Ferguson\u2019s Municipal Public Library weathered the streets swelled with protesters and officers alike. The death of Michael Brown tipped the scales in the town 10 miles from St. Louis, skulking the lid off decades of questionable practices from city and state administrators. What erupted was an outpouring of outrage and fright, as residents marched, pleaded, and demanded justice be done in the case of officer\u00a0Darren Wilson. Through it all, the library stayed open, serving as neutral ground for people\u2019s children and for knowledge\u2014remaining open when most were closed that fateful week in August\u00a02014.\u00a0<\/p>\n
People instinctively felt the need to donate. The library acting as a stent for a city having a heart attack in America\u2019s living room. As the protests went on, the library\u2019s donations ballooned. All told, over 12,000 people gave their hard-earned money. Now\u00a0they\u2019ve hit $450,000, a number that director Scott Bonner exclaims \u201cwas more than our yearly budget!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ferguson Municipal Public Library makes changes.<\/p>\n
The library has put the money to good use. They\u2019ve increased their programming budget more than tenfold, which has lead to more responsive programs for residents under new hire Amy Randazzo. Donations have also allowed them to innovate. Last year, StoryCorps and the library teamed up to record the unedited voices of Ferguson residents\u2014an archive that holds the raw thoughts and reactions of folks unfiltered through a media narrative.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ferguson still has a way\u00a0to go. A scathing Department of Justice report dropped bombshell accusations regarding evidence of widespread economic policing in the city as well as a rampant campaign of racial profiling. \u201cFerguson\u2019s law enforcement practices are shaped by the city\u2019s focus on revenue rather than by public safety needs,\u201d stated the inquiry. And, on another occasion, \u201cAfrican American\u2019s face disparate impact in nearly every aspect of Ferguson\u2019s law enforcement system.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the report, the DOJ and Ferguson officials spent a year trying to hash out the details of their reform. But just this past February, the Ferguson City council voted 6-0 on the measure, forcing the Department of Justice to file a civil suit against the city. According to the The New York Times, Mayor James\u00a0Knowles III cited\u00a0expense as the cause of the down vote, stating, \u201cIt will cost more to implement the agreement than it will be to fight a lawsuit.\u201d Adding, \u201cThere\u2019s no point in agreeing to something we can\u2019t afford.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, the library\u2019s work serves as an example of what can go right in Ferguson when both money and intent align.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ferguson\u2019s Municipal Public Library weathered the streets swelled with protesters and officers alike. The death of Michael Brown tipped the scales in the town 10 miles from St. Louis, skulking the lid off decades of questionable practices from city and state administrators. What erupted was an outpouring of outrage and fright, as residents marched, pleaded,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1430\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}