Ferguson's Post-Protest Business Recovery Plan

Charles Davis showed up at his new restaurant on the morning of Aug. 9 ready for a long day of work. He’d opened the Ferguson Burger Bar & More just a day earlier, and this was his first Saturday night. The restaurant is located on the east side of Ferguson in a low-slung commercial strip, between a barbershop and a beauty supply store. Davis was taking orders and shuttling them back to the kitchen when the phone rang. The call was for his wife, Kizzie, who also works at the restaurant. The news was horrible. A family friend, a young man Kizzie had known since he was a kid, had been shot and killed by a police officer just a few blocks away. Michael Brown was 18 years old, about to start his freshman year of college. Word started circulating among Davis’s customers: Brown’s body was lying in the street, blood everywhere, the cops keeping everyone away. The kid had been shot with his hands up, people were saying.

“When things started unfolding, I knew what was going to happen,” says Davis, who is black. “Because the way they were handling things, the police. The way they were hiding things. I knew then: ‘Yeah, it’s going to be a problem.’ ”