Ferguson started with strangers and endures with family
Kayla Reed and Brittany Packnett Cunningham found their voices as activists during the Ferguson Uprising. They also forged a bond and strong friendship. So what happens when Brittany leaves St. Louis and Kayla stays? And how does that impact the community work they did over the years?
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38:51
A 1972 uprising exposed the Veiled Prophet. Ferguson protesters keep that pressure on power
Ferguson showed what happens when a community comes together to protest power and obtain meaningful change from it, but power doesn’t like to retreat. What happens to people who feel elite, and untouchable, when the city around them rises up to expose and oppose them? What happens when power takes a different shape — obscuring its nature and staying in its position? In this episode, we examine a protest story decades before the Ferguson Uprising — the story of those who worked to take down the Veiled Prophet.
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50:05
'Ferguson and beyond' — A live community conversation 10 years later
On Wednesday, Aug. 6, St. Louis Public Radio and NPR news co-hosted "Ferguson and Beyond: A Community Conversation 10 Years Later" at Greater St. Mark Family Church, just miles from the epicenter of protests sparked by the killing of Michael Brown, Jr. by a Ferguson police officer in August 2014. This bonus episode presents highlights from that event, with a panel and audience Q&A moderated by NPR “Morning Edition” host Michel Martin and a special performance by St. Louis spoken word artist, poet, and community arts educator Pacia Elaine Anderson.
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What makes a 'good' school? Black parents face tough choices
In St. Louis, many Black families moved to St. Louis County for better school districts. But after some time, those districts started having their own issues: white flight, decaying property values and consolidations. Some families moved even further northwest, only to face neighbors trying to prevent Black history from being taught. In this episode, we explore why St. Louis schools are more segregated than they were 10 years ago — and meet the parents determined to do right by their kids.
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The Ferguson sledgehammer: Breaking systems and building new ones out of the Uprising
Ferguson exposed systems that disenfranchise Black St. Louisans and fail their basic mandates to provide safety, health and community to the people who depend on them. Inspired by the Uprising and driven by experience and anger, many people found their voices and created their own new systems designed to help their community thrive. In this episode, we explore the creation of Love Bank Park, the closing of the Medium Security Institution known as the Workhouse, and the restorative justice movement.
It’s been 10 years since Michael Brown Jr. was killed and the Ferguson Uprising that followed. To honor that history and reflect on where St. Louis is today, St. Louis Public Radio is bringing back the podcast “We Live Here” for a special season. In the show, host Chad Davis and producer Danny Wicentowksi reflect on some of the truths that Ferguson exposed, why there still is an open wound a decade later, and how community members continue to push for a better future.
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