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Zimmerman’s Acquittal Reverberates, Setting Off Protests and Talk of Race Zimmerman’s Acquittal Reverberates, Setting Off Protests and Talk of Race
(about 3 hours later)
The fallout over the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin reverberated across the country on Sunday from church pulpits to street protests, setting off a conversation about race, crime and how the American justice system handled a racially polarizing killing of a young black man walking in a residential neighborhood in Florida. The acquittal of George Zimmerman in the death of Trayvon Martin reverberated from church pulpits to street protests across the country on Sunday in a renewed debate about race, crime and how the American justice system handled a racially polarizing killing of a young black man walking in a quiet neighborhood in Florida.
Lawmakers, members of the clergy and demonstrators who assembled in parks and squares described the decision of the six-person jury not to convict Mr. Zimmerman on any counts in the death of Mr. Martin as evidence of endemic racism. Lawmakers, members of the clergy and demonstrators who assembled in parks and squares on a hot July day described the verdict by the six-person jury as evidence of a persistent racism that afflicts the nation five years after it elected its first African-American president.
“Trayvon Benjamin Martin is dead because he and other black boys and men like him are not seen as a person, but a problem,” the Rev. Dr. Raphael G. Warnock, the senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, told his congregation on Sunday morning. In an interview afterward, Dr. Warnock put the killing in the context of a month in which the Supreme Court voted 5 to 4 to, in effect, gut the Voting Rights Act. “Trayvon Benjamin Martin is dead because he and other black boys and men like him are seen not as a person but a problem,” the Rev. Dr. Raphael G. Warnock, the senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, told a congregation once led by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“The last few weeks have been pivotal to the consciousness of black America,” he said. “Black men have been stigmatized. We’ve become a stigmatized mascot for social misery and the canvas on which America projects all of its problems.” Dr. Warnock noted that the verdict came a month after the Supreme Court voted 5 to 4 to void a provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. “The last few weeks have been pivotal to the consciousness of black America,” he said in an interview after services. “Black men have been stigmatized.”
In Sanford, the modest Central Florida city where Mr. Martin was killed, the Rev. Valarie J. Houston drew shouts of support and outrage as she deplored “the racism and the injustice that pollute the air in America.” Mr. Zimmerman, 29, a neighborhood watch volunteer, had faced charges of second-degree murder and manslaughter — and the prospect of decades in jail, if convicted — stemming from his fatal shooting of Mr. Martin, 17, on the night of Feb. 26, 2012, in Sanford, a modest Central Florida city. But late Saturday night, he was acquitted of all charges by the jurors, all of them women and none of them black, who had deliberated for more than 16 hours over two days.
In Sanford on Sunday, the Rev. Valarie J. Houston drew shouts of support and outrage at Allen Chapel A.M.E. as she denounced “the racism and the injustice that pollute the air in America.”
“Lord, I thank you for sending Trayvon to reveal the injustices, God, that live in Sanford,” she said.“Lord, I thank you for sending Trayvon to reveal the injustices, God, that live in Sanford,” she said.
Mr. Zimmerman and his supporters, as did his lawyers in court, dismissed race as a factor in the events that led to the death of Mr. Martin. The defense team argued that Mr. Zimmerman had not chased down Mr. Martin and that he had acted in self-defense as the 17-year-old slammed Mr. Zimmerman’s head on a sidewalk. And Florida law explicitly gives civilians the power to take extraordinary steps to defend themselves when they feel that their lives are in danger. Mr. Zimmerman and his supporters dismissed race as a factor in the death of Mr. Martin. The defense team argued that Mr. Zimmerman had acted in self-defense as the 17-year-old slammed Mr. Zimmerman’s head on a sidewalk. Florida law explicitly gives civilians the power to take extraordinary steps to defend themselves when they feel that their lives are in danger.
Nonetheless, the reaction to the verdict on Saturday night — by a six-person, all-female panel, which included no black jurors — suggested that five years after this nation elected its first black president, racial relations remain polarized, particularly when it relates to the American justice system and the police. Mr. Zimmerman’s brother, Robert, told National Public Radio that race was not a factor in the case, adding: “I never have a moment where I think that my brother may have been wrong to shoot. He used the sidewalk against my brother’s head.”
