The call for justice spreads

STUDENTS AT 31 Miami-Dade County schools in Florida walked out of class on March 23 to join tens of thousands of others who have been part of protests in the last few days to demand justice for Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old African American teenager who was shot and killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer a month ago in Sanford, Fla.

Some 30,000 people turned out for a rally on March 21 in Sanford--a town with a total population of just over 50,000. "I Am Trayvon Martin" rang out among the diverse crowd of all ages, most of them African American, who came from Sanford and across the country to the rally called by Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network (NAN).

Across the country, Trayvon's murder has mobilized people to protest--many of them wearing hoodies and holding bags of Skittles and cans of iced tea, the items that the unarmed Black teenager was carrying when he was deemed "suspicious" by George Zimmerman, who still has not been charged in the crime.

Facebook pages to protest the injustice multiplied within days, as groups and individuals organized protests in city after city. People took pictures of themselves wearing hoodies and put them online--one image featured members of the Miami Heat basketball team.

At Edison High School in Miami-Dade on Friday, the school band marched alongside hundreds of students as they carried signs with Trayvon's picture and chanted "No justice, no peace!" At Miami Southridge High School, students came together to form a giant "TM" on a field for Trayvon Martin.

"His death makes me feel scared, because I'm Black, and I could be walking to the store and someone could feel suspicious or threatened by me and just shoot me down for having Skittles and something to drink," said Mercury Duncan, a student at Dr. Michael M. Krop Senior High, where Trayvon was a junior. There, students didn't walk out, but hung Skittles boxes around their necks.

This was a common theme among protesters everywhere--what happened to Trayvon could happen to any young Black man walking down a street in America.

Barack Obama acknowledged this in public statement about the case on Friday--the president's first in nearly a month--saying, "If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon. I think they are right to expect that all of us as Americans are going to take this with the seriousness it deserves and we're going to get to the bottom of exactly what happened."

THE OUTPOURING of anger and solidarity was repeated across the country.

In Seattle, a much larger than anticipated crowd of 5,000 people turned out on March 24, packing the Greater Mt. Baker Baptist Church. Trayvon's cousin, Cederic President-Turner, who lives in Tacoma, Wash., spoke to crowd: "The way that Trayvon died is unimaginable," he said. "We have to fight for people like me who walk down the streets every day, we have to be the drum majors of change.

"What happened to my cousin is crazy, but at the same time we need to put our foot forward. We need to march. We need to make sure that things like that never happen again."

Pastor Kenneth Ransfer rallied the crowd and took aim at Florida's so-called "stand your ground" law, which allows a person to use deadly force when there's reasonable belief of a threat.

This is our everyday existence, to be murdered without impunity...They say the police department bungled the investigation. No, they bungled the cover-up. They've been doing it for decades when it comes to people of color. But Trayvon's death will not be in vain...

We know that "stand your ground" means--it's open season on Black folks. We must make sure that we stand for justice because it's not right that someone is shot and murdered because of what he wore.

Protesters marched through the Central District neighborhood to Dr, Martin Luther King Jr. Park chanting "The New Jim Crow has got to go!" and "Being Black is not a crime."

In Washington, D.C., more than 2,000 people turned out in response to a call made by three Howard University women. Civil rights activist Dick Gregory, radio personality Joe Madison and DC NAACP chapter president Akosua Tyus were joined by activist Rev. Graylan Hagler of the Plymouth Congregational Church.

As Hagler told the crowd, "Racism has been a pervasive influence in this country since folks set foot on Plymouth Rock...and when you mix guns with racism, you are bound to have a disaster. Let this be the moment when you truly say, enough is enough."

- In Atlanta, the murder of Trayvon struck a deep chord for African Americans. A solidarity rally called by NAN drew more 700 people to the front steps of the Providence Missionary Baptist Church in the largely Black community of southwest Atlanta on March 22. Since the execution of Troy Davis last year, the metro area has seen an unprecedented wave of murders committed by the police--and all the victims are young Black men.

Nineteen-year-old Ariston Waiters was shot twice in the back on December 14 by an officer nicknamed "Machine Gun." The police department claimed that Ariston was wrestling with the officer to get his firearm, but an autopsy and eyewitness accounts show that the scared teenager was shot as he was running away from the cop.

Ariston's mother was among the speakers who came to lend their support to the Martin family and point out the grave injustices facing Black communities everywhere.

In San Francisco, some 400 people turned out to a rally on March 21 called on Facebook on less than 24 hours' notice.

The many local faces from struggles against racial profiling and police brutality were represented at the protest. Speakers included mothers, fathers and family members of Oscar Grant, who was shot by a transit officer in 2009. Relatives of Kenneth Harding, a 19-year-old killed after he was stopped for supposedly not paying a transit fare, and of James Rivera Jr., killed by Stockton police in 2010, also attended.

