Politics

Protesters liken Anderson to Till

Emmett Till's murder in Mississippi helped start the civil rights era.

By JENNIFER LIBERTO, Times Staff Writer
Published October 24, 2007

Protesters demonstrate over the death of Martin Lee Anderson in Tallahassee. About 700 protesters marched to a federal courthouse Tuesday to denounce Florida's handling of the black teenager's death after he was hit and kicked at a state boot camp last year.
	[Willie J. Allen, Jr. | Times]

ADVERTISEMENT Audio slideshow Boot camp verdict protest [Willie J. Allen, Jr. | Times] Dr. Fred Maeweather speaks to the more than 700 marchers during the Justice For Martin Lee Anderson protest on the steps of the Federal building on Tuesday afternoon. [Willie J. Allen, Jr. | Times] "No Justice, No Peace Justice." yells FAMU student Stephanie Gran, 18, during the Martin Lee Anderson protest in Tallahassee

TALLAHASSEE -- To protesters who marched on the federal courthouse Tuesday, Martin Lee Anderson has became Florida's Emmett Till.

Many in the crowd of 700 who gathered to protest the acquittal Oct. 12 of eight boot camp employees accused of killing Anderson last year talked bitterly about the similarities they see between his death and the savage murder of another 14-year-old that stoked the civil rights movement half a century ago.

"All the evidence in the world, but Emmett Till did not get equal justice. The people who killed that child walked free forever," said Benjamin Crump, an attorney for Anderson's family. On a visit to Mississippi in 1955, Till was beaten and killed for whistling at a white woman.

"Are we going to continue to let the history of our people getting killed with all the evidence of the world -- all the evidence in the world?"

The protesters, including about three dozen who drove up in the early morning hours on a bus from the Tampa Bay area, marched from the Leon County Civic Center to the federal courthouse, singing songs likeWe Shall Overcome and chanting "Justice."

They want federal prosecutors to re-examine the case. The Justice Department has assured civil rights leaders that it's investigating.

"Back in the '50s and '60s, during the civil rights struggle, and that struggle continues, that when local government showed their racist hands, people of African descent had a comfort level that even the federal government would look at the same situation and see a different outcome," said Bishop Victor Tyrone Curry, president of the NAACP Miami-Dade chapter. "That's why we're here."

Beating videotaped

Anderson died in a Bay County boot camp for juveniles after guards kicked and hit him, an incident captured on a video and replayed nationwide.

The Bay County medical examiner ruled the death was because of sickle cell trait, a blood disorder, but then a second autopsy ruled the death due to suffocation from the guards' actions. On Oct. 12, seven guards and a nurse were acquitted of manslaughter charges after a jury deliberated for 90 minutes.

A few hours after the verdict, more than 200 students stormed Tallahassee streets. They blocked traffic on downtown's busiest arteries during the rush hour, despite warnings from police that they might be arrested.

Tuesday's protesters weren't as impassioned as the students had been two weeks earlier. Yet many were frustrated and angry and held signs that compared the acquittal in the Anderson case to the prison sentence black NFL quarterback Michael Vick is expected to receive after he pleaded guilty to charges in a notorious dog abuse case.

"Kill a dog, go to jail. Kill a Black Child, And Get Off Free," read one handmade sign created by Paul Boston of Brooksville, who writes a newsletter called Just Us.

"It's a sad reality that in 2007, a black man and a black child are only worth one-fifth of any other race," said Boston. "That was the rule of law before the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and in the South, it hasn't changed."

Other protests

Smaller protests took place statewide.

In Tampa, about 20 people gathered in front of the county courthouse. Many black and white passers-by, including suit-clad lawyers, agreed with the protesters as they filed into the courthouse.

Yet Tallahassee attracted a far larger crowd, including many veteran protesters like Bobby Hardwick, 58, who as a teenager in the 1960s marched alongside Martin Luther King when he came to Tallahassee.

"I never imagined I'd still be doing this 40 years later," said Hardwick, shaking a tambourine while marching toward the courthouse.

When Crump started to tell the story of Emmett Till, the crowd grew silent. Then a strong breeze shook a canopy of oaks, sending a hailstorm of acorns to the ground.

Protester Shirley Dean of Pensacola, looked up at the tree and then started gathering acorns and stuck them in an empty water bottle to shake and cheer during the rally.

"I'm here to make my noise," said Dean. "This is just one rally of many more to come."

Staff writer Justin George contributed to this report.

[Last modified October 23, 2007, 22:36:15]