“Whoever said this is a day of rage is a liar,” Jonathan Lykes shouts from a bullhorn to people gathered in Malcolm X/Meridian Hill Park. “This is a time to mourn.”

Yesterday, well over a thousand people peacefully gathered in the historic park for a “moment of silence” and to rally in support of Michael Brown, the unnarmed 18-year-old who was gunned down over the weekend in Ferguson, Missouri by a local cop. Fueled by the lack of information and details the Ferguson Police Department publicly released, the community of Ferguson has been heavily protesting, which turned violent after local police employed military-grade riot weapons—including tear gas, rubber bullets, and more—to stop rioters and looters. For the past week, all eyes have been focused on the city of Ferguson, which is just the latest example of what most believe is police brutality and abuse of power.

At last night’s rally, many expressed frustration over the state of the justice system, racism, and police forces across the country. “Honestly, we’re all really concerned citizens, we’re feeling a lot of, not only outrage, but a lot of hurt and we want to come together as a community to mourn and discuss next steps to make some real positive change,” said Yemisi Miller-Tonnet, one of the rally’s organizers. “I’m here not on behalf of anyone else but myself, my family, and my community, and ready to be together.”

At about 7 p.m., organizers led the large group in a moment of silence for Michael Brown and anyone else who has been killed at the hands of police using excessive force. Following a moment of silence, Lykes encouraged the crowd to shout out the names of those they know who were unjustly killed by police—most while unarmed and not posing any threat of danger.

While organizers were keen to emphasize that last night’s rally was not a time to take action, but to mourn, not everyone in attendance agreed. “Let’s march! Why can’t we march?” one person shouted. Lykes replied saying that “this is a time to mourn the people we’ve lost.” But after the rally, hundreds of people did march. They marched down 14th Street and on through Chinatown and finally to the steps of the National Portrait Gallery, temporarily shutting down numerous streets during the process.

The rally was largely peaceful and most respected the organizers’ wishes to “mourn the people we’ve lost,” but some didn’t agree and tried to provoke people to take action. “Ain’t no peace, they’re killing our babies!” one person shouted from deep inside the massive crowd. In other parts of the rally, several heated arguments broke out between people trying to encourage others to take action and others trying to keep peace. With several police officers on hand to ensure things didn’t get out of hand, the brief outbreaks amounted to nothing more than that.

But the crux of last night’s rally was acknowledging and highlighting the racism that pervades our country. “We know it exists. We know that it happens everywhere, and we know that this is not just a problem that happens in Ferguson, this is a problem that happens nation-wide,” Miller-Tonnet says.

“I think that’s why this is so significant. That’s why people are rallying across the country everywhere, because we know that Mike Brown could’ve been any one of us. He could’ve been anyone of our family members, anyone in our community, and that’s what’s so important about it.”