The fires that burned Monday and Tuesday night in Baltimore have pushed the nation toward the crucial, but much avoided introspection necessary to address critical issues of race and justice in America.

The death of Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old African-American whose probable cause was merely looking police in the eye and running, resulted in the latest of a line of heinous murders of black men at the hands of white police officers.

With cell phones now documenting for the world the cruelty and abuse black people have complained of since freedom came, people of good conscience are joining protests across the country calling for change.

Baltimore police officials have communicated no real information to the public about how Mr. Gray’s spine could be broken and his larynx crushed while in police custody.

The delay has helped turned days of peaceful protests into a powder keg ignited after school by juveniles spurred by social media and bigger social problems.

Baltimore has been plagued by multiple episodes of police abuse. As the Baltimore Sun reported, the city has paid $6 million in the past four years to settle more than 100 claims of death, injury and abuse by police.

Couple that with the lack of resources being directed to neighborhoods with poor schools, high unemployment and little hope, and you find a people and a city inflamed.

The moral conscience of the nation has been raised.

Full and independent investigations by the U.S. Justice Department and the FBI without fear or favor are imperative.

Our next steps must be toward equal justice if the nation’s wounds are to heal.