President Obama, who said shortly after Mr. Martin was killed that if he had a son, “he’d look like Trayvon,” spoke out again on Sunday regarding the case. President Obama, who had said shortly after Mr. Martin was killed that if he had a son, “he’d look like Trayvon,” urged the nation to accept the verdict.
“The death of Trayvon Martin was a tragedy,” the president said in a statement issued Sunday by the White House. “Not just for his family, or for any one community, but for America. I know this case has elicited strong passions. And in the wake of the verdict, I know those passions may be running even higher. But we are a nation of laws, and a jury has spoken. “The death of Trayvon Martin was a tragedy,” Mr. Obama said in a statement issued Sunday by the White House. ”Not just for his family, or for any one community, but for America. I know this case has elicited strong passions. And in the wake of the verdict, I know those passions may be running even higher. But we are a nation of laws, and a jury has spoken.”
“I now ask every American to respect the call for calm reflection from two parents who lost their young son,” he said. “And as we do, we should ask ourselves if we’re doing all we can to widen the circle of compassion and understanding in our own communities. Nonetheless, the reaction to the verdict suggested that racial relations remained polarized in many parts of this country, particularly regarding the American justice system and the police.
“We should ask ourselves if we’re doing all we can to stem the tide of gun violence that claims too many lives across this country on a daily basis. We should ask ourselves, as individuals and as a society, how we can prevent future tragedies like this. As citizens, that’s a job for all of us. That’s the way to honor Trayvon Martin.” “I pretty well knew that Mr. Zimmerman was going to be let free, because if justice was blind of colors, why wasn’t there any minorities on the jury?” said Willie Pettus, 57, of Richmond, Va.
Black leaders questioned whether Mr. Zimmerman, who is part Hispanic, would have been acquitted if he had been a black man and Mr. Martin had been white. Maxine McCrey, attending services at Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York, said the verdict was a reminder of the failure of the justice system. “There’s no justice for black people,” she said. “Profiling and targeting our black men has not stopped.”
“I find it troubling that a 17-year-old cannot walk to a corner store for candy without putting his life in danger,” said Kasim Reed, the mayor of Atlanta. “I find it more troubling that a citizen could not see a young African-American youth without immediately concluding that he was up to no good.” Ms. McCrey dabbed at her eyes as she recalled the moment she learned of the verdict. “I cried,” she said. “And I am still crying.”
Mark O’Mara, one of Mr. Zimmerman’s lawyers, offered a conflicting assessment during a news conference after the verdict was announced. The Justice Department said it would review the case to determine if it should consider a federal prosecution.
Asked if the outcome would have been different if Mr. Zimmerman had been black, Mr. O’Mara said, “I think that things would have been different if George Zimmerman was black for this reason — he never would have been charged with a crime. Many blacks, and some whites, questioned whether Mr. Zimmerman, who is part Hispanic, would have been acquitted if he were black and Mr. Martin were white.
“What happened was, this became a focus for a civil rights event, which again is a wonderful event to have,” he said, “but they decide that George Zimmerman would be the person who they were to blame and sort of use as the creation of a civil rights violation, none of which was borne out by the facts. The facts that night was not borne out that he acted in a racial way.” “He would have been in jail already,” Leona Ellzy, 18, said as she visited a monument to Mr. Martin in Goldsboro, the historically black neighborhood of Sanford. “The black man would have been in prison for killing a white child.”
Benjamin Todd Jealous, the president of the N.A.A.C.P., suggested that this case would galvanize young black Americans in much “the way the Emmett Till case did, in the way the Rodney King case did.” Jeff Fard, a community organizer in a black neighborhood in Denver, said Mr. Martin would be alive today if he were not black. “If the roles were reversed, Trayvon would have been instantly arrested and, by now, convicted,” he said. “Those are realities that we have to accept.”
Emmett Till, 14, was murdered in Mississippi in 1955, reportedly after flirting with a white woman. But even race’s role in the case became a matter of a debate. One of Mr. Zimmerman’s lawyers, Mark O’Mara, said he also thought the outcome would have been different if his client were black — but for reasons entirely different from those suggested by people like Mr. Fard.
In the immediate aftermath of the Zimmerman verdict, demonstrations were held in black neighborhoods in some parts of the country, including Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington. “He never would have been charged with a crime,” Mr. O’Mara said.
