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White Flight and White Power in St. Louis
by
Malcolm Gay
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Malcolm Gay
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Aug 13, 2014 4:29 PM CUT
Eighty-eight-year-old Creola McCalister joins other demonstrators protesting the killing of teenager Michael Brown outside Greater St. Marks Family Church with Brown's family and with civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton in St. Louis on Aug. 12, 2014.
Eighty-eight-year-old Creola McCalister joins other demonstrators protesting the killing of teenager Michael Brown outside Greater St. Marks Family Church with Brown's family and with civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton in St. Louis on Aug. 12, 2014.Scott Olson—Getty Images
by
Malcolm Gay
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Aug 13, 2014 4:29 PM CUT
Walking to his grandmother’s house last weekend in Ferguson, Missouri, Michael Brown was just days away from starting classes at a local college, where he planned to study music.
But Brown never made it.
An officer with the city’s police department stopped him just blocks from his grandmother’s home. After a tense exchange, Brown, who was African-American and unarmed, wound up face down in a pool of his own blood, felled by the officer’s pistol.
Just how Brown died remains unclear. Witnesses say the officer, whom authorities have refused to identify, shot the teen as he fled with his hands in the air. Meanwhile, St. Louis County officials maintain the officer fired only after Brown struggled for his gun. By Sunday night, peaceful vigils had turned to violent protests. Looters ransacked businesses. They threw rocks at police and chanted “Don’t shoot,” as officers in riot gear fired tear gas to disperse the angry crowds.
In death, Michael Brown, like Trayvon Martin before him, has become a rallying cry – a symbol of the widespread inequality and mistrust many feel African-Americans, and particularly young African-American men, face in modern American society. But while the anger felt by St. Louis-area protesters is shared in communities across the country, the region’s distinct history of racial segregation and inequality goes a long way toward understanding the particular racial tensions that have engulfed this community 10 miles northwest of downtown St. Louis.
In certain respects, Ferguson, a town of roughly 21,000, is not unlike any number of the small, largely black, lower-middle class towns that populate much of North St. Louis County. With a population that is roughly two-thirds African-American, Ferguson itself has a median household income of around $37,000 ($10,000 less than the rest of the state), and more than one-fifth of its residents live below the poverty level.
Like the City of St. Louis, which continues to be one of the country’s most racially segregated cities, St. Louis County suffers its own version of what’s known locally as the Delmar Divide (so named for Delmar Boulevard, an east-west thoroughfare that acts as the city’s de facto color line).
Historically, St. Louis’s African-American population lived in decrepit inner city slums. But that began to change in the 1950s, as deindustrialization and emergent white flight conspired to erode the city’s population. The urban renewal projects of the era, which included the construction of the infamous Pruitt-Igoe housing project and the vast tracery of highways that now entangles the city, only accelerated the city’s decline, razing many of its historically black neighborhoods and relocating its residents, ultimately, to inner-ring North County suburbs like Ferguson. The combined result is that St. Louis, once the nation’s fourth largest city, has lost more than 500,000 residents in the last 60 years.
“The wealthier population of St. Louis has always been running from poverty,” the late James Neal Primm, author of the definitive St. Louis history, Lion of the Valley, told me shortly before his death. “No one ever says this, but one of the results of rebuilding the city was getting rid of a large and impoverished population that lived in blighted districts. The whole idea was to make St. Louis what it had been in the past: a leading city in the Midwest.”
But just as whites in the city fled blacks, so whites in the county soon moved further out as well, this time to exurban communities like the adjacent St. Charles County, which is 90% white and whose population has grown 12-fold since 1950.
The whites that did remain in the region’s older suburbs, however, also remained in positions of authority, often filling roles in municipal police forces and as elected officials – a tense imbalance of power that ill-reflects the populations they serve. This is clearly the case in majority African-American Ferguson, where the mayor and most of its city council members are white, and only three of the city’s 53 police officers are black.
Through it all, however, St. Louis has remained something of a rarity. While other rustbelt cities like Detroit have suffered profound racial unrest, St. Louis, rife with its own racial disparities, has never rioted – until now.
Blame it on the region’s long simmering racial tensions. Blame it on a string of recent killings of unarmed black men at the hands of authority figures. Blame it on the quicksilver outrage of social media, opportunistic thuggery or an overzealous police response.
Whatever the cause – and there are many – something has shifted in St. Louis during these tumultuous days following Michael Brown’s death. As looters have destroyed businesses, burned a convenience store and even prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to implement a no-fly zone over Ferguson – all amid other non-violent protests – Brown’s death has become not merely a national rallying cry against the inequalities faced by young black men, but also a moment of reckoning for the St. Louis region.
