FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — Michael Brown's death at the hands of a white Missouri police officer was a seismic moment in American race relations. The fledgling Black Lives Matter movement found its voice, police departments fell under intense scrutiny, progressive prosecutors were elected and court policies were revised.
Yet five years after the black 18-year-old was fatally shot by Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson on a steamy August day, racial tension remains palpable and may be even more intense. From the march on Charlottesville to President Donald Trump's tweets attacking congressional Democrats of color and Colin Kaepernick's kneeling at NFL games, the country seems more divided than ever.
Ferguson "drew attention to the practices of police violence and a lot of the stereotypes and viewpoints that people had about black Americans," said Adia Harvey Wingfield, a Washington University sociologist and expert on race relations. "I wish I could be a little more optimistic about its overall implications, but I am not sure yet that there is too much reason for optimism. I think that we're in a place where we kind of see some progress coupled with some steps backward."
The suburban St. Louis community has changed, though to some, not fast enough. The government for the city of 21,000 is now more reflective of its populace, which is two-thirds black. Four of the six City Council members are black, compared with just one in 2014. The police force that was overwhelmingly white in 2014 is now far more diverse.
The town has seen sweeping changes in the way the Police Department and municipal court operate. An agreement with the Justice Department requires even more reforms, and the monitor overseeing the agreement wants the pace to accelerate.
Behind all of that, a father still grieves.
"We share the same name," Michael Brown Sr., 41, said of his son. "We have the same blood. He has no voice. I have the voice for him so I have to keep pushing."
The cascade of events on Aug. 9, 2014, began with a chance encounter on the street.
Wilson had just left a home after a call about a sick baby when he drove by Brown and a friend, who were walking in the middle of Canfield Drive, a busy two-lane street. Wilson told them to use the sidewalk.
Words were exchanged, then Wilson noticed a pack of cigarillos in Brown's hand. A radio dispatch had just reported the theft of cigarillos from a market. Wilson confronted Brown, who was unarmed.
The situation escalated in a flash. Brown reached into Wilson's SUV, and a fight began. Wilson's gun went off. Brown ran. Suddenly, the 6-foot-4, 290-pound teenager turned back toward Wilson, who later told investigators that Brown looked "psychotic" and "hostile."
Wilson fired several shots, but Brown kept coming, the officer said, until the final shot to the head felled him.
Some people in the Canfield Green apartment complex said Brown had his hands up in surrender, stories that quickly spread on social media. Brown's bloodied body lay on the street in the August heat for four hours, inciting even more anger.