Thousands of residents of the St. Louis metropolitan area took to the streets in protest of the killing of Michael Brown Monday, just hours after black members of Congress congregated in nearby churches to peacefully mark and honor the birth and vision of Martin Luther King.

Hundreds of people gathered outside the city's Old Courthouse to call greater attention to what they deem all the unequal ways of the world by singing hymns, holding hands and attentively listening to speeches.

In a sign of the chaotic times of the day, hundreds more gathered just feet away at the Kiener Plaza, wearing T-shirts pronouncing "Justice for Mike Brown" and carrying signs reading "Black Lives Matter" before bursting into the auditorium of an MLK rally being held on the campus of Harris Stowe University.

Only the calming voice of Leslie McSpadden, the still grieving mother of the 18-year-old Brown, proved capable of stilling them as protesters stormed the arena chanting, "No justice, no peace."

"We are faced with the obvious failure of local officials, who are either unable, or unwilling, to provide equal justice under the law," State Rep. William Lacy Clay Jr. told parishioners at Wellspring United Methodist Church said in reference to a grand jury's recent decision not to charge then police officer Darren Wilson in connection with the late August shooting death of the unarmed Brown. "So once again, our community looks toward the federal government to make the promises enshrined in the Constitution finally ring true."

Even as criticisms of St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch's handling of the grand jury and the verdict have mounted, Lacy took solace in the fact two separate federal civil rights probes related to the case remain open.

"We need to be outraged when local law enforcement and the justice system repeatedly allow young, unarmed black men to encounter police and then wind up dead with no consequences," the St. Louis Democrat said. "Not just in Ferguson, but over and over again across this country."

Added Indiana Democratic Rep. Andre Carson: "Ferguson is the new Selma. It's time, in Ferguson."