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        Behind the Protests, Ferguson Remains a Community in Transition

   by Kane Farabaugh, Victoria Macchi

   Standing between racks of tie-dyed "I love Ferguson" tee-shirts,
   long-time resident Jacqueline Dehmer is proud of her community. In the
   year since the shooting death of a black teen by a white policeman
   rocked this small central U.S. city, she and about two dozen other
   volunteers have raised more than $100,000 to rebuild businesses looted
   during protests by selling Ferguson-themed souvenirs.

   "I want people to know about Ferguson, and that we are a friendly
   loving community, not at all what was portrayed," said Dehmer.

   Unarmed but suspected in a nearby robbery, Michael Brown's killing
   up-ended the St. Louis suburb of 21,000 people.

   The tree-shaded Canfield Drive where officer Darren Wilson shot Brown
   was a part of Ferguson Dehmer didn't know. White and 76 years old, the
   problems of young, black city residents, she admits, weren't on her
   radar.

   But Ferguson resident Kenneth Wheat, who also volunteers at the shop,
   said he knows his skin color has prompted police to stop him before.
   It's also why he's had a hard time figuring out where he stands in the
   debates about discrimination and police violence triggered by Brown's
   killing.

   "At first I was torn with what was going on, because being a black man,
   I understand," he told VOA.

   When protesters, he said, came from outside Ferguson and confronted him
   and his friends at a local market last year, he asked them to leave.
   They responded, he said, with "yelling, screaming, cursing, pushing
   people."

   "All I heard from them were, `you're an Uncle Tom, you're a sell out,'
   and that's when my decision was made," he said.

   Wheat decided to protect the reputation of his friends, his neighbors,
   his community. To do that, Wheat said, he got more involved. One way is
   volunteering at the "I Love Ferguson" store, located not far from the
   Ferguson Police Department.

   Wheat said he isn't alone, and that to him one example of the positive
   change in Ferguson is how, one year later, more of the community is
   getting involved.

   Still, at least one protester has little confidence deep change is here
   to stay in Ferguson.

   "Everything is going to go right back under the rug, after a week,
   everything will be right back to normal," she told VOA during a
   demonstration earlier this week. "The police is still going to be the
   same, you'll still have black on black crime, white on white crime, and
   whatever other crime, this is not going to make a difference."

   While daytime shines light on some of those new storefronts and the
   change under way in Ferguson a year after Michael Brown's death,
   nightfall brings the protests - and the media - back to the streets,
   and the unwelcome narrative that this place remains a dangerous
   tinderbox.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/behind-the-protests-ferguson-remains-
   a-community-in-transition/2914644.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/behind-the-protests-ferguson-remains-a-community-in-transition/2914644.html