A year ago, Ferguson, Missouri was a quiet working-class suburban town. The uneasy relationship between its growing black population and its mostly white police force barely registered in local headlines.
Everything changed on August 9th, 2014, when a white police officer named Darren Wilson shot and killed Michael Brown, a black 18-year-old who was unarmed. The shooting launched the "Black Lives Matter" movement.
Now the city government, and the streets themselves, look much different.
The city has a new police chief, a new city manager and a new municipal judge — all blacks who replaced white leaders. All Ferguson officers wear body cameras.
The city council has new members, too, several of whom are black. And the business district at the center of last year's protests is slowly rebuilding.
