The shadow of the George Zimmerman trial still was hovering over the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando on July 17, the last day of the NAACP’s 104th national convention.
(DUANE FERNANDEZ, SR./FLORIDA COURIER)
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Rev. Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III told a packed hall at the convention that they will not let the murder of Trayvon Martin be in vain despite a jury finding his killer not guilty in Sanford just days before, on July 13. Sanford is about 20 miles away from where they were meeting.
Before addressing thousands of NAACP members gathered from across the country, Jackson told a group of reporters, “There is a Trayvon in every town.
Time to vote en mass
Jackson, who called Zimmerman a “wannabe cop,’’ also said the jury of five White women and one Hispanic showed their cultural bias.
The killing of Trayvon Martin has illuminated similar cases and racial injustice around the country, Jackson said.
He noted the jury hearing the Zimmerman case should have been integrated with at least one Black.
“Turn anger into massive registration. The burden is to go to every hill and molehill.
There may be more Trayvons. It’s hope time. It’s healing time,” he told the audience.
From rally to verdict
Sharpton said he had never heard of Sanford or Martin until contacted by Attorney Ben Crump 15 months ago. After hearing the circumstances of Martin’s death, he decided that the case shouldn’t be decided in the back of a police station, but in a court of law.
Along with pastors in Central Florida, Sharpton organized a March 2012 rally that attracted 30,000 attendees to a Sanford park, which eventually led to the arrest of Zimmerman.
“The jury has spoken. Now the people are going to speak,” said Sharpton about the non-guilty verdict by the Zimmerman jury.
Prepared for vigils
Sharpton is upset the media is implying that Martin’s family and supporters are demanding the Department of Justice investigate if Martin’s civil rights were violated because of the verdict.
“Some are trying to act as if we are raising civil rights charge after the verdict. We raised (that issue) before there was a special prosecutor assigned,” Sharpton explained.
Sharpton had organized vigils in over 100 cities across the country for Saturday, July 20, to show the nation there is support for the Department of Justice to investigate the case.
