Jun 3, 2020 - Politics & Policy

Ella Jones elected as first black mayor of Ferguson

Photo: Via Ella Jones for Mayor

Ella Jones was elected Tuesday as the first black mayor — and the first woman in the post — of Ferguson, Missouri, where the 2014 police-involved shooting of Michael Brown sparked protests that brought national attention to the Black Lives Matter movement, the New York Times reports.

Why it matters: Jones was the first black woman elected to Ferguson's city council in 2015 — and her win comes as protests over police violence and systemic racism are again taking place across the country. "I've got work to do — because when you're an African American woman, they require more of you than they require of my counterpart," she said in a video posted by St. Louis Public Radio's Jason Rosenbaum.

Go deeper