FERGUSON, Mo. — A year ago, Ferguson, Missouri, was a mostly quiet working-class suburban town. The uneasy relationship between its growing black population and its mostly white police force barely registered in local headlines.

Everything changed on Aug. 9, 2014, when a white police officer named Darren Wilson shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old. The street confrontation on that sultry day launched the “Black Lives Matter” movement.

Now the city government, and the streets themselves, look much different.

The city has a new police chief, a new city manager and a new municipal judge — all blacks who replaced white leaders. All Ferguson officers wear body cameras. The city council has new members, too, several of whom are black. And the business district that was at the center of last year’s sometimes-violent protests is slowly rebuilding.

The unrest that followed the shooting scarred a proud community, which has spent nearly a year trying to atone for past sins and move ahead.