On the evening of Aug. 9, 2014, I had put my boys to bed and walked into the family room when I caught a glimpse of a chaotic scene on the news. Suddenly, I heard, "You took my son away from me! Do you know how hard it was for me to get him to stay in school and graduate?"

I stood, shell-shocked, in front of the television, watching as Michael Brown's mother spoke. Her son had been shot and killed by a police officer.

I am a mother of black sons. I live with my family in St. Louis; our home is only 11 miles from the Canfield Green Apartments, where Brown was killed.

This was too close to heart and home for comfort. The discomfort in my heart and spirit catapulted me into the streets and called out the leader within. I joined thousands of others at this intersection of faith and justice in Ferguson.

My multiple roles as a scholar-activist-mother of black sons-fellow protestor afforded me the opportunity to collect some of the stories that helped shape the movement for racial justice in Ferguson.

Those stories are gathered in my book "Ferguson and Faith," which came about after colleagues at the Forum for Theological Exploration (FTE) and Chalice Press invited me to write about clergy involvement in Ferguson.

"Where are the leaders?" was a common question I heard coming from pundits, politicians and everyday people.