Faces of Ferguson: Locals' stories reflect hopes and tension

FERGUSON, Mo. -- With a scuffle and the crackle of gunfire, this once-anonymous suburb was scarred permanently a year ago.

The fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old, by a white police officer, Darren Wilson, last August sparked clashes between protesters and police, unfolding on live television. Questions raised here about law-enforcement attitudes toward minorities and the militarization of police since have reverberated across the country.

For the people who've lived through the turmoil, it is a time to reflect and look ahead. Here are a few of their stories:

The shopkeeper

The first time Ferguson exploded in rage, Juanita Morris was spared.

Three windows and the door were broken at her clothing store, Fashions R Boutique, but nothing was stolen. Morris thought the protesters had vented, and calm would return.

In November, though, after a grand jury decided not to indict Wilson, cars were vandalized, shots fired and businesses burned -- including hers.

"It's like seeing 28 years of hard labor go up in smoke," Morris said. "I was more devastated than angry."

A few weeks later, Morris began looking to reopen. She had regular customers, many of them seniors who shopped at the "church woman's store" for their Sunday finest. And she had new friends and champions.

Soon after the fire, a college student who'd seen Morris on TV, along with two buddies, established a crowdfunding campaign to supplement her insurance.

About 700 donations totaling more than $23,000 poured in from across the U.S., Australia, Germany and elsewhere.

"I'm thinking, 'My God, these people don't even know me,"' Morris said.

This fall, she'll move to a new store in nearby Florissant. The rebuilding in Ferguson, she said, is moving too slowly, and some elderly customers have told her they don't feel safe returning to the area.

Morris says she was comforted by a letter written by a student at a junior high who had "adopted" her.

"If there's no rain, there's no rainbow," the girl wrote.

She took that message to heart.

"If there's no trouble in your life, how would you grow?" Morris asked. "This was a trying time for me, and ... I've learned that I'm not a quitter. I've learned that I'm a woman of courage, a woman of strength and a woman with determination that never gives up."

The pastor

The Rev. Willis Johnson sees something enduring about the protest movement that took hold here last summer.

Rev. Willis Johnson

"So many times before, when similar things have happened across this country, we have raged against the machine, but then we have settled down," he said. "There was a collection of energy as well as specific people that said, 'No, no, not this time.'"

As the protests continued into the fall, Johnson said he was reminded of the civil-rights struggles of the 1960s.

"I think many of us have been re-ignited, re-engaged ... even challenged by this particular generation and this particular movement to fire back up," he says.

Now that things are quieter, Johnson, pastor of Wellspring Church, has time to ponder the future of Ferguson. He sees reasons for hope -- and cause for concern.

"Just as there are those who have awakened, we will have the Rip Van Winkles of the community ... (whose) behaviors are even more entrenched," he said. "You see that at community meetings, in the language. There's still some of that 'them and us' and 'over there."'

Task forces have formed to address city problems. Although there's no single solution, there is an acknowledgment the old ways don't work, he said.

"We need to do something different," he said, "... and we know we want to feel a hell of lot different than we've felt for the last year. ... It's going to require us to do everything and ignore the fact that we can't any longer do nothing."

The police officer

It's the ugly images -- protesters throwing rocks and police lobbing tear gas -- many think of when they hear the word "Ferguson."

Dominica Fuller

But for police Sgt. Dominica Fuller, something positive emerged from the chaos: a new unity among the officers who faced taunts and threats.

"I'm not going to lie to you ... it was rough for all of us," she said. "You went through the pain of seeing the hatred that people had, not for you as an individual, but for the badge, for the uniform you wear. ... We have feelings. We're officers, but yet, still, we're human beings as well."

Fuller, 44, rejects what she calls a media perception the Ferguson police "were racist, that we're mean, that we targeted black people. Well, I'm black, so you mean to tell me because we have a disagreement I'm a racist?" She's one of five black members on the 50-person force.

In March, the Justice Department released a report that found the city's police had engaged in patterns of bias against black residents in recent years.

Fuller, who was promoted in May, won't discuss the findings but said officers were affected by what they saw and heard on the streets.

"It made us take a look at ourselves," said Fuller, a 17-year veteran. "You've got to remember these people were yelling stuff. ... It allowed us to finally open up our ears to listen to some of them ... the ones that really had a purpose to being out there."

The Ferguson police, she said, are making "positive changes," but "nothing happens overnight. ... This is our opportunity to show another state, another department that's having the same problem (they) can learn from us."

The activist

Emily Davis never had been a political activist, but the presence of police in riot gear and armored vehicles filling the streets "terrorized the citizens," she said, and spurred her to get involved.

Emily Davis

She attended city council meetings regularly, helped push for the recall of the mayor, joined ONE Ferguson, a community group dedicated to addressing racial and other disparities, and protested for several months.

"I thought if I'm out here ... eventually, my city has to listen," said the 38-year-old mother of three. "It's my job to say, 'I don't like this as a white person, either. It's not OK you're treating other citizens in my community that way."'

A year later, she says, tensions in Ferguson persist -- but there are new fault lines.

"There's a lot of resentment that wasn't there before," Davis said. "The divisions are deeper."

While much of the spotlight last year was on black residents' mistrust of the predominantly white police force, Davis says there are new fractures among white residents.

"You have people who feel that the protests destroyed their town, and they feel unfairly attacked as racists," she said. "There are a lot of people who don't like each other."

Although Davis maintains Ferguson officials are running the city as they did before last summer, she feels some good has come as more people have become politically active.

"A lot of us," she said, "have found each other and gained strength from each other."

The councilman

When Wesley Bell stood between protesters and police, hoping to keep the peace, he knew the world would be watching Ferguson in the months ahead.

Wesley Bell

"I wanted to be part of turning things around," he said. In April, Bell, a lawyer, professor and head of the criminal justice department at St. Louis Community College-Florissant Valley, was elected to the Ferguson City Council, one of two new black members chosen for the six-person board.

The 40-year-old Bell is optimistic, pointing to a focus on community policing, town-hall meetings, court reforms and appointments to key posts, including a municipal judge, interim police chief and interim city manager. All three are black.

"You have a city whose institutions are beginning to reflect the population," Bell said.

Bell said he knows frustrations remain, especially among young black residents who feel alienated from the police -- a problem he said isn't unique to Ferguson.

"Trust isn't something that you can just snap your fingers and now everyone's on board," he said. "There are citizens who are confident and feel good about what we're doing, and there are still citizens who aren't."

But he disputes those who say Ferguson has stood still.

"Now, have we gone far enough? Are we done?" he asks. "Are we ready to just say, hey, great job, move on? No. We've got a lot of work to do, but this city is moving in the right direction, and I think anyone who's being objective and fair can see that."