This post has been updated.
The Ferguson City Council will have three black members for the first time in the city’s history, now that voters elected two new black members to the council on Tuesday, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
Ella Jones (pictured above), chair of Ferguson’s Human Rights commission, and Wesley Bell, a Velda City municipal court judge, won their races in wards one and three, respectively. Jones and Bell will join Dwayne James, the only black member of the Ferguson City Council before Tuesday’s election.
Ferguson saw unusually high voter turnout on Tuesday. According to the Post-Dispatch, 30 percent of the city’s registered voters cast ballots, more than double the average turnout in Ferguson.
Jones and Bell will take their seats on the City Council as Ferguson attempts to replace its city manager and police chief. Following a damning Justice Department report alleging a pattern of racial bias by the Ferguson Police Department, Ferguson City Manager John Shaw and Police Chief Thomas Jackson both resigned.
Correction: The original version of this post made an inadvertent reference to Brian Fletcher, a former Ferguson mayor who won a seat on the city council on Tuesday.