In downtown Oakland, east of San Francisco, dozens of protesters filled the streets to denounce the verdict shortly after it was announced. Some of the protesters set fire to trash cans, broke the windows of local businesses and damaged police patrol cars. “This became a focus for a civil rights event, which again is a wonderful event to have,” he said. “But they decided that George Zimmerman would be the person who they were to blame and sort of use as the creation of a civil rights violation, none of which was borne out by the facts. The facts that night were not borne out that he acted in a racial way.”
Officer J. Moore, a spokesman for the Oakland Police Department, said no arrests had been made and no injuries been reported. Anticipating a reaction to the verdict, Oakland police officers were backed up by officers from surrounding law enforcement agencies, Officer Moore said. In Atlanta, Tommy Keith, 62, a white retired Cadillac salesman, rejected any contention that this was anything more than a failed murder case presented by the state. “The state’s got to prove their case, O.K.?” he said. “They didn’t. Stand Your Ground law is acceptable with me, and these protests are more racial than anything else. In my opinion, it’s not a racial thing.”
That seemed to be the case across the country, with no reports of violence or arrests at any of the dozens of demonstrations on Sunday. Within moments of the announcement of the verdict Saturday night and continuing through Sunday, demonstrations, some planned and some impromptu, arose in neighborhoods in Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, New York and Atlanta. There were no reports of serious violence or arrests as the day went on, a contrast with the riots that swept Los Angeles after the verdict in another race-tinged case, the 1992 acquittal of white Los Angeles police officers in the beating of Rodney King, a black construction worker.
At St. Sabina, a Catholic church on the South Side of Chicago, where many parishioners are black, men of all ages, and even young children, gathered in the church sanctuary on Sunday, holding signs that read “Trayvon Martin murdered again by INjustice system” and “I am Trayvon Martin,” as the Rev. Michael Pfleger spoke. In downtown Oakland, east of San Francisco, dozens of protesters filled the streets to denounce the verdict shortly after it was announced. Some of the protesters set fire to trash cans, broke the windows of businesses and damaged police patrol cars.
“Like many of you, I’m angered, I’m disappointed, I’m disgusted,” Father Pfleger, who is white and is often a contentious figure in Chicago, told his church. “And yet like many of you, I’m not shocked. ’Cause unfortunately, this is the America that we know all too well. Yesterday, we watched the justice system fail miserably again.” About 40 people in Atlanta, carrying sodas and Skittles to underscore the errand to a store that Mr. Martin was completing when he was shot, marched to Woodruff Park downtown on Saturday night. In Washington, about 250 people protested the verdict late Saturday and early Sunday as police officers in cruisers trailed the marchers.
At one point, he stood with a parishioner who he said had called him immediately after the verdict in tears, fearful for what the outcome signaled for her 15-year-old black son. A few hundred protesters gathered at a rally in downtown Chicago on Sunday, some wearing signs showing Mr. Martin wearing a hoodie.
“America is full of Trayvon Martin realities,” Father Pfleger continued, later adding: “The murder of Trayvon Martin reminds us of America’s travesty — that race, whether we want to acknowledge it or not, is still a defining and crippling reality in America. It reminds us that though we are 150 years past the Emancipation Proclamation, black men are still not free in America.” “I’m heartbroken, but it didn’t surprise me,” said Velma Henderson, 65, a retired state employee who lives in a southern suburb of Chicago. “The system is screwed. It’s a racist system, and it’s not designed for African Americans.”
In Oakland, Bishop Bob Jackson, the leader of the Acts Full Gospel Church, one of the city’s biggest churches, said he was disappointed by the verdict and hoped that violence would not escalate. A similar sense of resignation flowed through St. Sabina, a Catholic church on the South Side of Chicago, where many parishioners are black. They gathered in the sanctuary holding signs that read, “Trayvon Martin murdered again by INjustice system.”
“It’s just a sad day, as far as I’m concerned, as far as racial equality and justice are concerned,” said Mr. Jackson, who has long been active in crime prevention in Oakland and in relations between community groups and the police. “Like many of you, I’m angered, I’m disappointed, I’m disgusted,” said the Rev. Michael Pfleger, who is white, told his congregation at St. Sabina. “And yet like many of you, I’m not shocked. ’Cause unfortunately, this is the America that we know all too well. Yesterday, we watched the justice system fail miserably again.”
