Elections triple black presence on Ferguson council

Washington: The number of African-Americans on Ferguson`s city council has tripled after the first municipal elections since a white police officer shot and killed unarmed black teenager Michael Brown.

Thirty percent of registered voters in the St. Louis suburb of 21,000 -- which is two-thirds African-American -- cast ballots in Tuesday`s election, more than double the typical turnout, St. Louis County election officials said.

Of the three seats up for grabs, two were won by black candidates -- Ella Jones, chair of Ferguson`s human rights commission, and Wesley Bell, a criminal justice professor and municipal judge in another St. Louis suburb.

They will join Dwayne James who, prior to Tuesday, had been the lone African-American on the otherwise all-white, six-seat council, which is presided by Mayor James Knowles, who is also white.

The third winner Tuesday was Brian Fletcher, a former mayor who launched an "I Love Ferguson" campaign amid the intense media attention cast on the city following Brown`s death.

Ferguson has been in the global spotlight since police officer Darren Wilson killed Brown, an 18-year-old, on a residential street last August, triggering weeks of protests that at times spilled into rioting.

A US Justice Department inquiry, released in March, said there was insufficient evidence to prosecute Wilson for the youth`s death, which allegedly occurred after Brown tried to grab hold of the officer`s handgun.

But it exposed a history of racial bias within the Ferguson police force, which targeted blacks as a way to generate municipal revenue through traffic fines and court fees.

Ferguson`s police chief, municipal judge and city manager have since resigned, while Mayor James Knowles -- whose job was not in contention Tuesday -- is the target of a recall campaign.