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Dream Defenders is an American human rights non-profit organization that aims to end policing and abolish prisons (especially private prisons). It is geared towards people of color who share the goal of multi-racial organizing among other goals. They espouse to end the school-to-prison pipeline by redefining notions of freedom and safety.
Dream Defenders was founded after a group of activists marched from Daytona to Sanford, Florida in order to protest Trayvon Martin's death and the failure to arrest his killer George Zimmerman. Gabriel Pendas and Phillip Agnew knew each other from activist work at Florida A&M University and came together to plan an event. They contacted Ciara Taylor and Nelini Stamp, other activists with similar goals. [1]
Taylor, one of the founders, grew up in the suburbs in Florida and attended Florida A&M University in Tallahassee. [1] She served as both the political director and the director of political consciousness at Dream Defenders. In high school, Taylor protested the United States 2000 presidential election, between Al Gore and George W. Bush, after Bush was elected president. Taylor felt frustrated and hopeless in this process because she felt as though she could not actively influence the decision being made about her soon-to-be president. [1] [2] She continued this activism into college at Florida A&M, where she advocated for living wages for campus workers and advocated against budget cuts that defunded her major a year before she graduated.
In July 2013, Dream Defenders occupied the Florida State Capitol building for 31 days. The demonstration was in response to the decision of the Trayvon Martin case, in which George Zimmerman was acquitted for Martin's murder. [3] with the aim of ending and raising awareness of Florida’s Stand Your Ground self-defense law. After 31 days, House Speaker Will Weatherford agreed to speak with them about Stand Your Ground. [4] A member of the organization, Dr. Armen Henderson, was arrested while preparing to help provide free COVID-19 testing to homeless populations. [5]
In 2022, Dream Defenders and a coalition of Miami-based nonprofits helped start a free urgent care clinic in Miami, Florida, as part of the city's Healing and Justice Center focused on providing direct service outside of the policing and prison systems. [6]
Alfred Charles Sharpton Jr. is an American civil rights and social justice activist, Baptist minister, politician, radio talk show host, and TV personality, who is also the founder of the National Action Network civil rights organization. In 2004, he was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. presidential election. He hosts a weekday radio talk show, Keepin' It Real, which is nationally syndicated by Urban One, and he is a political analyst and weekend host for MSNBC, hosting PoliticsNation.
A neighborhood watch or neighbourhood watch, also called a crime watch or neighbourhood crime watch, is an organized group of civilians devoted to crime and vandalism prevention within a neighborhood.
The National Action Network (NAN) is a not-for-profit, civil rights organization founded by the Reverend Al Sharpton in New York City, New York, in early 1991. In a 2016 profile, Vanity Fair called Sharpton "arguably the country's most influential civil rights leader".
Frederica Smith Wilson is an American politician who has been a member of the United States House of Representatives since 2011, representing Florida's 24th congressional district. Located in South Florida, Wilson's congressional district, numbered as the 17th during her first term, covers a large swath of eastern Miami-Dade County and a sliver of southern Broward County. The district contains most of Miami's majority-black precincts, as well as parts of Opa-locka, North Miami, Hollywood, and Miramar. Wilson gained national attention in 2012 for her comments on the death of Trayvon Martin.
Lilia Luciano is a journalist, filmmaker, podcaster and public speaker. She is currently a national correspondent at CBS News based in New York and host of the iHeart Radio podcast, El Flow. Before moving to Los Angeles, she worked as the investigative reporter at ABC 10 in Sacramento and was the chief investigative correspondent on Discovery Channel's Border Live.
The second inauguration of George W. Bush as the 43rd president of the United States took place on Thursday, January 20, 2005, at the West Front of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. This was the 55th inauguration and marked the beginning of the second and final term of George W. Bush as president and Dick Cheney as vice president. The ailing Chief Justice William Rehnquist administered the presidential oath of office for the last time before his death on September 3 that year. Attendance at the inauguration has been reported as being around 100,000, 300,000, or 400,000.
Angela Corey is a former Florida State's Attorney for the Fourth Judicial Circuit Court, which includes Duval, Nassau and Clay counties—including Jacksonville and the core of its metropolitan area. The first woman to hold the position, she was elected in 2008, and defeated on August 30, 2016 by Melissa Nelson, the second ever woman to hold this position. Corey was catapulted into the national spotlight when on March 22, 2012, Florida Governor Rick Scott announced that she would be the newly assigned State Attorney investigating the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.
