A Mother's Plea

"Nobody can bring our children back. But it would bring us comfort if we can spare other mothers the pain we will feel on Mother's Day and every day for the rest of our lives," Sybrina Fulton said. "I'm asking you to join Florida by asking the governor of your state to reexamine similar stand your ground' laws throughout the nation to keep our children safe."

Fulton said this weekend would be very difficult for her.  "This will be my first Mother's Day without my son Trayvon," she said. "I know it will be hard. But my faith, family and friends will pull me through."

In early April, activists and community members in Miami's Little Haiti organized a protest march calling for George Zimmerman's arrest in the death of Trayvon Martin. The march was one of many protests happening around the country at the time, as the investigation into Trayvon's shooting death made national headlines. Another, more formal protest was held in Miami's Bayfront Park days later, with speeches by politicians and civil rights leaders, including the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. In Little Haiti, people didn't gather for speeches.

A crowd met at a statue honoring Toussaint Louverture, collected behind three men waving American and Haitian flags and another three men in wheelchairs, and then set off for a march led by a police car. The crowd shouted the same slogans heard at other protests, and some people carried the same signs seen in news reports, but the protest had a more personal feel to it than the Bayfront event would have. The crowd was speaking, instead of listening to speeches.

 

I planned to shoot while staying toward the front of the march, but I almost didn't shoot anything -- both the memory cards in my DSLR malfunctioned just as the march was about to get started. Luckily, I had brought my Nikon FM2 along as backup, loaded with a roll of black and white film and a 20mm lens. Instead of just being able to shoot frame after frame, rapid fire style, without worrying about running out of memory, I had just 36 frames to cover this march before running out of film. I stayed near the front, trying to isolate individual moments and faces in the crowd as they strolled through Little Haiti. Trying to find a way to focus on the dark hoodies some of the marchers wore in the bright afternoon sunlight, I caught the sun's glare. 

The film -- Kentmere 400 ISO -- wasn't a stylistic choice; it just happened to be the cheapest pack of black and white film at the time that I ordered it from B&H. The images came out more grainy than I expected, but I like the tone of the film, and I think the gritty texture lends itself to the Little Haiti scene. Having a memory card malfunction didn't ruin the shooting opportunity at all.

As of May 14, George Zimmerman was awaiting trial on a charge of second-degree murder for shooting Trayvon on Feb. 26. Zimmerman told police he fired in self-defense after Trayvon pinned him to the ground and beat him. Trayvon's father, family lawyers and critics say Zimmerman is guilty of racial profiling and murder. On May 14, prosecutors filed court documents identifying witnesses they plan to call and several pieces of evidence they plan to introduce at trial.