"I take this personally," said Rivera's mother, Dion Smith. "I know how it feels to never see your son graduate from school. We told them two years ago there would be more murder. Now we have Trayvon Martin's murder."

Oscar Grant's uncle Bobby remarked on the diversity of the crowd. "This is what will bring change," he said. "If you look around you, you will see Asians, Latinos, whites and Blacks all together. We want justice! If they don't arrest G.Z. by this weekend, we will be on a plane to support Trayvon's family."

In Chicago, individuals across the city contacted their friends and spread the word via Facebook for rallies and marches, resulting in at least four protests between Wednesday and Saturday.

On just two days' notice, Keinika Carlton, a mother of two young daughters, set in motion a Friday night march that brought out over 1,000 people. The demonstrators met outside Channel 7 News headquarters in the Loop and quickly overflowed the sidewalk. They marched toward Millennium Park, where Keinika invited people to take part in an open mic.

From there, marchers went onto Michigan Avenue, chanting simply "No Justice? No Peace!" and "Justice for Trayvon!" stopping for brief speeches in front of the Chicago Tribune and then winding back toward the starting point of the march. Minutes after returning to the starting point, protesters decided to circle the march route again, even though it was raining steadily.

The following day, a rally organized by Occupy Chicago, Occupy el Barrio, Communities United Against Foreclosure and Eviction, the Campaign to End the Death Penalty and the International Socialist Organization drew together another large demonstration of around 750 protesters.

University of Chicago professor Anton Ford emceed the rally, beginning with a message from Trayvon's parents, who he said expressed "their gratitude for supporting the Trayvon Martin movement for justice...

"It's only on account of public demonstrations like this one, like the one in New York, the one in Sanford, and like the ones that are going to be built in Chicago and across the country in the days and weeks to come, that we have any hope for getting justice for Trayvon. This public protest is the only thing that prevents the authorities from sweeping this case under the rug."

Exonerated death row prisoner and activist Rev. Darby Tillis spoke, as did Minister Aaron Watts, who told to the story of the murder of his cousin, 15-year-old Stephon Watts, by police just south of Chicago in February. Daphne Jackson, an activist and socialist from Chicago's South Side brought the crowd's attention to Rekia Boyd, one of four people killed by Chicago police this week.

Speakers represented many activists organizing around a range of struggles--from fights against police brutality and budget cuts to the defense of housing and immigrant rights. The criminal justice system, pointed out Ford, is a linchpin to institutional racism and segregation.

Airickca Gordon-Taylor, a cousin of Emmett Till was also there. Till was just 14 years old when he was murdered by a group of white men while he was visiting Mississippi in 1955. They were never convicted. "They're saying Trayvon Martin is the modern-day Emmett Till," she said. "We've come a long way, but we still have a very long way to go."

Stephanie, a protester who attended both Friday's march and Saturday's rally, explained that she'd been heartbroken by the execution of Troy Davis in Georgia last fall, but hadn't found a way to take action. When she heard about Trayvon Martin and the marches spreading around the country, she felt like she had to do something.

Makeshift sign-up sheets for an organizing meeting to plan next steps drew lines of people eager to get involved. And a picket was called for Monday evening outside Chicago's Federal Building to mark one month since Trayvon's murder.

In Portland, Ore., some 600 people gathered at Peninsula City Park on Portland's north side to demand justice for the 17-year-old who died for the crime of walking while Black. Chants of "No Justice, No Peace!" reverberated across the park, and protesters carried signs reading "Trayvon Martin = Emmett Till."

Protester Dawnnesha Wilcher explained, "It's not just something you read in a history book; it's something that people are living every day."

The death of Trayvon hits home with Fred Bryant, whose 25-year-old son Keaton Otis was driving his mother's car when Portland police pulled him over for a minor traffic violation on the suspicion that he was a gang member. After an altercation, police shot Otis 23 times while he was still in the car. Bryant recalled, "They profiled my son, they stopped him, they tortured him, and then they shot him."

The multiracial demonstration also had a sizeable crowd of high school students. After hearing about Trayon's case, students at Jefferson High School plastered fliers for the demonstration all over their school. "I can't believe that Zimmerman killed a 17-year-old boy with dreams and ambitions just like me," said Kelsie Turner, a student at Jefferson.

"This has actually got people talking," said Wilcher. "People are realizing that Black mothers are afraid for their children, starting at birth."

Among the other cities that held rallies is Cambridge, Mass., where 500 people protested in Harvard Square in on March 22.

March 26 is the one-month anniversary of Trayvon's murder, and protests are being organized to continue to press for justice.