Citizen Brown: Race, Democracy, and Inequality in the St. Louis Suburbs

by Colin Gordon

The 2014 killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, ignited nationwide protests and brought widespread attention police brutality and institutional racism. But Ferguson was no aberration. As Colin Gordon shows in this urgent and timely book, the events in Ferguson exposed not only the deep racism of the local police department but also the ways in which decades of public policy effectively segregated people and curtailed citizenship not just in Ferguson but across the St. Louis suburbs.

Citizen Brown uncovers half a century of private practices and public policies that resulted in bitter inequality and sustained segregation in Ferguson and beyond. Gordon shows how municipal and school district boundaries were pointedly drawn to contain or exclude African Americans and how local policies and services—especially policing, education, and urban renewal—were weaponized to maintain civic separation. He also makes it clear that the outcry that arose in Ferguson was no impulsive outburst but rather an explosion of pent-up rage against long-standing systems of segregation and inequality—of which a police force that viewed citizens not as subjects to serve and protect but as sources of revenue was only the most immediate example. Worse, Citizen Brown illustrates the fact that though the greater St. Louis area provides some extraordinarily clear examples of fraught racial dynamics, in this it is hardly alone among American cities and regions.

Interactive maps and other companion resources to  Citizen Brown  are available at the 

Genres: Nonfiction

216 pages, Hardcover

First published September 10, 2019

Reviews

[Leo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very well researched and well written book. The writing is very accessible (not overly academic, pretty easy to read even without any background in policy/housing/history/etc). Gordon offers a detailed history of the racialized settlement and housing decisions that have impacted a great many American cities, but which show up in St Louis in a uniquely stark way. Gordon ties access to housing, education, and public benefits & services to citizenship, and demonstrates how historical racism has shaped this access -- and therefore, how full citizenship has been systematically withheld from many Black and African Americans. This book provides extra context for the historical and social circumstances which paved the way for the 2014 murder of Michael Brown by Darren Wilson, demonstrating that his murder should not only be understood in the context of victims of police violence and mass incarceration, but it should also be understood in the context of a systematically reduced citizenship via policy choices and executive decisions at every level of government.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this in one of my Public Policy classes; focuses on the historic and present racial tensions/disparities in the St. Louis region. Highly recommend to anyone interested in city/urban planning or anyone moving into the St. Louis region who wants to better understand the history of St. Louis and how/why it is the way it is right now.

[._. · Rating 3 out of 5]

“the police see ‘residents… less as constituents to be protected than as potential offenders and sources of revenue’”