First published 2015
Wesley Lowery examines the fatal encounter between Officer Darren Wilson and Michael Brown that occurred in just three minutes on Canfield Drive. At 12:00, Wilson turned his police cruiser onto the street. At 12:01, he ordered Brown and Dorian Johnson out of the roadway. By 12:04, Brown lay dead from gunshot wounds. Lowery compiles extensive reporting from Washington Post journalists to document how this brief confrontation exposed deep fractures in American policing and race relations. The book traces the immediate aftermath through the protests, confrontations, and the difficult work of rebuilding trust between Ferguson's community and its police force. Lowery argues that the incident illuminated persistent racial disparities in law enforcement practices and challenged assumptions about America being beyond racial divisions. The reporting reveals how one city's crisis became a national reckoning with police violence against young Black men and the ongoing impact of systemic racism.
Genres: history, african-american, crime, non-fiction, 21st-century, journalism, current-affairs, american-history
Vibes: emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: social-commentary
Setting: Canfield Drive, Ferguson
Period: 2010s
59 pages · Kindle Edition · Diversion Books
Content warnings: racism, violence