Ferguson's Future May Lie in the Hands of Its Voters

The killing of an unarmed black teenager by a white police officer turned Ferguson, Missouri, into ground zero in the national dialogue about community policing and racial bias. But in the wake of a blistering Justice Department report that has forced six police and city employees to resign or be fired — coupled with more unrest this week — the St. Louis suburb's fate is returning to the hands of perhaps its most powerful group: the voters.
On April 7, three of six City Council seats will be up for grabs, and the election in the city's Ward 3 will be particularly symbolic: It includes the street where 19-year-old Michael Brown was fatally shot by Officer Darren Wilson last August. It's also where two black candidates — Lee Smith, a retired long-time Ferguson resident, and Wesley Bell, a young college professor and local municipal judge — are squaring off in a district known for its historically low voter turnout.