FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — A year has passed since parts of Ferguson burned in the rage that followed a grand jury’s decision not to prosecute the police officer who fatally shot Michael Brown.
In that time, signs of hope have emerged.
Some of the nearly two dozen businesses destroyed in the Nov. 24, 2014, riots have reopened. Concrete barricades that protected the police station are gone. The majority-black St. Louis suburb led almost exclusively by whites a year ago now has a black city manager, municipal judge and two new African-American council members.
City leaders take pride in a small net increase in businesses in the past year. The community has also adopted court reforms, and police now try to work alongside residents, rather than simply responding to crimes.
