MLK III to NAACP: Maybe we should boycott Florida orange juice

By Molly Hennessy-Fiske and Matt Pearce

July 17, 2013 12 AM PT

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Demonstrators haven’t been breaking windows in Florida in the days since George Zimmerman was acquitted of murder, but there has been talk of smashing some profits.

As the NAACP moved through the final day of its national convention here -- about 20 miles from where 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot dead in Sanford, Fla., on Feb. 26, 2012 -- more big-name speakers called for action in response to a case that has energized civil-rights activists across the country.

The actions most prominently demanded are the filing of civil-rights charges against Zimmerman by the U.S. Department of Justice -- a move some experts have called unlikely -- and an end to Florida’s stand-your-ground law, which has already drawn the ire of demonstrators who live under similar laws around the country.

With Florida’s law presenting an area where activists can focus their energies, some activists have been talking about applying economic pressure.

“We applaud Stevie Wonder, who said he will not come down to Florida until the law is changed,” Martin Luther King III told the convention, drawing applause when he added, “We may have to look at not consuming Florida orange juice.”

As of Wednesday morning, more than 8,500 people had signed a MoveOn.org petition promising not to vacation in Florida.

“Florida is not a safe place to take your family for vacation as long as Florida law permits a citizen to shoot or kill you for merely looking suspicious, and to do it with impunity,” the petition states. “Boycott Florida tourism until this dangerous law is overturned. If the murder of Trayvon Martin isn’t enough to get lawmakers’ attention, maybe a loss in revenue to the state will be.”

The Rev. Al Sharpton -- who in the wake of the verdict has called for rallies this weekend in 100 cities across the country -- called stand-your-ground laws “the worst violation of civil rights, of state law, in this country.” (Speaking at the convention Wednesday, U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric Holder called for a review of stand-your-ground laws.)

“The illusion with the election of Barack Obama was that we had become ‘post-racial,’ “ Sharpton told the convention Wednesday. “Those who bear the burden of blackness know that’s not the case.”

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who also addressed the convention Wednesday, added that in the wake of instances of police brutality against black people and the death of Martin.

“A wave of nameless fear is gripping our country,” Jackson said.

“There may be some more Trayvons. There’s a Trayvon called Oscar Grant in Oakland. There’s a Trayvon in New York called Amadou Diallou,” Jackson said, to applause.

Jackson said the Zimmerman case “exposed how ludicrous” Florida’s “stand your ground” law is, adding that it was “making life more dangerous for all of us.”

In Orlando, the day was expected to conclude with a march to Orlando’s federal courthouse, where more figures were slated to speak.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Sharpton said he planned to meet with the Martin family later Wednesday, but wouldn’t say what he expected to talk about.

“Stay tuned,” Sharpton said.

Hennessy-Fiske reported from Orlando, and Pearce from Los Angeles.

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