St. Louis Mayor Quits Twitter After Elon Musk Tweets About Ferguson

St. Louis mayor Tishaura O. Jones quit Twitter over a tweet from the social media platform’s new owner, Elon Musk.

The tweet in question referenced the 2014 Ferguson protests, which Musk tweeted about after finding a closet of #StayWoke shirts in a closet at Twitter headquarters.

“This is the final straw for me,” Jones tweeted from her personal account. “I’m out.”

https://twitter.com/tishaura/status/1595834558380969987?s=20&t=fSV2SPkklvujnQ_kD29IgQ

A screenshot of Musk’s now-deleted tweet accompanied her post. 

“Y’all can have this bird app,” she continued. “Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate and Happy Holidays.”

Musk’s initial tweet was a 12-second video showing off the discovery of the shirts. In the now-deleted follow-up tweet, Musk explained the shirts were from the protests surrounding the officer-involved shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson.

“#StayWoke shirts stem from the Ferguson protests,” Musk wrote. “Obama’s own DOJ proved this & exonerated the cop. ‘Hands up don’t shoot’ was made up. The whole thing was a fiction.”

He included a link to a 2015 Department of Justice report claiming that, based on the evidence, Brown’s hands were not raised in the air. 

While the officer involved in the shooting was exonerated, a separate DOJ report resulted in several key officials resigning in the waking of the shooting. Brown’s family settled a wrongful death lawsuit with the city in 2017.

Jones’ Twitter account remains active; however, she has not sent any further tweets since announcing her departure. The @saintlouismayor account is also active and wished everyone “a meaningful thanksgiving.”

Wishing everyone a meaningful #Thanksgiving! pic.twitter.com/Q9PfYsgL8h

— Mayor Tishaura O. Jones (@saintlouismayor) November 25, 2022