FERGUSON, Mo. – U.S. President Barack Obama is sending three White House aides to the funeral of Michael Brown, the black man whose fatal shooting by a white police officer sparked days of racial unrest in Ferguson, Missouri.
Leading the group for Monday’s service will be Broderick Johnson, the chairman of the My Brother’s Keeper Task Force, an Obama initiative that aims to empower young minorities, the White House said Sunday.
He will be accompanied by two representatives from the White House Office of Public Engagement, including deputy director Marlon Marshall, who officials say is a St. Louis native and attended high school with Brown’s mother.
In Ferguson early Sunday, tensions briefly flared then subsided as nightly protests continued two weeks after a white officer fatally shot an unarmed black 18-year-old.
Police reported only a handful of arrests, and traffic flowed freely along the West Florissant Avenue commercial corridor near the suburban St. Louis apartment complex where Ferguson officer Darren Wilson shot Michael Brown six times in the middle of the street on Aug. 9.
“I think some of the frustration is dying down because more information is coming out,” said Alana Ramey, 25, a St. Louis resident. “I think there is more action going on. People are being more organized and that is helping.”
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