Muncie activists are planning on holding a candlelight vigil in honor of Trayvon Martin on Sunday at 8 p.m. outside of the Delaware County Courthouse.
Kai Bennett, a former Ball State student who is coordinating the event, said he hopes to create an outlet for community members to discuss the case and pay their respects for Martin.
“There’s just been a lot of talk about the [George] Zimmerman case,” he said. “I know that people have a lot to say about the issues that are going on right now surrounding that case and I just thought that it would be a good time to remember Trayvon Martin and the loss that happened that day... I kind of thought it was important to bring the focus back to Trayvon.”
The event will start with predetermined speakers, then have a moment of silence and open up for “soapbox,” where people have a limited amount of time to share their opinions.
One of the speakers will be Marwin Strong, chairman of the Muncie Human Rights Commission.
Strong said he has been to about 17 of these sort of events and has a lot of experience with cases of people dying from drugs and violence.
His speech will focus on racial profiling as well as the Zimmerman case.
“I’m really hopeful for people to understand that racism is still alive here in the United States of America... it’s in every culture,” he said. “We got to have those tools to sit down... and talk about these situations. We can look at each other as great people and human beings instead of as racism.”
Strong said Martin’s death hit close to home since he has a 15-year-old son.
“The case was really, really, really hurtful how the outcome came,” he said. “Some say litigative circumstance, but it was still wrong... It hurts my heart that they let this guy off.”
Bennett said he hopes the event will stay respectful and positive. So far, he said he has had a good response, but he is not worried about attendance.
“If there were five people I would still think it was as good as if there were 50,” he said. “It’s not really about the number of people that turn out.”
In the end, his goal is to bring world issues to the surface in Muncie.
“We’re all the same equal members of the same democracy, so I think, especially with the local media’s focus on local issues so much, it’s really easy to miss out on some of these bigger issues,” he said. “I think it’s just really important that people are talking about what is going on in the country.”
