Darren Wilson with his hand around Mary Ann Twitty, who was fired for racism while serving as Ferguson's top court clerk
In just a few days, residents of Ferguson have a real chance to change the game and forever alter the future of the town they call home. City Council elections, the first since Ferguson officer Darren Wilson shot and killed unarmed teenager Mike Brown in August 2014, are being held on Tuesday, April 7, and a sea change is expected.
Three of the six city council positions are up for grabs. Currently, although Ferguson is two-thirds African American, it only has one black councilman. While several African-American residents are running for the three available seats, Bob Hudgins, a progressive white man who has been a protestor in Ferguson himself, is also running in a predominantly white district.
It was the current city council, dominated by conservatives, who voted to give outrageous severance packages to the police chief, the Ferguson city manager, and other members of the local government who were cited for racism and discrimination in the DOJ report on Ferguson.
While the upcoming elections in Ferguson present an amazing opportunity, victories are not assured and people must show up to vote in huge numbers in order to win these races. In 2013, only 6 percent of eligible African-American voters turned out to vote. Drastically higher numbers will be needed to win these upcoming races.
Several factors explain why so few African Americans vote in Ferguson. For example, city council elections occur in odd-numbered years, meaning they don’t align with presidential, gubernatorial, or state legislative elections. With an absence of big names on the ballot, voters aren’t drawn to the polls en masse on municipal election days. The black population is also younger than the white population, and older people tend to vote. Additionally, homeowners with lasting ties to the community are usually more inclined to vote, but most of Ferguson’s black voters are renters who haven’t lived in the city for long periods of time.
We will be watching closely on Tuesday and will report the results back to you.