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A year ago to the date, Michael Brown was shot and killed by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri. Wilson was not indicted, and voluntarily left the Ferguson PD so the city “could heal.” A year later, the city hasn’t healed completely. A year later we can barely go a news cycle without Black men and women being brutalized and killed by police, and with sometimes no justice to follow

MUST READ: Leslie McSpadden: Darren Wilson Is The Devil

Black Lives Matter, the organization that was sparked by the death of Trayvon Martin, did take on new life after Mike Brown’s death. Ferguson itself will be remembered as a place that the people rose up and demanded to be heard. We saw protests from coast to coast and in every major city in between. The people demanded voice, they demanded justice, they demanded the right to exist without fear. But there is still much work to be done.

It is extremely tragic that the series of injustices experiences by Black women and men has not caused a true majority public outcry. It is truly testament to the need for Black Lives Matter – that Black, men, women, and children can be harmed by America’s institutions and the nation seems like it carries on without stopping to ask, “Is the America we want to live in?”

It has been said time and time and again that nobody but God and Darren Wilson and Mike Brown knows what happened that day. That is a reality that many are willing to concede. But given what we do know about how Black boxes are often treated by men in Blue, it would be foolish to not ask questions. It would be foolish to take Wilson’s words for the truth. It would be foolish not to keep demanding for justice.

In the end, it is not right to keep positioning these fallen victims of police brutality as martyrs. We would rather they be alive than they be martyrs. But because of their deaths, concerned citizens everywhere cannot simply let these deaths be in vain. Indeed the memory of their lives and the pain of their deaths should strengthen us in our daily fight for ensuring that everyone knows that Black lives matter.

RELATED LINKS:

One Year After #MikeBrown’s Death: A Look Back At The #BlackLivesMatter Protests

Mike Brown Is Getting A Memorial In Ferguson

Twitter Gets Real About Mike Brown And What America Looks Like A Year After His Death

Why Mike Brown’s Death Must Never Be In Vain  was originally published on hellobeautiful.com