Ferguson uprising follows killing of Michael Brown, expands Black Lives Matter nationally

The police killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, triggered weeks of sustained protest and a militarized police response broadcast globally. The uprising catalyzed Black Lives Matter from a hashtag into a national decentralized movement, forced public discourse on police violence against Black Americans to an unprecedented level, and spurred the Obama administration to convene a task force on 21st-century policing.