Boston Rallies for Trayvon Martin

Trayvon Martin
Trayvon Martin
A photo from the Million Hoodie March in Manhattan's Union Square. | Photo courtesy of David Shankbone via Wikimedia Commons

“Imagine if people are armed and are able to operate off of perception.”

“Justice for Trayvon and all of the Trayvons in this country.”

“We must not stand only for love, but against all that divides us.”

“If a law like this passes, what you will have is a law that says not stand your ground, but the last man standing tells his version.”

“The arrest is good news. That’s clear. However, it is only the first step in bringing justice for Trayvon. We continue to rally because our work has just begun.”

“We are Trayvon Martin.”

The words rang out over a sea of umbrellas and picket signs, children in strollers and men and women with canes, as hundreds of people gathered Thursday at the Parkman Bandstand in the Boston Common for the Trayvon Martin Rally for Justice. Even pouring rain didn’t stop them from coming to listen to representatives from organizations such as the NAACP, the BU Black Law Students Association, the ACLU, and many more. Especially because most came prepared with hoodies.

The rally was organized by the New England branch of the NAACP in an attempt to not only speak about the issues surrounding the Trayvon Martin case, but also to speak in opposition of bills similar to the Stand Your Ground law that have been sitting on the tables of the Massachusetts House and Senate for a year. In fact, at the end of the rally, attendees gathered to walk up to the State House to knock on doors of representatives and hand out petitions against the bills.

It was powerful and emotional for all in attendance.

“For me, the case hits close to home,” said Chelsea Lewis, current regional representative for the BU Black Law Students Association and director of college outreach for the New England area conference of the NAACP. “I’m from South Florida. My brother’s the same age as Trayvon when he was shot, and you know, it’s hard not to think that Trayvon could have been him. But it also helped me realize and confirm that I chose the right career path in deciding to pursue the law because I want to be able to understand these issues. I want to be able to, you know, become active about these issues and to really understand why things like this can still happen in 2012.”

Lewis and the rest of the BUBLSA held a vigil for Trayvon on March 26 before they became cosponsors for the NAACP rally. They were trying to organize a rally of their own for the week of the vigil when they found out about it.

“I was trying to contact different organizations in organizing the rally,” Lewis said. “It was really last minute, and I was still trying to contact organizations, and I contacted the NAACP, and they let us know that they were planning a march on April 11, so we decided to take all the supporters that we already had for [our rally] and just get them all on board for the rally on April 11.”

Lewis, who was elected as BUBLSA’s regional representative before spring break, is very active in, as she explained, “promoting awareness of race issues,” “fostering relationships among students of all colors,” and in educating the community about questionable legislation.

“Personally, I don’t necessarily believe it’s a race issue. If Trayvon were white or Latino or Asian, for me, I would’ve been just as outraged. I think the issue is an unarmed child being gunned down. I do think that the situation is being characterized as a race issue because, in my opinion, the black African-American community has a particular sensitivity to these sorts of occurrences. Unfortunately, Trayvon Martin is one of many,” Lewis said.

Lewis referenced cases similar to Martin’s, such as those of Amadou Diallo and Sean Bell. In both cases, innocent, unarmed black men were shot and killed by police.

And if students want to get involved in events such as the Trayvon Martin Rally for Justice, they can always reach out to the BUBLSA.

“There are never enough opportunities to educate the community, so as long as there are issues to talk about, BLSA will be providing programs where we can talk about them,” Lewis said.

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