Ten Years and Ten Miles: Reflecting on "Ferguson"

Authors

Benjamin Levin, Washington University in St. Louis School of LawFollow

Document Type

Article

Language

English (en)

Publication Date

2025

Publication Title

Washington University Journal of Law & Policy

Abstract

This Essay serves as the introduction to a symposium on the ten-year anniversary of Michael Brown's death in Ferguson, Missouri and the subsequent protests and uprisings across the country. The authors look back on the past decade—their own experiences and our experiences as a nation—to consider the impacts of the Ferguson uprisings and the landscape of criminal justice and racial justice advocacy, scholarship, and teaching today. In this Essay, I provide a brief introduction to the Volume and essays that follow. In Part I, I situate the Ferguson uprisings in the broader context of activism responsive to racial injustice in the U.S. criminal system. In Part II, I describe the essays that follow. Finally, in Part III, I offer a few words on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Washington University Journal of Law & Policy, and the importance of this Volume in continuing the journal’s mission.

Keywords

Criminal Law, Criminal Justice, Ferguson, Michael Brown, Policing, Criminal Justice Reform, Criminal Policy, Racial Justice, Racial Inequality, Abolition, Minimalism, Black Lives Matter, Legal Pedagogy, Legal Theory

Publication Citation

Benjamin Levin, Ten Years And Ten Miles: Reflecting On “Ferguson,” 78 Washington University Journal of Law and Policy 1 (2025)

Repository Citation

Levin, Benjamin, "Ten Years and Ten Miles: Reflecting on "Ferguson"" (2025). Scholarship@WashULaw. 865.
https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/law_scholarship/865