WENTZVILLE, MO (KTVI) – It was a passionate Martin Luther King Day in the St. Louis area.

A big crowd marched in Ferguson Monday night after tense moments earlier at events in downtown St. Louis and at Harris-Stowe University.

A crowd of hundreds went on a 4 mile evening march from the Mike Brown memorial on Canfield Drive in Ferguson to the Ferguson Police Department and back.

“We had to do something just to tie it all in,” said Pastor Cori Bush of the Kingdom Embassy International Church.  “Martin Luther King stood for us.  We still are walking in the effects of what he did… I personally feel connected this time.  I grew up going to all the marches.  But it seemed like it was just ‘in honor of’ like everything was over with.

But now there’s a connection for me because this is my movement.  I see it.  I live it.”

Earlier, Mike Brown demonstrators blended into the traditional King Day march in downtown St. Louis, after demonstrators had interrupted an event at Harris-Stowe, reportedly overtaking the stage, with Brown’s mother pleading for calm.

All was calm at a night of remembrance, music, and prayer at Holt High School in Wentzville.

Former Rams great, NFL Hall of Famer, Aeneas Williams, was the key-note speaker at the event.

He spoke not of unrest but of unity:  people of all backgrounds and races exalting in the progress since King himself led the marches; people still dreaming the dream.

“He says my dream is that my children will be judged by the content of their character not the color of their skin,” Williams said.  “So even here tonight, I’ve been commissioned with the word ‘unity’…  it wasn’t just African-Americans that played a role in the 60’s.  It was all ethnicities…it was no longer acceptable to a number of people in our country and that’s how we’ve grown.”

Williams pointed to lessons from his days with the Rams.  Race was hardly on the radar.   There was the commonality of everyone pursuing the same dream, he said.

Any differences faded and any old wounds were healed

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