Trayvon Marchers Hit Streets Nationwide

Tampa, Columbia, Chicago among cities hosting protests for Trayvon Martin
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 24, 2012 4:40 PM CDT
Trayvon Marchers Hit Streets Nationwide
An Occupy Wall Street protester is consoled while crying in Union Square at the end of a march from Zuccotti Park to Union Square on March 24, 2012, in New York City.   (Getty Images)

A weekend of rallies for Trayvon Martin kicked off today with about a thousand marchers at a busy intersection in Tampa, Florida, and hundreds more in Columbia, SC, MSNBC reports. Many in Tampa carried Skittles and wore hoodies, as Martin did on the day he was gunned down by a neighborhood watch captain in Sanford, Florida. Rallies are also planned today in Chicago, Washington, Dallas, Baltimore, and other cities, after Al Sharpton led a rally in Sanford and New York hosted a "million hoodie" march this week.

"Trayvon is the Emmitt Till of our generation," said the co-chair of the Columbia rally, referring to the 14-year-old Mississippi boy murdered for allegedly whistling at a white woman. "'A threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,' those are the words of the great Dr. Martin Luther King and that's why we're here today." Rhetoric was stronger in Sanford, where New Black Panther Party members offered $10,000 for George Zimmerman's "capture." For more on Zimmerman, see why Slate says he hasn't been arrested yet. (More George Zimmerman stories.)

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