Ms. Herndon, 49, said she moved her family to Ferguson in 2003 because she felt it was a good community, safer than the unincorporated portion of the county where they lived previously and with better schools for her children.

The town, she said, offers everything — places to shop, eat and drink. There is a farmers market on Saturdays. She frequents a wine bar across from a lot where a band plays on Fridays. She has white and Asian neighbors on either side of her, and there are other black families on her block. She has not experienced the racial tensions of her childhood in St. Louis County, she said, but she understands that the younger generation is living a different experience than she is.

“I understand the anger because it’s psychological trauma when you see so many people being shot or people being falsely accused,” said Ms. Herndon, who over the past week has avoided the streets that have been filled with tear gas and rubber bullets in clashes between police and protesters.

But now, a population of young black men who often feel forgotten actually feel that people are finally listening.

“If it wasn’t for the looting,” said one man, who declined to give his name, “we wouldn’t get the attention.”

Mr. Moore went one step further. He does not condone the violence that erupted during some of the protests, he said, but he does understand the frustration. And if he were younger, he said, he probably would have joined them.