The incident happened more than a month ago in Florida, but last week the impact hit home as St. Thomas students traveled across the Mississippi River to the University of Minnesota to join community members and students in mourning a teenager’s death.
Thousands of supporters flooded Northrop Plaza in Minneapolis to remember Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old Florida teen who was killed by neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman.
Metropolitan State University student Jenny Belsito created the One Million Hoodies event on Facebook and was surprised at how quickly others joined in the movement.
“I thought it would be myself and 30 of my friends here,” Belsito said. “The next morning I woke up and there were over 1,000 RSVPs on Facebook.”
Belsito said several community groups reached out to make sure everything went smoothly. The U of M and its police department even offered to help with setting the stage for the march.
St. Thomas juniors Britni Tokheim and Kristen Wise attended the event.
“I just think it’s incredible that we had such a great turn out here to show the lawmakers that people all across the nation do care,” Tokheim said. “I think the fact we have all different races here today shows that it’s not just an issue about blacks, it’s about everybody striving for that equality.”
Wise said she hopes there will be justice for Martin and thinks this case shows that racism is still an issue in America.
“I feel so strongly about kids getting murdered for no reason,” Wise said. “I think the way the police officers handled the case was very unfair, just taking him on his word for it because he was a black male.”
Zimmerman has claimed self-defense and said he opened fire after Martin punched him in the face, knocked him to the ground and began slamming his head on the sidewalk.
Across the nation, many people have expressed their outrage, and some black leaders, like the Rev. Al Sharpton, have demanded Zimmerman’s arrest on murder or manslaughter charges, but state and federal authorities are still investigating.
“I just hope that we really keep the momentum. We’re all here right now and things like this happen a lot and then just end,” Belsito said. “So, the best thing that could come out of this is people staying involved because that’s what needs to happen in order for us to make our demands and change things. We need to keep involved.”
Kristopher Jobe can be reached at jobe1276@stthomas.edu.