By: Undria Wilson
After dropping out of high school nearly 20 years ago, Lezley McSpadden received her high school diploma on the same stage as her daughter on Thursday.
McSpadden is the mother of slain unarmed Ferguson teenager, Mike Brown, who was killed in 2014 by a police officer. His death sparked riots and outrage of police brutality against unarmed black teens.
McSpadden graduated from Jennings Senior High School at Chaifetz Arena. McSpadden’s daughter, Deja Brown, graduated alongside her mother.
Photo courtesy of Because of Them We Can
While the two attended the same school, Deja Brown told the St. Louis American that her mom “would just go to afternoon class, so we never really interacted at school or in class or anything.”
While graduation was a joyful, yet tearful one, Deja Brown told reporters that this is an especially sentimental moment for her mother, who dropped out of high school more than two decades ago after having her first child, Mike Brown.
Deja Brown is expected to attend Tennessee State University this fall and plans to become a neonatal nurse. Brown is currently working at a pharmacy and plans to become a certified pharmacy technician this summer.
Her mother, who became the first graduate from the school’s adult education program, said that she “has a purpose now to try to uphold the legacy of her son.”
