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© 2021 J. Espinosa
Protestors gather in front of the Ferguson Police Department.
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A St. Louis police officer blocks a street as activists march through St. Louis.
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Community members and supporters write how they feel about Mike Brown and police brutality.
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9191 West Florissant Ave. was a base for Ferguson organizers to coordinate actions and campaigns.
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Activists carry an empty coffin towards the Ferguson Police Department to symbolize Mike Brown and those killed by law enforcement.
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A volunteer walks through a gathering of activists asking them to vote.
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An activist from the Bronx prepares at a hotel near St. Louis for a day of actions and events in the city.
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A Ferguson police officer in riot gear stands in between the Ferguson police department and hundreds of protestors.
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Hip-hop artist Tef Poe leads a march through St. Louis towards the city's police department.
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An activist blocks a Ferguson intersection while holding an upside down U.S. flag.
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Protestors march through St. Louis towards the city's police department.
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A city resident with a tattoo of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team logo watches as activists march to the city's police department.
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Activists stop their march Ferguson and surround a memorial for Michael Brown where he was killed by officer Darren Wilson.
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Activists chant "Hands Up! Don't Shoot!" while marching through Ferguson.
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A young Black mother cries in front of the St. Louis Police Department while explaining what it feels like to be Black in America.
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Ashley Yates, a young queer Ferguson resident and co-founder of Millenial Activists United, speaks to hundreds of supporters in St. Louis.
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Police block access to the Ferguson police department from hundreds of protestors.
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An activist from New York takes a break from protesting in front of the Ferguson Police Department.
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Protestors march towards the St. Louis police department.
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A young Ferguson resident waits for a benefit concert to begin in St. Louis.
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Tef Poe speaks to hundreds in St. Louis.
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Liberatin theologist and socialist Cornel West speaks to hundreds of supporters in St. Louis.
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A young Black activist jumps during a protest in front of the Ferguson police department.
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Activists and supporters hold hands during a prayer at the end of a Ferguson October event in St. Louis.
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An activist waives an upside down U.S. flag next to a Stolen Lives Project banner that lists each reported individual killed by U.S. law enforcement from 1990 to 2014.
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This intersection of West Florissant Ave. and Ferguson Ave. was a battlezone where protestors stoodoff with militarized police armed with riot gear, tear gas, and mine-resistant vehicles in the immediate aftermath of Mike Brown's killing.
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Community members and supporters protesting in front of the Ferguson Police Department point towards a star in the night aky that they believed to represent Mike Brown.
Public Story
Ferguson October
Credits:
j. espinosa
Date of Work:
10/10/14 - 10/14/14
Updated: 09/14/17
St. Louis hip-hop artist and activist Tef Poe considers the image of Michael Brown’s stepfather holding a sign saying, "Ferguson police just executed my unarmed son!!!" as the reason why he joined the movement for Black Lives.
On October 10, 2014, I traveled 16 hours on the road from The Bronx, New York to Ferguson, Missouri, where two months prior, an unarmed Black teenager was killed by a white police officer.
The victim: Michael Brown Jr.
The killer: Darren Wilson.
The killing sparked daily protests in Ferguson that were met with an unreasonable militarized police armed with tear gas, riot gear, and mine-resistant ambush protected vehicles. Ferguson soon became the epicenter of a growing #BlackLivesMatter movement resisting racism and demanding human rights for Black people.
By October, community leaders organized “Ferguson October: Weekend of Resistance,” a three-day gathering of thousands of supporters from around the world who participated in protests, marches, prayers, events, concerts, and workshops throughout Ferguson and St. Louis.
These images are my testimony of that weekend.