On August 14, 2014, five days after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown
ignited race riots throughout the city of Ferguson, Missouri, the nation
found an unlikely hero in Captain Ron Johnson of the Missouri Highway
Patrol. Charged with the Herculean task of restoring peace between a
hostile African American community and the local police, Johnson, a
30-year law enforcement veteran and an African American, did the
unthinkable: He took off his bulletproof vest and joined the protesters.
The 13 days and nights that followed were the most trying of Johnson's
life - professionally, emotionally, and spiritually. Officers in his own
command called him a traitor. Lifelong friends stopped speaking to him.
The media questioned and criticized his every decision. Alone at the
center of the firestorm, with only his family and his faith to cling to,
Johnson persevered in his belief that the only way to effectively bridge
the divide between black and blue is to - literally - walk across it.
In 13 Days in Ferguson, Johnson shares, for the first time, his view
of what happened during the 13 turbulent days he spent stabilizing the
city of Ferguson, and the extraordinary impact those two historic weeks
had on his faith, his approach to leadership, and what he perceives to
be the most viable solution to the issues of racism and prejudice in
America.
