With the acquittal of George Zimmerman continuing to reverberate nationwide, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. is scheduled to address the matter Monday in a speech to a predominantly African American sorority.
Holder is the featured speaker at the social action luncheon of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority, which is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its 1913 founding by 22 women at Howard University in Washington, D.C.
On Tuesday, Holder travels to Florida to address the NAACP’s annual convention in Orlando, a short drive from the Sanford, Fla., courthouse where Zimmerman was found not guilty Saturday night of charges that he murdered unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin last year.
According to an Obama administration official, Holder will speak about the case briefly and in broad terms in part of his address to Delta Sigma Theta in Washington and will discuss it in greater depth in his speech to the NAACP in Florida.
The verdict triggered objections from civil rights organizations and scattered demonstrations across the country by protesters who want Zimmerman held accountable for Martin’s death.
Zimmerman, 29, who has a white father and Hispanic mother, claimed self-defense in the shooting of Martin, a 17-year-old African American he saw walking through his gated community and followed on a rainy night in February 2012. Zimmerman said he fired after Martin punched him, knocked him down and started pounding his head into a concrete walkway. Prosecutors said Zimmerman profiled the teenager and initiated the confrontation that resulted in his death.
NAACP leader Benjamin Jealous launched a petition late Saturday to urge the Justice Department to file civil rights charges against Zimmerman. The petition received such a massive response that it crashed the NAACP Web site.
Hours later, the Justice Department released a statement saying that its civil rights division still has an open investigation into Martin’s death, a probe it launched in March 2012. Working with the FBI, federal prosecutors are reviewing evidence to see whether the case can be prosecuted, the statement said.
It pledged that the department would investigate the “facts and circumstances” of the shooting and take “appropriate action.” The statement said federal prosecutors would “determine whether the evidence reveals a prosecutable violation of any of the limited federal criminal civil rights statutes within our jurisdiction, and whether federal prosecution is appropriate in accordance with the department’s policy governing successive federal prosecution following a state trial.”
Among those calling for Justice Department action were three Democratic congressmen from New York: Charles B. Rangel, Hakeem Jeffries and Gregory W. Meeks. They were scheduled to appear outside the federal district courthouse in Manhattan on Monday afternoon to urge an investigation of possible civil rights violations.
In Los Angeles, police began making arrests early Monday after about 80 protesters blocked traffic in Hollywood, the Associated Press reported. Demonstrators also blocked traffic in Oakland on Sunday night, and a smaller group began vandalizing businesses and throwing rocks and bottles toward police, AP said.
Other rallies held Sunday in cities across the country were largely peaceful, news agencies reported.
Civil rights groups, including an organization headed by the Rev. Al Sharpton, plan to hold prayer vigils and rallies Saturday in at least 100 cities to protest the Zimmerman verdict and demand that federal civil rights charges be filed.
Holder is the featured speaker at the social action luncheon of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority, which is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its 1913 founding by 22 women at Howard University in Washington, D.C.
On Tuesday, Holder travels to Florida to address the NAACP’s annual convention in Orlando, a short drive from the Sanford, Fla., courthouse where Zimmerman was found not guilty Saturday night of charges that he murdered unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin last year.
According to an Obama administration official, Holder will speak about the case briefly and in broad terms in part of his address to Delta Sigma Theta in Washington and will discuss it in greater depth in his speech to the NAACP in Florida.
The verdict triggered objections from civil rights organizations and scattered demonstrations across the country by protesters who want Zimmerman held accountable for Martin’s death.
Zimmerman, 29, who has a white father and Hispanic mother, claimed self-defense in the shooting of Martin, a 17-year-old African American he saw walking through his gated community and followed on a rainy night in February 2012. Zimmerman said he fired after Martin punched him, knocked him down and started pounding his head into a concrete walkway. Prosecutors said Zimmerman profiled the teenager and initiated the confrontation that resulted in his death.
NAACP leader Benjamin Jealous launched a petition late Saturday to urge the Justice Department to file civil rights charges against Zimmerman. The petition received such a massive response that it crashed the NAACP Web site.
Hours later, the Justice Department released a statement saying that its civil rights division still has an open investigation into Martin’s death, a probe it launched in March 2012. Working with the FBI, federal prosecutors are reviewing evidence to see whether the case can be prosecuted, the statement said.
It pledged that the department would investigate the “facts and circumstances” of the shooting and take “appropriate action.” The statement said federal prosecutors would “determine whether the evidence reveals a prosecutable violation of any of the limited federal criminal civil rights statutes within our jurisdiction, and whether federal prosecution is appropriate in accordance with the department’s policy governing successive federal prosecution following a state trial.”
Among those calling for Justice Department action were three Democratic congressmen from New York: Charles B. Rangel, Hakeem Jeffries and Gregory W. Meeks. They were scheduled to appear outside the federal district courthouse in Manhattan on Monday afternoon to urge an investigation of possible civil rights violations.
In Los Angeles, police began making arrests early Monday after about 80 protesters blocked traffic in Hollywood, the Associated Press reported. Demonstrators also blocked traffic in Oakland on Sunday night, and a smaller group began vandalizing businesses and throwing rocks and bottles toward police, AP said.
Other rallies held Sunday in cities across the country were largely peaceful, news agencies reported.
Civil rights groups, including an organization headed by the Rev. Al Sharpton, plan to hold prayer vigils and rallies Saturday in at least 100 cities to protest the Zimmerman verdict and demand that federal civil rights charges be filed.