. (AP Photo/St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Christian Gooden)

JIM SALTER, Associated Press
JIM SUHR, Associated Press

FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — The next Ferguson City Council will face the daunting task of remaking much of the beleaguered town’s leadership, a process that will begin soon after Tuesday’s municipal election.

Three of the six council seats are up for grabs in the St. Louis County town where 18-year-old Michael Brown, who was black, was fatally shot by a white Ferguson police officer in August. Officer Darren Wilson was cleared of wrongdoing by a grand jury and the Justice Department, but a separate DOJ report blasted Ferguson for racial bias and profiling in the police department and a profit-driven municipal court system.

Fallout from that report led to the resignation of the city manager, police chief, municipal judge and two police officers. The municipal court clerk was fired for racist emails.

The new city council will be tasked with approving hiring of the replacements.

The scrutiny of Ferguson after the shooting found that the town of 21,000 residents has a mostly white police force and city leadership — the mayor and five of the six council members are white — even though blacks make up about two-thirds of residents.

After Tuesday, the council will add at least one, and maybe two black members.

The lone current black councilman, Dwayne James, is not up for re-election. The 3rd Ward race involves two black men, Lee Smith, 76, and Wesley Bell, 40, guaranteeing that an additional black resident will join the council. That ward includes the Canfield Green apartment complex where Brown was killed.

The 1st Ward features four candidates, two black and two white. The 2nd Ward race involves two white men.

Ferguson is not unique in drawing low turnout for municipal elections. Turnout last April was 12.3 percent, said Eric Fey, director of elections for St. Louis County.

A strong push was made after the shooting to register more black voters, but Fey said just 562 new voters were added to the rolls. In recent weeks, the focus has been on getting those who are registered to vote.

U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay, a St. Louis Democrat, was among those going door-to-door over the weekend, encouraging people to vote.

The election is being watched by international media and is drawing get-out-the-vote volunteers involved with several national organizations, including labor unions, groups such as the Organization for Black Struggle, and Working Families Party, a leading voice of the left that helped elect New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio last year.

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Oakland Post: Week of June 4 – 10, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of June 4-10, 2025

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3 days ago

June 7, 2025

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Remembering George Floyd

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing.

Published

1 week ago

June 2, 2025

Oakland Post

Mural showing the portrait of George Floyd in Mauerpark in Berlin. To the left of the portrait the lettering "I can't Breathe" was added, on the right side the three hashtags #GeorgeFloyd, #Icantbreathe and #Sayhisname. The mural was completed by Eme Street Art (facebook name) / Eme Free Thinker (signature) on 29 May 2020. (Wikimedia Commons)

By April Ryan
BlackPressUSA Newswire

“The president’s been very clear he has no intentions of pardoning Derek Chauvin, and it’s not a request that we’re looking at,” confirms a senior staffer at the Trump White House. That White House response results from public hope, including from a close Trump ally, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. The timing of Greene’s hopes coincides with the Justice Department’s recent decision to end oversight of local police accused of abuse. It also falls on the fifth anniversary of the police-involved death of George Floyd on May 25th. The death sparked national and worldwide outrage and became a transitional moment politically and culturally, although the outcry for laws on police accountability failed.

The death forced then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to focus on deadly police force and accountability. His efforts while president to pass the George Floyd Justice in policing act failed. The death of George Floyd also put a spotlight on the Black community, forcing then-candidate Biden to choose a Black woman running mate. Kamala Harris ultimately became vice president of the United States alongside Joe Biden. Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison prosecuted the cases against the officers involved in the death of Floyd. He remembers,” Trump was in office when George Floyd was killed, and I would blame Trump for creating a negative environment for police-community relations. Remember, it was him who said when the looting starts, the shooting starts, it was him who got rid of all the consent decrees that were in place by the Obama administration.”

In 2025, Police-involved civilian deaths are up by “about 100 to about 11 hundred,” according to Ellison. Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African-American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing. During those minutes on the ground, Floyd cried out for his late mother several times. Police subdued Floyd for an alleged counterfeit $20 bill.