On the evening of February 26, 2012, in Sanford, Florida, United States, George Zimmerman fatally shot Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old African-American teenager.
George Michael Zimmerman is an American man who fatally shot Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old black boy, in Sanford, Florida, on February 26, 2012. On July 13, 2013, he was acquitted of second-degree murder in Florida v. George Zimmerman. After his acquittal, Zimmerman was the target of a shooting. The perpetrator was convicted of attempted murder.
The Sanford Police Department is a police agency in Sanford, the county seat of Seminole County, Florida. It employs 140 sworn police officers alongside 24 other employees, and Police Chief Smith. Prior to Chief Smith, Richard Myers was the Interim Police Chief. Myers is the former Chief of Police in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Appleton, Wisconsin. In March 2012, Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee took a temporary leave of absence during the department's investigation of the shooting death of teenager Trayvon Martin, and Captain Darren Scott was named acting chief of police. Myers took over from Scott in May 2012. In April 2013, Former Elgin, Illinois Deputy Police Chief Cecil Smith took over as the department's chief.
Trayvon Benjamin Martin was a 17-year-old African-American from Miami Gardens, Florida, who was fatally shot in Sanford, Florida, by George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old Hispanic American. Martin had accompanied his father to visit his father's fiancée at her townhouse at The Retreat at Twin Lakes in Sanford. On the evening of February 26, Martin was walking back to the fiancée's house from a nearby convenience store. Zimmerman, a member of the community watch, saw Martin and reported him to the Sanford Police as suspicious. Several minutes later, an altercation happened and Zimmerman fatally shot Martin in the chest.
Benjamin Lloyd Crump is an American attorney who specializes in civil rights and catastrophic personal injury cases such as wrongful death lawsuits. His practice has focused on cases such as those of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, George Floyd, Keenan Anderson and Tyre Nichols, people affected by the Flint water crisis, and the plaintiffs behind the 2019 Johnson & Johnson baby powder lawsuit alleging the company's talcum powder product led to ovarian cancer diagnoses. Crump is also founder of the firm Ben Crump Law of Tallahassee, Florida.
The following is a timeline of the events surrounding the death of teenager Trayvon Martin on February 26, 2012, in Sanford, Florida. Martin was shot and killed by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman during a physical altercation. Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder in April 2012, and found not guilty on July 13, 2013.
State of Florida v. George Zimmerman was a criminal prosecution of George Zimmerman on the charge of second-degree murder stemming from the killing of Trayvon Martin on February 26, 2012.
Mary H. Nguyen-Nodelman is an American journalist and attorney. The investigative journalist and Emmy nominated reporter has worked at various ABC, NBC and Fox Television stations across the country. Nguyen is also known as the first Asian-American Miss Teenage America.
Lukace Kendle is an American man who was convicted of second-degree murder with a firearm and attempted second-degree murder for a 2012 shooting that killed Kijuan Byrd and left Michael Smathers paralyzed.
Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story is an American documentary television series that premiered on July 30, 2018 on Paramount Network. The six-episode series documents the killing of Trayvon Martin and explores the racial tension in the United States that was brought about in its wake. The series is executive produced by Sybrina Fulton, Tracy Martin, Jay-Z, Chachi Senior, Michael Gasparro, Jenner Furst, Julia Willoughby Nason, and Nick Sandow. Furst and Nason also directed the series as well.
Rest in power is an expression used to mourn, remember or celebrate a deceased person, especially someone who is thought to have struggled against systemic prejudice such as homophobia, transphobia, racism or suffered because of it, particularly in black and LGBTQ communities in the United States. It has been used to eulogize victims of hate crimes while protesting the social inequality and institutionalised discrimination that may have led to their deaths. It is a common phrase to use to honor someone’s legacy, though as an activist.
Natalie Aleta Jackson is an American trial attorney from Orlando, Florida. She is also known as an author and human rights activist. Her involvement in the Trayvon Martin case and her use of the #TrayvonMartin Twitter hashtag has led to her being connected to the formation of that movement. She is frequently invited to speak on the Black Lives Matter movement. She is best known for her work on the Trayvon Martin case, though she has been mentioned in the media regarding a number of other high-profile cases. Jackson is a frequent commenter on ongoing cases for news publications.
Nupol Kiazolu is an American activist and founder of Vote 2000. Topics on which Kiazolu advocates include civil rights, domestic and sexual violence, and homelessness. Kiazolu is currently studying at Hampton University in Virginia.