Yvette Nicole Brown
speaker
74 appearances
2 recordings
2 series
first heard Jan 2025
last heard Jun 2025
Yvette Nicole Brown’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
After Mike's killing, Leslie and her family were plunged into deep grief.
The days blurred together, the way they tend to do after a loss, with time standing still and rushing forward at the same time. Kiki remembers those dark days.
But while they were processing an unimaginable loss, a movement was starting. On August 10th, after a peaceful candlelight vigil, the first of several nights of unrest began.
Police officers showed up in riot gear to confront protesters. The next night, they fired rubber bullets and tear gas at the crowds. Leslie remembers it was impossible to escape what was going on outside because tear gas was literally seeping into her family's home.
Leslie remembers she and her family piled into the car that night, stopping to pick up her mom before heading to a downtown hotel. Nearby, tear gas hung in the air and armored police vehicles blocked streets.
The militarized display of force from police, sniper rifles, armored vehicles, flash grenades, and tear gas was stunning. Ferguson, with a population of 22,000 people, was more like a war zone than a small town. Some officers wore riot gear with shields, batons, and helmets. Others were decked out in army-style fatigues and body armor.
What was happening in Ferguson was a real-time representation of the police brutality happening in Black communities across the country, and it was igniting a budding movement, Black Lives Matter.
The protests, sparked by Mike's murder, were changing the way Americans talked about race and policing. It was no longer just a local issue. This was happening on a national level. Tensions were high, even reaching the White House. On August 12, just three days after Mike's killing, then-President Barack Obama issued a statement.
As the story made headlines across the country, protesters live-streamed clashes with police, and conspiracy theories flooded social media. Fake photos made the rounds, too, like one of a man holding a gun that people falsely claimed was Mike. Another photo supposedly showed that the officer had broken bones in his face. This was also a hoax.
Legacy media also spread false and unfair narratives about Mike, with the New York Times writing that he was, quote, "...no angel." All of this attention from the hateful rhetoric online to the support of protests was new to Leslie.
One task that loomed over her was picking out the clothes Mike Mike would be buried in.
Leslie remembers talking to Austin Lane, the funeral director, about how she wanted Mike to look.
The night before the funeral, Leslie and about 100 family members and friends gathered for a private viewing of Mike Mike before he would be laid to rest.
Leslie remembers seeing his body for the first time before anyone else. She hoped the funeral home had made Mike look like his picture, as if he was just asleep.
Mike Mike's funeral was held on August 25, 2014. The St. Louis Cardinals baseball cap couldn't go on his head because of the swelling. So Leslie placed it on top of his casket. She also wore red, his favorite color.
Over 4,500 mourners filled Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church in St. Louis. Among the attendees were civil rights leaders, celebrities, and representatives from the White House. Not everyone was simply paying their respects, though. Family, on Mike's dad's side, also showed up to sell merchandise with Mike's face on it. For Leslie, it was a slap in the face.
With everything going on, from organizing Mike's funeral to dealing with people trying to profit off her son, Leslie couldn't just grieve as a parent who had lost her firstborn. She found herself put into a role she never could have imagined and never asked for, a mother of the movement.
Leslie remembers sitting down for interviews at 4 or 5 in the morning, running on an hour of sleep. In just a couple of months, she appeared on ABC News, CBS Evening News, and the Steve Harvey Show, just to name a few. She even testified at the U.N. Every time, she had to recount August 9th over and over again.
Even so, these interviews were a way for Leslie to channel her pain into something positive, to support Mike, and to avoid stewing in sadness at home.
As she became a fixture on TV, Leslie started to get recognized.
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