Mother of Slain African-American Teen Michael Brown Loses Ferguson City Council Election

Lesley McSpadden, the mother of 18-year-old police brutality victim, Michael Brown, was defeated in her bid for Ferguson's 3rd Ward City Council election in Missouri, where her son's death took place.

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“I wanted to come back to a place that caused me so much pain and did me so wrong, and to do something right,” McSpadden said about her attempted foray into politics in the extremely competitive election in the predominantly Black district.

McSpadden stressed that they "need to rebuild the entire system from the inside out. The only way that can be done is by having people, like me, who have been harmed by the system working inside it to make the right change that is needed.”

She added that she plans to uphold this necessity, no matter her position.

Her opponents were eventual winner Fran Griffin and Keith Kallstrom.

McSpadden congratulated Griffin on her victory, and expressed pride for the candidates' sportsmanship and "the positive race we ran". She also maintains that she will continue to be a part of the work that needs to be done in the community. "I'm not going anywhere."

McSpadden has been at the forefront of the Black Lives Matter movement, which received widespread national attention after the murder of her son. A surge of protests rocked Ferguson, spreading to the rest of the country, calling for police reform and accountability.

The fateful incident took place in 2014.

While the United States Justice Department was unable to compile enough evidence to indict the accused, Darren Wilson, the white officer who shot Brown, the Ferguson Police was required to make significant changes after the Department's report revealed several racially-biased practices, including hiking fees on minor offenses committed by Black people, harassment and racial profiling.

McSpadden was also a part of the "Mothers of the Movement" organization, which consists of mothers who lost their children to police brutality or gun violence. 

In 2018, one of the mothers, Lucy McBath, won the congressional election in Georgia's Sixth District. McBath lost her 17-year-old son to gun violence over a dispute with a 45-year-old white man over the volume of the music.