Malcolm Gay, a writer living in St. Louis, is the author of a forthcoming book, The Digital Mind*, to be published in 2015.*
Witness Tension Between Police and Protestors in Ferguson, Mo.
A man backs away as law enforcement officials close in on him and eventually detain him during protests over the death of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager killed by a police officer, in Ferguson, Mo., Aug. 11, 2014. Whitney Curtis—The New York Times/Redux
Riot police force protestors from the business district into nearby neighborhoods in Ferguson, Mo. on Aug. 11, 2014. Scott Olson—Getty Images
A child uses a rag to shield his face from tear gas fired by riot police, who used it to force protestors from the business district into nearby neighborhoods in Ferguson, Mo. on Aug. 11, 2014. Scott Olson—Getty Images
Police officers keep watch from an armored vehicle as they patrol a street in Ferguson, Mo., on Aug. 11, 2014 Mario Anzuoni—Reuters
Police officers ride an armored vehicle as they patrol a street in Ferguson, Mo. on Aug. 11, 2014. Mario Anzuoni—Reuters
A demonstrator raises his hands in front of of a police officer in Ferguson, Mo. on Aug. 11, 2014. Mario Anzuoni—Reuters
Riot police lock down a neighborhood in Ferguson, Mo. on Aug. 11, 2014. Scott Olson—Getty Images
People raise their hands in the middle of the street as riot police move toward their position trying to get them to disperse, in Ferguson, Mo. on Aug. 11, 2014. Jeff Roberson—AP
Demonstrators raise their hands and chant "hands up, don't shoot" during a protest over the killing of Michael Brown on in Clayton, Mo. on August 12, 2014. Scott Olson—Getty Images
Civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton speaks about the killing of teenager Michael Brown at a press conference held on the steps of the old courthouse in St. Louis on Aug. 12, 2014. Scott Olson—Getty Images
Police take up position to control demonstrators who were protesting the killing of teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. on Aug. 12, 2014. Scott Olson—Getty Images
Demonstrators protest the killing of teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. on August 12, 2014. Scott Olson—Getty Images
Demonstrators protest the killing of teenager Michael Brown outside Greater St. Marks Family Church in St. Louis on Aug. 12, 2014. Scott Olson—Getty Images
Police stand watch as demonstrators protest the shooting death of teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. on Aug. 13, 2014. Scott Olson—Getty Images
A demonstrator throws back a tear gas container after tactical officers worked to break up a group of bystanders on Chambers Road near West Florissant in Ferguson on Aug. 13, 2014. Robert Cohen—St. Louis Post-Dispatch/MCT/Zuma Press
Police officers work their way north on West Florissant Avenue clearing the road of people in Ferguson, Mo. on Aug. 13, 2014. Robert Cohen—St. Louis Post-Dispatch/AP
Demonstrators protest the shooting death of teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. on Aug. 13, 2014. Scott Olson—Getty Images
People run through smoke in Ferguson, Mo. on Aug. 13, 2014. Jeff Roberson—AP
A protester takes shelter from smoke billowing around him in Ferguson, Mo. on Aug. 13, 2014. David Carson—St. Louis Post-Dispatch/AP
An explosive device deployed by police flies in the air as police and protesters clash in Ferguson, Mo., on Aug. 13, 2014 Jeff Roberson—AP
Thousands of demonstrators peacefully march to the spot where Michael Brown was shot and killed by police in Ferguson, Mo. on Aug. 14, 2014. Jeff Roberson—AP
Demetrus Washington joins other demonstrators protesting the shooting death of teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. on Aug. 14, 2014. Scott Olson—Getty Images
Demonstrators protest outside of Greater St. Marks Family Church in Ferguson, Mo. on Aug. 14, 2014. Lucas Jackson—Reuters
Protesters light candles as they take part in a peaceful demonstration in Ferguson, Mo. on Aug. 14, 2014. Lucas Jackson—Reuters
Missouri State Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson (L) speaks to protesters as he walks through a peaceful demonstration as communities continue to react to the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. on Aug. 14, 2014. Lucas Jackson—Reuters
A young child looks out from a car as demonstrators drive down West Florissant Avenue protesting the shooting and death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. on Aug. 15, 2014. Scott Olson—Getty Images
