Jesse Jackson joins Dream Defenders’ sit-in, mock legislative session

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On Tuesday, another storied leader of the 1960s civil rights battles joined former FAMU student body presidents Phillip Agnew and Monique Gillum at the Florida capitol.

Rev. Jesse Jackson donned a black Dream Defenders t-shirt as he stood with the protesters to announce his support for their nonviolent demonstration against the state’s Stand Your Ground law.

“This is a student movement at its best,” Jackson told reporters. “They’re following the tradition of Martin Luther King, Jesus, Mahatma Gandhi in staging a nonviolent protest. It’s the definition of patriotism.”

Jackson’s arrival came days after Harry Belafonte, another one of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s close confidants, also visited Tallahassee to take part in the three week-old Dream Defenders sit-in.

The Dream Defenders have asked Gov. Rick Scott to call a special legislative session to repeal the Stand Your Ground law that, in part, led to the acquittal of George Zimmerman. Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin, an unarmed African American teenager, in Sanford last year.

Scott has refused the Dream Defenders’ demands and says he thinks Stand Your Ground should be left alone.

Yesterday, the Dream Defenders and Jackson began a mock special legislative session at the old capitol to help educate the state about the problems that Stand Your Ground has caused. According to the Miami Herald’s Naked Politics blog they passed a set of resolutions: “Declaring Tuesdays ‘Takeover Tuesday’ to mark their first day of protest in the capital; declaring Trayvon Martin Day on his birthday, Feb. 5th; calling for a day of mobilization at the capital on Friday; and calling for the pardon of Jacksonville resident Marissa Alexander, who was sentenced to 20 years after firing a pistol at her abusive husband that missed.”

Jackson, who stayed overnight with the Dream Defenders, said that the group is carrying the baton from the movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

“This is heavy lifting,” he told the Dream Defenders. “I know that Dr. King smiles from heaven at you. He believed in this kind of consciousness, this kind of dignity.”
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