The New York Times has an article about the Democratic Party's relationship with the ongoing civil rights protests in Ferguson:
With their Senate majority imperiled, Democrats are trying to mobilize African-Americans outraged by the shooting in Ferguson, Mo., to help them retain control of at least one chamber of Congress for President Obama’s final two years in office.
cont..
“Ferguson has made it crystal clear to the African-American community and others that we’ve got to go to the polls,” said Representative John Lewis, Democrat of Georgia and a civil-rights leader. “You participate and vote, and you can have some control over what happens to your child and your country.”
The push is an attempt to counter Republicans’ many advantages in this year’s races, including polls that show Republican voters are much more engaged in the elections at this point — an important predictor of turnout.
The complex relationship between certain white sectors of the Democratic Party come in to play as well:
the terrain is tricky: Many of the states where the black vote could be most crucial are also those where Mr. Obama is deeply unpopular among many white voters. So Democratic senators in places like Arkansas, Louisiana and North Carolina must distance themselves from the nation’s first African-American president while trying to motivate the black voters who are his most loyal constituents.
President Obama made history as the first black prez. He is actually only half black because only his dad was black, his mom actually was white. Irregardless, certain white sectors of the Democratic Party remain uncomfortable with President Obama.
Also, Ferguson is going to be used in school curriculum:
Even though the police shooting of an unarmed man in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson is only weeks old and a grand jury is still trying sort out what really happened, a Washington-based nonprofit is offering a classroom lesson plan that draws a link between the incident and the revolutionary rhetoric of the 1960s Black Panther Party.
Teaching for Change says its “Teaching about Ferguson” guide can help students think critically about the shooting of Michael Brown in an Aug. 9 confrontation with police and ways they can be proactive in their own communities.
“The Black Panther Party’s 1966 platform, known as the 10-point program, included the demand: ‘We want an immediate end to police brutality and murder of Black people, other people of color, and all oppressed people inside the United States,’” the group’s Julian Hipkins III wrote.
“The issue of police brutality in communities of color has a long history and the Panther platform gives an example of how to turn grievances into a clear set of goals for meaningful change,” he said.