In August 2014, a young, unarmed black man named Michael Brown was shot and killed by a white police officer, Darren Wilson, in Ferguson, Missouri, USA. The shooting resulted in widespread civil unrest and received global news coverage. This article looks at some of the policies that may have contributed to civil unrest by creating racial disparities within the city.
Ferguson is a suburb of St Louis, Missouri, a major US city known for high levels of racial segregation. Until the 1960s, Ferguson was a ‘sundown town’ which meant that African-Americans were not allowed to be inside the town boundaries after sunset. The population of Ferguson has changed significantly over the last three decades, from a former haven for white Americans fleeing St Louis, to an increasingly diverse suburb. This change mirrors similar trends in other suburban areas of the USA.
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