Mourners at a memorial for Michael Brown on November 22, 2014.
Photo: Joshua Lott/2014 Getty Images
Turnout was high in Ferguson, Missouri, in the first election since the unrest over the shooting of Michael Brown. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that more than 30 percent of registered voters cast ballots, more than twice as many as usual, but candidates favored by protesters lost. Two more African-American people, Ella Jones and Wesley Bell, were elected to the six-member City Council. It currently has only one black member, though the town is 67 percent black. Former mayor Brian Fletcher, who started an “I Love Ferguson” campaign, also won a seat. “It’s a dramatic change, not just a small step,” Fletcher said of the council’s new racial makeup. “It’s real progress, and I’m just glad to be part of it.”
