Michael Brown Flash Mob Interrupts St. Louis Symphony Orchestra

St. Louis Symphony Orchestra was interrupted on Saturday night by a group of singers, protesting the murder of Black teenager Michael Brown by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.

St. Louis Post-Despatch reports that just before the orchestra was about to resume the concert after the interval at the Powell Symphony Hall, two members of the audience stood up and began to sing the traditional civil rights song Which Side Are You On?, setting in motion a flash mob of protestors singing the haunting tune. 

More and more people stood up and joined in with the song, which was met by applause by the rest of the audience, and the protest culminated in the unfurling of three banners, stating their opposition to the unlawful killing of Brown. 

According to local media, the protesters then left the auditorium quietly and peacefully, chanting: “Black lives matter.”

Prosecutors are currently investigating an accusation of misconduct by the grand jury hearing the case against Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, who killed 18-year-old Brown on August 9. The teenager’s death sparked widespread protests and threw sharply into relief the institutional racism of much of the U.S. police.