Johnetta Elzie

Johnetta (Netta) Elzie is a 25-year-old resident of St. Louis who has been documenting the events in Ferguson on Twitter: @nettaaaaaaaaa. She is also a curator on the #Ferguson Protester Newsletter, created by DeRay McKesson. This daily newsletter highlights statistics related to the Mike Brown Jr case, current events and planned actions, articles that are directly related to Ferguson, Saint Louis, Mike Brown Jr and the local police departments. Before the death of Mike Brown, Netta volunteered with a girls group, called the Sophia Project in the city of Saint Louis. The group focuses on helping teenage girls navigate through life. Her essay “When I close my eyes at night, I see people running from tear gas” was published in Ebony magazine on September 9.  Since then, Elzie has been one of the youth voices that has taken the message of resistance from the Frontline in Ferguson / St. Louis to international media outlets like Aljazeera.com, The Feminist Wire, the Wallstreet Journal,  GlobalGrind.com and Huffingtonpost.com.