At noon on August 9, 2014 when Michael Brown was killed on Canfield
Drive in Ferguson, there was little protest. But by 9 pm, dozens were
nonviolently defying police armed with military style weapons, armored
vehicles, helicopters, and snarling dogs. The structural situation alone
cannot account for the emergence of insurgency in Ferguson. To explain
mobilization, I advance a theory of Contested Legitimacy. The stakes of
each action by insurgents, authorities, and third parties for
mobilization concern regulatory repression. Actions that undercut the
validity of repression encourage mobilization. Video, photo, and textual
data make it possible to unpack the complex interactive process of
mobilization. Given longstanding grievances concerning racist policing
in Ferguson, reclaiming the site where Michael Brown was killed on
Canfield Drive as a memorial provided means to challenge unjust police
authority. When police responded as accustomed- disproportionately,
callous, and indiscriminate - their actions galvanized local Black
support for activists.