About 55 people attended Quinn Chapel AME's one-year anniversary commemoration of the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, with the local NAACP president saying not enough has been done to address such situations.
After speeches and prayers, the group released balloons outside to remember Brown as well as loved ones among their group who have died at the hands of violence.
"We are praying for his family. We are also praying for families of others who feel they have not gotten justice," Quinn Chapel Pastor Cassandra Gould said. "We're praying for victims of gun violence at large. In the state of Missouri, more than 200 people have died since then, of just gun violence in general. As believers, we don't believe in any type of violence, including the death penalty, which is state-sanctioned violence."
Brown was a black teenager who was shot and killed by a white police officer. Probes have since cleared the officer of the shooting, but have said the Ferguson Police Department had demonstrated a pattern of racism against blacks.
Rod Chapel, president of the local NAACP, said it's an opportunity to show that people being killed "simply because of how they look" isn't acceptable.
"Unfortunately, not enough is being done," he said. "On the state level, politicians are not doing their jobs. On the local level, there is a blind eye turned towards the suffering that has been going on for a lifetime."
Jeannie McGowan, associate pastor at First Baptist Church, said she prays that God will give strength and guidance on the issue, as well as the courage to speak out.
"It's difficult for me as a white individual to imagine the difficulty that a parent of a black grandchild faces in trying to help their child grow up to live a full life and not say the wrong word in the wrong place at the wrong time, or whatever the little things are that bring about such horrible instances," she said.
W.T. Edmonson, president of the local Faith Voices group, reminded people of Martin Luther King's belief in non-violence.
"The young people today are trying to do it non-violently. But, believe me, if the system does not relent and understand that people are trying to do it non-violently, this country will explode," he said.
Edmonson said injustices are being done even in Jefferson City, and that people need to stand up and speak out when they see them occurring.