On Saturday night, a six-woman Florida jury cleared George Zimmerman — who has maintained it was an act of self-defense — in the shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. The acquittal stoked an already hot dialogue about race, the media, violence, gun control and the criminal justice system.
“Let’s face it, if both people in this tragedy were of common ethnicity, there would be no media feeding frenzy,” said Alveda King, director of African Outreach for Priests for Life and the niece of Martin Luther King Jr. “The gun control debate is a smokescreen. Guns don’t kill people. People kill people. Yes, sometimes they use guns, but they sometimes use bombs or knives too. We definitely need love control and heart control and nonviolence control.”
John Fabbrini, president of the Glenside homeowners association in East Cobb, would have been surprised if Zimmerman had been found guilty and thinks the media and some public figures shifted the conversation toward race instead of focusing on the facts of the case and the personal tragedy.
“It’s been sensationalized,” said Fabbrini. “It’s a shame that anyone lost their life in this situation. I’m not sure what it says about us but I don’t know why we pick out this one particular story when there are hundreds of situations like this a year.”
While some gun advocates, conservatives and some politicians have lauded the decision as an unfortunate result of self-defense, others have labeled it as another example of the devaluation of young black men – calling Martin a modern-day Emmett Till, the 14-year-old whose 1955 mutilation and lynching helped sparked the modern civil rights movement.
“I find it troubling that in 2013, racial profiling and stereotyping are enough to justify the taking of a life,” said Donald Edward Mason III, a 19-year-old Morehouse College sophomore. “I feel bad for his family. He was taken from them without justification, because Zimmerman felt Trayvon was a threat. And its also demoralizing because this could happen to me just because of how I look.”
On Sunday, President Obama, who said last March that if he had a son, he would “look like Trayvon,” called for calm and moving forward.
Congressman John Lewis (D-Atlanta), a close ally of Martin Luther King Jr., said he was deeply disappointed in the verdict.
“It seems to justify the stalking and killing of innocent black boys and deny them any avenue of self-defense,” Lewis said. “On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, I think it demonstrates the distance this nation still must go to fulfill the vision of equal justice Martin Luther King Jr. gave his life to defend. I hope this verdict will serve to open some kind of meaningful dialogue on the issues of race and justice in America.”
Late Sunday, the Justice Department said it is looking into the case to determine whether federal prosecutors will file criminal civil rights charges against Zimmerman.
Local civil rights activist Markel Hutchins said the problems stem around one thing – race.
“They tried to say that race was not a factor, but it had a great deal to do with race,” Hutchins said. “If George Zimmerman had been black and killed a young white man, he would have long been in jail.”
Late Saturday night, when the verdict was read and Zimmerman had been found not guilty, seven-year-old London Brown sat next to his father, a retired deputy sheriff and his mother, a Harvard University graduate student and asked why.
“What stood out to him the most is that a ‘man’ killed a ‘little boy,’” said his mother, Monisha Brown. “I am still struggling with what to say to him that will be age appropriate, meaningful and not too emotional. I have to be careful with how I mold his mind. I have said that it was wrong, but right now we have to forgive Zimmerman and uphold Trayvon’s family in prayer.”
Brown’s complex feelings are shared by many, regardless of on what side of the verdict they stood.
In calling Martin’s killing a “modern-day lynching,” Georgia State Sen. Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta) challenged politicians to move toward legislative reform.
“We must revisit racial profiling and Stand Your Ground laws and we must fight for common sense gun safety laws,” Fort said.
State Rep. Edward Lindsey (R-Atlanta) said the jury’s verdict should be respected, because the system worked.
“And I would say the same thing if the verdict had gone the other way,” Lindsey said in a statement. “Pray for the young man who died too young and for his family that mourns his loss. Pray for George Zimmerman and his family as they move on.”
That sentiment was also expressed by many.
“As the American public we need to trust the jury made a decision that matched the evidence,” said Jane Mattingly, a Suwannee mother of two. “We need to not get pulled into the media sensation because it revolves around race. If I feel threatened, especially if my children were with me, I would protect my children. People need to accept the decision and move on, because it’s not about race.”
On Sunday, pastors and community activists used church pulpits, as they have in decades past, to galvanize emotion into action.
At Thankful Missionary Baptist Church in Decatur, activists spoke of creating a mentorship program in Martin’s name, registering people to vote in the upcoming elections and marching Monday from the King Center to CNN headquarters in downtown Atlanta.
Dozens of church members gathered at the alter and circled their children to pray for their safety and future.
Early Sunday morning, less than 12 hours after the verdict, London Brown woke up before his parents and asked for his daily instruction, in what his mother Monisha called his “cute little cartoonish voice.”
“My back was turned. It was the first voice I heard this morning. I didn’t move. I told him to go take his shower and brush his teeth,” Brown said, adding that she and her husband planned on talking to him about the verdict over Sunday dinner. “I laid there thinking about Sybrina Fulton. My heart is heavy for her as a mom because she will never hear her baby’s voice again. The last thing she heard was Trayvon’s last call for help.”
Staff writers Daarel Burnette, Marcus Garner contributed to this article
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