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.
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.”