Two years ago, the protests in Ferguson that followed Brown’s death galvanized African Americans—and many others—around what some see as a new civil-rights movement. Now, as a presidential election of historically divisive proportions nears conclusion, the black community has experienced it as a fresh trauma: As America’s first black president prepares to leave office, one of the major-party nominees appears to them to be not just a racist, but running on a platform of racism.
Some have argued that Trump's nomination may have come as a white backlash to events like the Ferguson protests, which Trump has called “race riots.” But if Trump loses the presidential election, an outcome that looks increasingly likely, it will be due to the backlash to the backlash: the increasingly diverse American electorate, starting with an African American community that proved stubbornly resistant to Trump’s belated attempts to woo them. [...]
Franks, who is now 32, represents the rising generation of activists determined to translate protestors’ passion into something constructive—and to take on entrenched interests in the Democratic Party to do so. In the activist community, Franks has been criticized for his willingness to work with police to achieve change. He told me he had hope of finding common ground once he gets to the Republican-controlled legislature, and that he believed working within the system was the way to change it.
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