A radio news update from Ferguson, Mo., last week told how citizens of that troubled, mostly-black city are trying to bring about change for the better.

Shots from a policeman killed unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown last month. Questions, protests, several versions of events, heavily armored response, riots, looting, and the news spotlight followed, as they so often do when violence and racial issues lift an unhappy event into the national spotlight.

With the riots behind them, and Michael Brown’s body laid to rest, the residents of Ferguson said they crave peace. And, they say, they want peaceful change. They know that investigations will take months. And, they told NPR, they also know how they can be the change they want to see: they are registering to vote.

The spotlight, which some craved and others deplored, illuminated more than the gunshot death and the ensuing violence. It told the world that the town’s government and police force are mostly white; that the popu...