{"id":10625,"date":"2012-03-30T00:33:44","date_gmt":"2012-03-30T07:33:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/198.57.196.122\/~gdatwofo\/theavtimes\/?p=10625"},"modified":"2014-03-20T13:13:03","modified_gmt":"2014-03-20T20:13:03","slug":"hoodie-march-in-lancaster-draws-hundreds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/2012\/03\/30\/hoodie-march-in-lancaster-draws-hundreds\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Hoodie March’ in Lancaster draws hundreds"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>LANCASTER \u2013 Hundreds of people, young and old, marched through Lancaster Thursday wearing hoodies in memory of the unarmed Florida teen who was shot to death last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m here because of Trayvon,\u201d said eight-year-old Cunnisha Moten, attending the march with her grandmother, Brenda Cochran.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been in Martin Luther King marches, a few of them,\u201d said grandmother Cochran, who brought her 13 grandkids to the march. \u201cI came out to this one because of the cause.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
March Organizer Veronica Fields (center).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The cause, said March Organizer Veronica Fields, was to demand justice for Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old boy shot and killed on Feb. 26 by 28-year-old neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida. Zimmerman claimed Martin looked suspicious covered in a hoodie while walking through his neighborhood. Soon afterward, there was a physical altercation between the two which ended when Zimmerman fatally shot Martin. Zimmerman claims he shot Martin in self-defense and so far has not been arrested.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am out here because that could have been my kid,\u201d said Barbara Atkinson. \u201cThis isn\u2019t about color, this is about justice and about the human race.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A second and equally important component of the march was to call for solidarity in the Antelope Valley community, said Fields.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis march is not just about Trayvon, it\u2019s about victims of senseless violence in our community,\u201d said Fields. \u201cBefore we\u2019re Black, White, Hispanic or Asian, we\u2019re all human.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the march, participants gathered at Boeing Plaza for a short rally, where community leaders called for peace and unity within the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cSenseless violence can\u2019t happen, police brutality can\u2019t happen, racism can\u2019t happen, and our young people are going to change that,\u201d said Jonathan Ervin.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cThis is not a black thing, it\u2019s not a white thing, it\u2019s not a brown thing, it\u2019s a human thing,\u201d said Mayor Emeritus Bishop Henry Hearns.<\/p>\n

Hearns said he was moved to attend the march and rally after receiving a phone call from Fields.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the significance of this is all about bringing people together as a unit, I\u2019m with that, if it\u2019s about sharing our love for the families that lost, I\u2019m all for that,\u201d Hearns said.<\/p>\n

Hearns also praised 25-year-old Fields for her efforts in mobilizing so many young people and said that he had spoken to Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris who asked him to pass along a message to the young people, as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said he\u2019s encouraged by your courage,\u201d Hearns told the crowd.<\/p>\n

Ervin laid out the plans for the march.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to teach a civics lesson to our youth like how Martin [Luther King] used to do it,\u201d Ervin said. \u201cWe going to march to city hall and register to vote and then we\u2019re going to use our economic power and go buy some stuff on the Blvd.\u201d<\/p>\n

The march kicked off about 5:30 p.m. Waving signs bearing Trayvon\u2019s picture and pumping their fists the group chanted a call and response as they marched west on Lancaster Blvd, north on Beech Avenue, and then west on Kettering to City Hall.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am Trayvon! We are Trayvon! Justice for Trayvon! When do we want it? Now!\u201d the group chanted.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The group congregated again at City Hall for another rally, where attendees were encouraged to register to vote on the scene.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going to call many times to ask for justice, but nothing is going to change until we vote,\u201d said LULAC President Lilia Galindo.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a new Antelope Valley,\u201d said TCAL Board Member Pharaoh Mitchell. \u201cWe\u2019re the ones who can vote people in to office and we can vote people out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Other speakers called for unity in the Antelope Valley.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur challenge today is for us to love each other, for us to embrace each other, because we are blood of each other\u2019s blood, and flesh of each other\u2019s flesh, and either we go down together as a family or we go up together, but regardless, one way or another, we\u2019re going as a family,\u201d \u00a0said V. Jesse Smith.<\/p>\n

Another speaker, Stan Muhammad, commanded attendees to continue their activism.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cNow it\u2019s time for us to organize, mobilize, and deputize every young man and woman here,\u201d Muhammad said. \u201cWe must take this energy beyond today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several young people also signed the backs of \u201cJustice for Trayvon\u201d posters, which Fields said would be sent to Trayvon\u2019s parents.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo say that Antelope Valley \u2013 Lancaster, Palmdale and Quartz Hill \u2013 supports Trayvon and his death will not be in vein,\u201d said Fields.<\/p>\n

For many more pictures of this event, visit our facebook page<\/a>.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LANCASTER \u2013 Hundreds of people, young and old, marched through Lancaster Thursday wearing hoodies in memory of the unarmed Florida teen who was shot to death last month. \u201cI\u2019m here because of Trayvon,\u201d said eight-year-old Cunnisha Moten, attending the march with her grandmother, Brenda Cochran. \u201cI\u2019ve been in Martin Luther King marches, a few of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10615,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10625"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}