Protesters hold up a giant size poster of slain Black teen Trayvon Martin after a Florida jury on Saturday acquitted night watchman George Zimmerman of all charges, including second degree murder. The jury verdict has sparked racial unrest across America, highlighting to some, community activists say, that a young Black life means little or nothing.
By Kathy Wray Coleman, Editor, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com, Ohio's No 1 and No 2 online Black newspapers (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com) and (www.clevelandurbannews.com). Kathy Wray Coleman is a former biology teacher and a 20-year investigative Black journalist out of the Cleveland, Ohio area. Fifteen of those years were with the Call and Post Newspaper, a weekly print Black newspaper published in the Ohio cities of Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati for over 90 years and published since 1998 by renowned boxing promoter Don King. Reach Coleman at 216-659-0473 by phone and by email at editor@clevelandurbannews.com.
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| The greater Cleveland area grassroots group the Oppressed People's Nation, a Civil Rights and youth empowerment organization led by Community Activist Ernest Smith. Group members rallied at the Cuyahoga County Justice Center on July 15 for Trayvon Martin with a host of other greater Cleveland activists groups. |
CLEVELAND, Ohio-Led by local community activist Art McKoy, about 250 greater Clevelanders across racial lines rallied at the Justice Center in downtown Cleveland at noon on Monday for justice for slain Black teen Trayvon Martin in the wake of a not guilty verdict issued last weekend by a six member all White and all female jury that cleared George Zimmerman of all charges, including second degree murder.
An over anxious neighborhood watchman, Zimmerman, 29 and White, shot the 17-year-old Martin to death last year following a confrontation he initiated even after police dispatchers directed him to back off and to stop following the teen, who was passing through a gated community in the suburb of Sandford, FL on the way to his father's girlfriend's house, trial testimony revealed. He did not take the stand at trial and his lawyers argued that his killing of Martin is protected under the Florida stand your ground law.
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Slain Florida Teen Trayvon Martin (left), and his
killer George Zimmerman |
Activists groups at the protest include Black on Black Crime Inc, which McKoy founded, Imperial Women, the Oppressed People's Nation, the Carl Stokes Brigade, the Greater Cleveland Immigrant Support Network, Revolution Books, the People's Forum, Knowledge, and the Underground Railroad.
The jury verdict has rocked America's Black community and sparked protests in cities across the country, including New York, Oakland and Los Angeles where violence broke out. And it has highlighted to some that a young Black life means little to nothing, activists say.
"They took a young Black life too soon," said McKoy, who leads Black on Black Crime Inc, a grassroots group out of E. Cleveland, a neighboring predominantly Black and impoverished suburb of Cleveland, a largely Black major metropolitan city, a colorful city in fact, and one with a Black mayor, and some 400,000 people.
Seasoned Activist Dionne Carmichael Thomas, owner and operator of Josephine's in Cleveland's Ward 6 and a member of the Carl Stokes Brigade and the Fairfax Business Association, had a protest sign in support of Trayvon Martin and against the jury verdict that read "shame, shame, shame."
Community Activist Ada Averyhart held up a sign at the rally that said "the whole damn system is guilty."
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Community Activist
Donna Walker Brown,
also a candidate this year for
Cleveland Ward 10
city council |
Cleveland Ward 10 city council candidate Donna Walker Brown, also a community activist, said the rally brought Blacks, Whites and others together for a common cause.
"Today was powerful," said Brown, to Cleveland Urban News.Com, Ohio's most read online Black newspaper. "It brought people from different races together for a common cause of fighting against the injustice against Trayvon Martin, a Black teenager."
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| Malissa Williams, left , and Tim Russell, both ceremoniously killed late last year by a group of White Cleveland police officers who fired 137 shots at the car of the unarmed Black couple following a car chase that began in downtown Cleveland and ended in neighboring E. Cleveland. Like the Trayvon Martin case, racial unrest continues to mount. In this case, one that many deem just as unprecedented, the police officers at issue have not been charged and were reinstated last month to regular duty. |
Ernest Smith, who leads the Oppressed People's Nation, spoke at the rally and said that the killing last year of Martin and the gunning down, also last year, by a group of White Cleveland police officers of unarmed Blacks Malissa Williams , 30, and Tim Russell, 43, with 137 bullets both represent unprecedented injustices that cannot go unnoticed.
"What about the 137 shots?," asked Smith at Monday's rally, whose grassroots group out of E Cleveland has members in their twenties and thirties that push Civil Rights and youth and Black community empowerment.
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