A demonstrator walks through smoke launched by police after a skirmish in Ferguson, Mo. on Aug. 15, 2014 Scott Olson—Getty Images
A demonstrator protests on Florissant Ave in Ferguson, Mo. on Aug. 16, 2014. Jon Lowenstein—NOOR for TIME
Children walk past police officers during a demonstration in Ferguson, Mo. on Aug. 16, 2014. Jon Lowenstein—Noor for TIME
Protestors help a man who was injured by tear gas thrown by police after refusing to disperse after the midnight curfew in Ferguson, Mo. on Aug. 17, 2014. Jon Lowenstein—Noor for TIME
Protestors throw canisters in Ferguson, Mo. on August 18, 2014. Jon Lowenstein—Noor for TIME
Protestors demonstrate against the killing of Michael Brown by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Mo. on August 17, 2014. Jon Lowenstein—NOOR for TIME
A protestor during demonstrations in Ferguson, Mo. on August 17, 2014. Jon Lowenstein—Noor for TIME
A protestor retaliates against police in Ferguson, Mo. on Aug. 17, 2014. Jon Lowenstein—Noor for TIME
A protestor throws a canister of tear gas back at police during demonstrations in Ferguson, Mo. on Aug. 17, 2014. Jon Lowenstein—Noor for TIME
Police wait to advance after tear gas was used to dispersed a crowd in Ferguson, Mo. on Aug. 17, 2014. Charlie Riedel—AP
A protestor holds a sign that reads "stop killing us" amid clouds of tear gas in Ferguson, Mo. on Aug. 17, 2014. Jon Lowenstein—Noor for TIME
Police wait to advance after tear gas was used to disperse a crowd in Ferguson, Mo. on Aug. 17, 2014. Charlie Riedel—AP
Tear gas rains down on a woman kneeling in the street with her hands in the air during a demonstration in Ferguson on Aug. 17, 2014. The "hands up, don't shoot" pose became the defining gesture of the protests. Scott Olson—Getty Images
Protesters attempt to treat a woman who was in a cloud of tear gas thrown by police in Ferguson, Mo. on Aug. 17, 2014. Lucas Jackson—Reuters
Demonstrators march down West Florissant Ave. during a peaceful march in reaction to the shooting of Michael Brown near Ferguson, Mo. on Aug. 18, 2014. Lucas Jackson—Reuters
Demonstrators march down West Florissant during a peaceful march in reaction to the shooting of Michael Brown, near Ferguson, Mo. on Aug. 18, 2014. Lucas Jackson—Reuters
Police tackle a man who was walking down the street in front of McDonald's in Ferguson, Mo. on Aug. 18, 2014. Laurie Skrivan—St. Louis Post-Dispatch/AP
Law enforcement officers watch on during a protest on West Florissant Avenue in Ferguson, Mo. on Aug. 18, 2014. Michael B. Thomas—AFP/Getty Images
Demonstrators cover their faces as tear gas fills the air as police fire the gas against an unruly crowd protesting the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. on Aug.18, 2014 Joe Raedle—Getty Images
A protestor wearing a gas mask stands with his hands up while facing armed police in Ferguson, Mo. on Aug. 18, 2014. Abe Van Dyke—Demotix/Corbis
Police fire tear gas in the direction of where bottles were thrown from crowds gathered near the QuikTrip on W. Florissant Avenue in Ferguson, Mo. on Aug. 18, 2014. David Carson—St Louis Post-Dispatch/Polaris
Demonstrators stand in the middle of West Florissant as they react to tear gas fired by police during ongoing protests in reaction to the shooting of teenager Michael Brown, near Ferguson, Missouri, August 18, 2014. Lucas Jackson—Reuters
Demonstrators protest against the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. Aug. 19, 2014. Joshua Lott—Reuters
A police officer in riot gear detains a demonstrator protesting against the shooting of Michael Brown, in Ferguson, Mo. on Aug. 19, 2014. Joshua Lott—Reuters
Police officers in riot gear watch demonstrators protesting against the shooting of Michael Brown from the side of a building in Ferguson, Mo. on Aug. 19, 2014. Joshua Lott—Reuters
Two protesters sit with their faces covered during a peaceful protest in Ferguson, Mo. early on Aug. 20, 2014. Michael B. Thomas—AFP/Getty Images
A man is doused with milk and sprayed with mist after being hit by an eye irritant from security forces trying to disperse demonstrators in Ferguson, Mo. early on Aug. 20, 2014. Adrees Latif—Reuters
In this photo taken with a long exposure, protesters march in the street as lightning flashes in the distance in Ferguson, Mo., Aug. 20, 2014. Jeff Roberson—AP