After months of race-fueled street protests, residents of Ferguson, Missouri, will have a chance next month to press their demands in a different way: at the ballot box.
Eight candidates including four African-Americans are vying for three available seats on Ferguson's City Council, promising change on a body that will be expected to introduce broad local reforms in a city shaken by the shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white police officer last August.
Patricia Bynes, a committeewoman for Ferguson Township who is running a voter education program ahead of the April 7 election, said the vote is an important opportunity for the city's residents to take their demands to a new forum.