“We live in a racist society,” he said. “We need to face it. Black people are not treated the same as white people. You need to face it. That’s just the truth of the matter. And when you see things like that, it just makes it more and more obvious. Even though we have a black president, it still doesn’t say that equality and justice are really being served with everybody.” Bishop Bob Jackson, the leader of Acts Full Gospel Church in Oakland, one of the city’s biggest churches, said he was disappointed by the verdict.
That sentiment was echoed, with tears and expressions of sorrow, in many of the nation’s black neighborhoods. “We live in a racist society,” he said. “We need to face it. Black people are not treated the same as white people. You need to face it. That’s just the truth of the matter. And when you see things like that, it just makes it more and more obvious.”
“If Trayvon Martin had not been a black man, he still would have been alive,” said Jeff Fard, a community organizer in a black neighborhood in Denver. “We know. If the roles were reversed, Trayvon would have been instantly arrested and, by now, convicted. Those are realities that we have to accept.” Throughout the day, as blacks and whites struggled with the racial implications of the debate, many called for prayer and peace and urged that there be no escalation of violence.
Benjamin Crump, the lawyer for the Martin family, made a similar argument in an appearance on ABC’s “This Week.” “My heart is heavy,” said Milton Felton, a cousin of Mr. Martin’s, outside the Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in Miami Gardens, Fla., where members of the family had gathered. “But that’s our justice system. Let’s be peaceful about it.”
“When prosecutor John Guy said if the roles were reversed, and Trayvon Martin would have followed and profiled and shot George in the heart, what would the verdict have been? And that’s the question that everybody is asking,” Mr. Crump said. “That’s why the whole world was watching this case to see if everybody can get equal justice, not just certain people.” At Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, parishioners seemed stricken by what many described as a reminder of how far the nation still needed to go to resolve its racial differences. “I felt he was going to get off,” said Helen Corley, attending services there. “He knew he could do it and get away with it.”
Representative Chaka Fattah, Democrat of Pennsylvania and a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, said the jury had in effect condoned Mr. Zimmerman’s actions. “It crushed my spirit,” she said.
“What the jury is saying is, here’s George Zimmerman back, here’s his gun back, and what he did was perfectly fine, and he’s coming to a neighborhood near you, or someone acting the way he acted, and that’s dangerous,” he said on CNN.

Reporting was contributed by Michael Schwirtz, Michaelle Bond and Whitney Richardson from New York; Cara Buckley from Sanford, Fla.; Kim Severson and Alan Blinder from Atlanta; Monica Davey and Steven Yaccino from Chicago; Jack Healy from Denver; Ian Lovett from Los Angeles; Nick Madigan from Miami; Jon Hurdle from Philadelphia; John Eligon from Kansas City, Mo.; Norimitsu Onishi from San Francisco; and Trip Gabriel from Washington.

Still, throughout the day, as blacks and whites struggled with the racial implications of the debate, many called for prayer and peace and urged that there be no escalation of violence.
“My heart is heavy,” said Milton Felton, a cousin of Mr. Martin, outside the Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in Miami Gardens, Fla., where members of the family had gathered. “But that’s our justice system. Let’s be peaceful about it.”
The church’s pastor, Arthur Jackson III, said he and others had been urging calm. “The community responded the way I thought they would,” he said after the Sunday service. “I’m pleased there’s no violence, but I wasn’t expecting violence. This situation has not traumatized us, it has not paralyzed us — it has mobilized us.”

Reporting was contributed by Michael Schwirtz and Michaelle Bond from New York; Cara Buckley from Sanford, Fla.; Kim Severson and Alan Blinder from Atlanta; Monica Davey and Steven Yaccino from Chicago; Jack Healy from Denver; Ian Lovett from Los Angeles; Nick Madigan from Miami; Jon Hurdle from Philadelphia; John Eligon from Kansas City; Norimitsu Onishi from San Francisco; and Trip Gabriel from Washington.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: July 14, 2013Correction: July 14, 2013

An earlier version of this article misstated the given name of a pastor in Sanford, Fla. She is Valarie J. Houston, not Valerie. It also misstated the city where Jeff Fard is a community organizer. It is Denver, not Detroit.

An earlier version of this article misstated the given name of a pastor in Sanford, Fla. She is Valarie J. Houston, not Valerie. It also misstated the city where Jeff Fard is a community organizer. It is Denver, not Detroit.