The Providence (R.I.) Journal, Aug. 15:

A match has been struck in the north St. Louis County suburb of Ferguson, Missouri, and now the nation is struggling to understand why it flared so quickly into a blaze.

It started when a Ferguson police officer shot and killed an unarmed, 18-year-old African-American man named Michael Brown.

It continued as the passed-along stories fueled community rage ”“ or maybe it was the other way around.

The stories vary. Brown tried to wrestle away the policeman’s gun. Brown was surrendering. Brown mouthed off to the cop. Brown was minding his own business. The cop started the scuffle by putting Brown in a neck hold.

We don’t yet know what triggered the fatal encounter. We do know that pent-up anger quickly boiled over in this lower middle-class suburb in a Civil War border state. The result has been several days of ugly scenes featuring police in riot gear, clouds of tear gas and looting of businesses.

Such scenes of violence and destruction, sadly, obscure grief and quite possibly legitimate grievances. Ferguson ”“ and St. Louis and the rest of the country ”“ must somehow find the moment and the means to lower the heat. Only then can conciliation and healing begin.

This is no modest hope. The killing of Michael Brown has uncapped pent-up anger, channeling sullen resentments into hot acts of violence. It has tested a suburban police department, which surely is overwhelmed by the degree of anger and the sudden scrutiny by people far beyond Ferguson’s borders.

The city was wise to call in the Federal Bureau of Investigation to conduct an independent investigation. It would be wiser still to calmly explain the facts as it knows them, rather than to respond to anger defensively and secretively. It is essential that differences be resolved peacefully, and in accordance with justice and the rule of law.

Anyone familiar with this uneasy region, where neighborhoods have evolved rapidly and old passions are never far away, feels the historical resonance of this story. When pundit and activist Al Sharpton stood with Mr. Brown’s parents in front of St. Louis’s Old Courthouse, the specter of Dred Scott was on the minds of many observers. Scott, who grew up a slave, sued for his freedom in that courthouse. And lost.

Now, we stand in his place, and hope again for justice. And peace.