Ferguson, M.O. is a teachable moment why voting matters....will it be a wake up call? VOTE!
Ferguson, MO, is 67 percent black, and its police force is 94 percent white
Town council is 85% white and 15% black.
Same with the school board, except the black is replaced by one Latino.
How did that happen? Who voted the town council in, who then permitted the almost all white police force, how in a two-thirds black population town, with a large Latino population?
How?
http://www.vox.com/xpress/2014/8/12/5994181/ferguson-is-67-percent-black-and-its-police-force-is-94-percent-white
Ferguson, Missouri, is a black town. In 2010, the St. Louis suburb was 67.4 percent black and 29.3 percent white. But if you looked at the city's leadership, you would never know it.
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From the Los Angeles Times:
Black Voters Not Voting in Ferguson, MO?
"Ferguson’s police chief and mayor are white. Of the six City Council members, one is black. The local school board has six white members and one Latino. Of the 53 commissioned officers on the police force, three are black, said Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson.
As my colleague Dara Lind has pointed out, a state report on racial profiling revealed that last year, 86 percent of traffic stops and 92 percent of all arrests in the city were of black residents. For anyone who didn't understand the context of Ferguson residents' anger and frustration, and why the police shooting of an unarmed black teenager Saturday caused it to bubble over, think of these arrest stats. Then compare the demographics of the city to the demographics of its police force and city council."
Is it because the black residents do not vote? This impart of the explanation, but the transient nature of the residents does not tell the whole story of how representation by population is a canard in American local democracy;
"As black families moved into Ferguson, the whites fled. In 1980, the town was 85 percent white and 14 percent black; by 2010, it was 29 percent white and 69 percent black. But blacks did not gain political power as their numbers grew. The mayor and the police chief are white, as are five of the six City Council members. The school board consists of six white members and one Hispanic. As Mr. Gordon explains, many black residents, lacking the wealth to buy property, move from apartment to apartment and have not put down political roots."
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/13/opinion/racial-history-behind-the-ferguson-protests.html?_r=0
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Ferguson All White, One Latino School Board Suspends, 6-1 to Suspend Black Superintendent in 78% Black Student District
Issues in the election
Suspension of Superintendent
On November 6, 2013, the Ferguson-Florissant Board of Education voted 6-1 to place Superintendent Art McCoy on suspension with pay, citing "differences in focus and philosophy" as the stated reason. Board member Paul Schroeder was the only dissenting voter. Board of Education President Paul Morris stated the board's action were not an indication of wrongdoing on McCoy's part. On the following Friday, a press conference was held where over 60 supporters called for the Superintendent to be re-instated. At a board meeting later in November, 1,500 community members demonstrated to show their support for Superintendent McCoy. A closed hearing date has been set for February 24, 2014 to determine whether there is cause to terminate McCoy's contract. McCoy is a black Superintendent in a district where 78% of the students are black.[9][10][11]
http://ballotpedia.org/Ferguson-Florissant_School_District_elections_(2014)
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