Sanford churchgoers mourn Zimmerman verdict, vow peaceful protest

SANFORD, Fla. -- Allen Chapel AME Church was in mourning on Sunday.

Many worshipers parked near a grave-like memorial to Trayvon Martin, a gray stone rectangle with a plaque displaying his name on Historic Goldsboro Boulevard, a thoroughfare for what was once the black side of town. Then they entered the church, filing past a poster of the 17-year-old in his now famous hooded sweatshirt.

Sunday’s theme was supposed to be celebrating youth, but after George Zimmerman’s acquittal the night before in the fatal shooting of Martin, how could they rejoice?

WHO’S WHO: The Trayvon Martin case

The pastor announced that the service would be dedicated to Martin. Ushers lit a small white candle at the front of the sanctuary to burn in his memory, as the faithful waved cardboard fans and murmured “amen.”

“Lord, I thank you for sending Trayvon Martin as a sacrifice for all of us to reveal the inequalities and injustices that exist in Sanford,” Kenya Moore intoned.

“I pray that this will change not only Sanford, but each and every city,” Moore said, adding that even though things “don’t always end the way we want them to end, we thank you anyway.”

“We pray and we thank you in spite of the verdict,” she said, to applause.

Dominique Washington, 19, delivered the prize-winning speech she wrote about the case earlier this year for an Elks scholarship competition.

“The American people must demand justice,” she said, quoting black abolitionist Frederick Douglass: “Power concedes nothing without a demand.”

Amen, the people said.

And then they sang as an interpretive dancer in red led them in the gospel chorus that rocked the polished pine plank walls: “It’s not over.”

“You got to see your way out,” they sang. “Hold to your faith, it’s not over.”

The Rev. Valarie Houston said she had trouble sleeping after hearing the verdict, and awoke demoralized. She said it showed how little has changed since Martin Luther King Jr. complained that, “The daily life of a Negro is still in the basement of society.”

“We must remove the restrictions by standing up, speaking up, protesting with peaceful nonviolence,” she said, adding that “we cannot afford to sleep for another 50 years, for Trayvon Martin’s blood to be in vain.”

She reminded the churchgoers of the circumstances of Martin’s death, how he was shot on his way home from buying a snack.

“We are African Americans,” she shouted, “We have a right to go to the store and buy Skittles and iced tea. We are somebody!”

The congregation rose to its feet, applauding.

A white pastor sat next to Houston throughout the service. The Rev. Sarah Lund, a regional minister with the United Church of Christ based in Edgewater, Fla., told the congregation she showed up after the verdict because she felt compelled to reach out.

“I call upon us, black and white, to come together to work for justice together,” she said, faulting the state’s “immoral” gun laws and saying everyone need to push Florida lawmakers “to change our laws to make the streets safe for all our children.”

As people filed out, they said they felt a bit encouraged, although the verdict had clearly reopened wounds.

“There’s a lot of hurt, a lot of pain,” said librarian Lashawn Smith, 41, insisting that “something positive is going to come out of it. I just don’t think it’s over.”

“This is not the end,” Washington said as she left. “Everybody’s just waiting to see what happens next.”

ALSO:

Trayvon Martin protestors blocked from courthouse area

Lawyer says Zimmerman wants his gun, needs it ‘even more’

Justice Department inquiry into Trayvon Martin slaying remains open

molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com

On Twitter: @mollyhf