FERGUSON, Mo.—Heralded as hope for economic empowerment of young black men, construction was launched Thursday on a job-training center where a QuikTrip once stood before being looted and torched a night after last summer’s police shooting death of Michael Brown.
The groundbreaking ceremony for what will become the Urban League Community Empowerment Center came 11 months to the day that Brown died roughly three-quarters of a mile away, spawning sometimes violent protests and a national “Black Lives Matter” crusade.
Business and Urban League dignitaries said the center means a possible pivot toward better times for Ferguson and its underemployed youth.
“(Last) Aug. 9 didn’t cause our problems; Aug. 9 exposed our problems,” Steve Sullivan, executive director of the Provident Inc. counseling service that will have an office at the center, told about 250 people who gathered under a tent for Thursday’s event.
It was not immediately clear how quickly the center might be built or exactly what it will cost, though the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis said regional companies have contributed more than $1 million toward the effort, which includes giving young jobless or underemployed men a month’s training.
