JAY Z & BEYONCE JOIN TRAYVON MARTIN'S MOTHER IN NYC TO KICK OFF NATIONAL DAY OF PROTESTS

BEYONCE, JAY Z, SYBRINA FULTON, & REV. AL SHARPTON

Kicking off a day of nationwide protests for Trayvon Martin, his mother vowed to fight for victims of gun violence at a gathering this morning in Harlem.
“We have moved on from the verdict,” Sybrina Fulton told a crowd at the National Action Network on W. 145th Street.

“Of course we are hurting,” she added. “Of course we are shocked and disappointed, but that just means we have to roll up our sleeves and continue to fight.”

It has been a week since a Florida jury acquitted George Zimmerman of murder and manslaughter charges. He shot Martin dead on February 26, 2012, while on neighborhood patrol.

His mother, wearing a shirt with an image of her late teenage son, stood with the Rev. Al Sharpton during a morning rally that continued to One Police Plaza at noon. They were joined at One Police Plaza by rapper Jay Z and wife Beyonce'.

“Sometimes I think about what Trayvon felt that night,” she said. He was walking home minding his business...Trayvon was no burglar. He had every right to be in that community.”

“It was my son [then] it might be yours tomorrow.”

Telling the crowd that she loved her son, she said he “died without knowing who his murderer was.”

She said she’ll refocus her energy now that the trial is over.

“Now I’m dedicating my life to working with children and the victims of senseless gun violence.”

Sharpton said a week ago “we were heart broken by the verdict.”

“ We have the strength to wipe our tears away,” he said. “Last Saturday we cried. This Saturday we march.”

He said he would push for an aggressive civil rights investigation and federal civil rights charges against Zimmerman in Martin’s case. He also vowed to fight to change the “Stand your Ground” law so that Martin’s death would not be in vain.

“They will not say that was the young man killed in Sanford,” he said. “They will say that was the young man who helped change the laws in the United States of America.”

Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, a candidate for comptroller, who attended, agreed.

“This is absolutely a civil rights issue,” he said.

“Regardless of how you view the legality of the verdict in isolation, justice here was denied. An innocent young man was shot and killed and that is a tragedy.”