We all remember our first girlfriend, our first kiss, our first day of school, and our first march. Monday March 26, 2012 I left work at five o’clock to get downtown to catch the Trayvon Martin march at the Georgia State Capitol. “I saw on the news this morning there were teachers that brought their elementary school class” #BAM
This was the scene. I’m somewhere in this picture.
What would you say if I told you five students from the schools came together Thursday March 22 to organize the second largest rally outside of Sanford, Florida within four days. With the help of Reverend Hutchins, Spanky Edwards, Jonathan Howard, Taylor Allen, Ashley Barnett, and Lauren McAplin put together a historic rally that will forever be embedded in the minds of the seven thousand persons that packed downtown Atlanta. A couple days of planning with a eager and fervent group of young minds attracted CNN and MSNBC.
Luckily I was able to sit down with the A team to get their thoughts on the rally they put together and the Trayvon Martin case. We met and discussed the story in the very room I am writing this story in, The King Chapel Library on the campus of Morehouse College.
I made a statement that our generation (mid to late 80’s and early 90’s) is a microwave generation where we get hooked into sad stories and we are quick to forget and jump onto the next “hot topic”.
Morehouse Class President Jonathan Howard said “Number one this is far from over, we had a nice victory yesterday that the two of the legislators one from Spelman and one from Morehouse are going to drop that bill today”. Mr. Howard was referring to the Stand Your Ground Bill. Mr. Howard is working on getting the two to legislators Alisha Thomas-Morgan Georgia State House Representative and Rashad Taylor a Georgia State House Representative to come to Morehouse and or Spelman to talk about the Stand Your Ground bill to the student body. Before we rally and march we need clarity and facts on what we’re dealing with.
Stand your ground bill; Currently, 25 states have some form of the stand-your-ground self-defense laws on the books. Not to oversimplify but to bring some light to what the law does. Its a law that give people wide latitude to use deadly force rather than retreat during a fight, regardless of whether the action takes place in one’s home or on the street. Florida’s law expressly presumes that the individual using deadly force in self-defense had a reasonable fear of death or serious bodily injury. It also immunizes the individual from arrest or even being detained in custody.
More on why the Trayvon Martin case will stay relevant. Ashley Barnett and Mr. Spanky Edwards shared how they could picture their family members in this situation. At the rally one of the speakers said “I like to wear hoodies too” mind you he was sixty year Black male. Ashley Barnett hit home when she said “I have a thirteen year old little brother and a ten year old little brother and that could have easily been one of them” enough said. Oh and Spanky has a nephew who happens to be a Tray (third) and he would want our country to stand up if it were his nephew in the situation. It hits home for a lot of us.
Ashley said it hits home because voters and general public see their sons and they’re have conversations about this with their sons. I had to have the conversation with some of my kids at the boys and girls club. We all identify with Trayvon.
This all to say Trayvon will not be forgotten easily because most persons of color can identify with this story. It seems like organizers have learned from past experiences and are moving with more aggression to ensure we don’t lose the passion and forget about Trayvon. With legislators working on bills and policy we have hope that people will not forget about the case.
Lauren McAplin of John Marshall Law School Student Run Black Law Student Association is the Director of Social Action (SRBLSA) and she touched on the lack of media attention that these stories receive. “Sometimes the media takes on hot topics when they’re hot and afterwards they’re not going to cover those events… a lot of times there are a lot of work being down behind the scenes”. National Black Law Student Association is the largest student run organization in the nation “Nobody comes to us and covers the laws we’re trying to cover…. Until it’s a national movement nobody wants to come out and cover us”.
Ashley Barnett the incoming President of Black Law Student’s Association at John Marshall Law School brought up the Jena six and marching and rallying and getting attention but once the marches were over, the media left. We need to work on that. A pivotal moment in all of these movements are the day after event’s, a week after, and we have to devise a plan to get media attention once the march is over.
I brought up voter registration and the conversation just eased into education and voting. “We need to vote for more than just Obama, we need to vote for elected officials, board members of education… we have to understand the varying levels of where people come from and meet them there” Taylor Allen. Ms. Allen of Spelman College elaborated on the importance of education and community unity. Spanky and Ashley hit on the fact that we NEED person’s who know how to register people. But we also have to be mindful of how and where we can meet people to register and talk about voting because as Taylor said “We have to think about it in a less isolated manner… we as students have a certain amount of privilege… they may not understand and have the access to voting in the same way that we might not have the access” and that is a work in progress.
The hope is these brilliant minds will collaborate with Atlanta’s Chapter of Urban League of Young Professional’s to put on voter registration classes/courses to raise awareness of the multiple variables of elections.
A general consensus was that we need to work with our community and promote education. There is a need to push for education in order to implement permanent change. We need to get away from these personal goals and get our community, not our social or college community but the lower socio-economic neighborhoods involved.
Jonathan Howard couldn’t have wrapped up the interview much better than “its the little things that make good things great and its the little things that tear big things apart. One of our biggest enemies in these movements is division.There’s no limit to what you can do when nobody gets the credit, it didn’t matter who got the credit we all worked together within our database within our organization to make this thing happened.” He also said we need to understand that this will take time, change is not always organized. Hence we need to be patient.
From the bottom left Lauren McAplin (John Marshall Law School & ΔΘΣ Sorority University of Kentucky Undergraduate) Amber Barnett a Spelman Undergrad and John Marshall Second Year Law Student) Taylor Allen (Sociology Major, future Americorps, ΔΣθ Sorority. Top Right is Jonathan Howard Class President, Senior Business Management Major (Immanuel) and Spanky Edwards from Illinois, a transfer student, Sociology major, Activist, and March Organizer, and Spanky Nation.
Taylor said we need to turn our feelings into action and go out and vote-YES. Let’s ensure our community members vote. Jonathan told us about growing up in Houston, Texas and watching his mom register people, and one or two people coming in every hour.
Join me to work on our community and to be careful of how Black people treat each other. This can be a binary movement to ensure that the next generation understands the importance of communication, respect, and gratitude to the women or as I like to call them the Queens of our communities. Let’s treat our fellow brethren like brothers and not enemies because for a moment we didn’t see difference we united. I challenge you to unite OUR community and continue to fight the good fight.
Thank you to fantastic five and Reverend Hutchins for putting together this monumental event. I speak for everybody when I say this couldn’t have happened without the help of Mr. Hutchins and all the parties that were involved in this event.
