As a chanting crowd of more than a thousand people assembled on Pratt Street yesterday to protest the failure of police to arrest the killer of an unarmed Florida teen, a 22-year-old mother tried to explain why the Trayvon Martin case seemed to galvanize all of black Baltimore.

“Do we have to worry that all our young black males could be gunned down like that for no reason?” said Christian Dodd, her two children, clad in hoodies, at her side. “Everybody’s feeling like that.”

“Why haven’t the police arrested the man who shot him? It’s not for the police to take the man’s word. It’s for the police to make an arrest,” Dodd said. “That’s what everybody’s saying.”

“I AM TRAYVON MARTIN,” said the sign held by her four-year-old son Kenneth Faison. “SKITTLES. TEA. HOODIE. BLACK. AM I NEXT?” said the sign her 6-year-old daughter Kaniya clutched.

“I have brothers Trayvon’s age, 17 and 19,” Dodd added. “But mainly, I’m here to support [Trayvon’s] family and get justice for him.”

Honored to be Here

Dodd’s sentiments were widespread across a crowd that police assessed at 1,200 but seemed to far exceed that estimate.

Organized by the NAACP, the Maryland Southern Christian Leadership Council, the All People’s Congress and the Baltimore National Action Network, the marchers assembled at McKeldin Square, the prior home of Occupy Baltimore, at Pratt and Light streets.

Similar protests were organized across the county, with marchers wearing hoodies, the garment Martin was wearing on Feb. 26th when he was shot and killed by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in a gated community. Unarmed, his body was found with a bag of Skittles and an Arizona ice tea.

In Baltimore, angry demonstrators said racial profiling motivated Zimmerman and that racism was behind the decision of police not to arrest him.

Listeners on a local radio station are beyond demanding an arrest, said Cristal Onair, who works on promotions at WERQ FM, known as 92Q Jams to its listeners.

“They want his head, they want him gone,” said Onair. Onair looked around at the crowd in amazement and said she was surprised by the size. “I had no idea it was going to be this big!” she said. “I’m honored to be here.”

“It Makes me Want to Cry”

Police tried at first to keep the crowd on the Pratt Street sidewalks but by 5:13 p.m. they surged onto the street amid traffic, in a river of protest that stretched from the Light Street intersection east to Gay Street almost to Baltimore Street.

Some pushed strollers, rode bikes or used wheelchairs, many carried Skittles and wore hooded sweatshirts.

“No justice, no peace,” they chanted. Signs said “JOBS NOT RACISM,” “SADLY RACISM IS VERY MUCH ALIVE – FEAR IS THE NEW RACIST CRACK” and, most common of all: “WE ARE ALL TRAYVON MARTIN.”

Mothers, wives and sisters were especially noticeable. “Look at that face. It makes me want to cry,” said Patricia Truesdale, 45, as she looked at photos of the 17-year-old victim.

“Everyone should stand up for justice. That could be anybody’s child.”

“TRAYVON MARTIN WAS LYNCHED,” said a sign held by Sylvia Harris, mother of slain Baltimore city councilman Kenneth N. Harris Sr. (Harris was shot and killed outside a city jazz club in 2008.) “Violence against anyone is an atrocity,” she said. “We need to bind together to run the demons out of all of us.”

People aimed cameras, cell phones and camcorders at the scene, embracing friends, posing with family and talking to their children and each other about the meaning of the moment. “We’ve been too quiet, for 70 years,” an older man said. “I wanted you to see this,” a woman said to a small boy.

“Where is the Mayor?”

After marching to the front of Baltimore police headquarters, the crowd filled Fayette Street, applauding a rousing speech by the Rev. Cortly C.D. Witherspoon.

Then they moved two blocks, past War Memorial Plaza to the front of City Hall. They clambered up onto light posts and railings, then hopped chain barriers to the top of a balcony. Uniformed police appeared to be remaining on the fringes of the demonstration.

Just before 6 p.m., the chants began to focus on Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, repeating, “Where is the Mayor? Where is the Mayor? Where is the Mayor?”

Witherspoon spoke again, from the balcony, calling on the crowd to not just focus on Trayvon Martin but take up a larger struggle.

He called for them to work toward getting jobs, summer jobs and recreational opportunities for black youth. “Then maybe we wouldn’t have to worry about our Trayvon Martins being killed.”

Some local officials acknowledged the issue and the national day of protest.

In Annapolis, members of the Legislative Black Caucus donned hoodies and held a news conference calling on the Department of Justice to review the controversial “Stand Your Ground” law cited by Florida authorities to explain the failure to arrest Zimmerman.

In Baltimore, City Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke came outside and spoke with some of the demonstrators.

“What happened to Trayvon, the fact that they made no arrest, is just so outrageous, something needs to be done about it,” said Angel Thomas, 19, of West Baltimore. “This happens here. Black boys get locked up all the time. They get shot for nothing at all.”

She added, referring to the absent Rawlings-Blake, “You just kind of want to hear what Stephanie has to say about it.”