Election

‘Where is all that money going?’ Michael Brown’s father demands 20 million from Black Lives Matter

Photo credit: Jamelle Bouie

3/4/21

The father of Michael Brown Jr., whose death sparked nationwide protest in 2014, is accusing the Black Lives Matter of abandoning Ferguson activists and is demanding $20 million for “community improvement projects.”

Michael Brown Sr. released a joint statement with Tory Russell, the director of the International Black Freedom Alliance (IBFA), on Tuesday demanding some of the millions raised by BLM be handed over to activists in Ferguson, Missouri, where 18-year-old Brown Jr. was killed after he attacked a police officer.

“Thousands of other youth activists in their 20s and 30s have been out in the streets protesting for months and months, and years and years. Still forgotten,” Russell said in a video released on Twitter.

“We’re asking that Black Lives Matter leadership funds $20 million for Ferguson organizers, organizations and community foundations to do the work,” he added. 

The statement was in response to a report by the Associated Press that BLM raised over $90 million in donations to fight “systemic racism” in 2020.

“Why hasn’t my family’s foundation received any assistance from the movement?” he added. “How could you leave the families who are helping the community without any funding?,” Michael Brown Sr. said in a separate statement.

Fueled by false claims that Michael Brown had been shot with his hands up, the incident sparked nationwide protests and riots.

But a grand jury declined to indict Darren Wilson, the officer who shot and killed Brown Jr. The city of Ferguson settled a lawsuit by the Brown family if the form of $1.5 million payment in 2017.

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