Trayvon Martin killing sparked movement. But Sanford’s racial reckoning isn’t over.
The start of the Black Lives Matter movement can be traced to thousands of protesters who crammed into a park in an Orlando suburb eight years ago to demand justice after the death of Trayvon Martin.
On a rainy evening in 2012, the unarmed black 17-year-old was walking back from a 7-Eleven to the townhouse in Sanford where his dad was staying, when George Zimmerman spotted him. Zimmerman called police to report Trayvon as suspicious and then pursued him into the darkness.
During a struggle, Zimmerman shot the teenager. He wasn’t arrested or charged with murder until six weeks later. He was acquitted at trial.
The case proved a reckoning for Sanford, which fired its police chief and took steps to heal the divisions among black residents, the Police Department and City Hall in the 125-year-old town.
As much attention as the case received, it wasn’t yet a reckoning for the nation. Soon there were Michael Brown, Eric Garner and many others.
Now the death of George Floyd, recorded on a bystander’s cell phone after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes, has helped Black Lives Matter gain nearly as much support among American voters over the past two weeks as it had over the previous two years, according to data from online research firm Civiqs, as reported by the New York Times.
But in Sanford, the birthplace of the movement, demonstrations have been relatively scarce. A small, peaceful march took place last month in downtown Sanford. A protest is planned for Saturday at Fort Melon Park, the same place where the Rev. Al Sharpton headlined the rally in 2012 that drew thousands for Trayvon.
Some in the town about 28 miles north of Orlando say the relative quiet is the result of changes within the police department in recent years that they say have helped improve relationships with residents.
But others say the emotions are still raw, even if they aren’t spilling onto the streets every day. The place that wants to be known for its zoo, lakefront downtown and craft brewery scene is still a town where historically black and poor neighborhoods remain mostly segregated and police are viewed with distrust.
Turner Clayton, a former president of the Seminole County NAACP who also took part in the 2012 marches, said there is still more that can be done in Sanford.
“Trust has to be built over a long period of time,” he said. “We still have only one black commissioner, and his voice becomes diluted by the other commissioners.”
About a third of Sanford’s 60,000 people are black, but the makeup of the City Commission is still mostly white, with one black member from District 2, which includes the historic Goldsboro community. That’s the same as it was in 2012, when then Commissioner Velma Williams represented the district.
Current District 2 Commissioner Kerry Wiggins, a Sanford native and black minister, understands Clayton’s concerns. He says he has worked well with the other four commissioners, calling them “a great group.”
“But with the amount of African Americans that we have in Sanford, I think we should be able to have more than just one black commissioner on the board,” Wiggins said.
He added that the city and its police department have improved relations with black residents since 2012, “but still more work needs to be done to get things right.”
Police Chief Cecil Smith, who was hired in 2013, a year after Trayvon’s death, said he’s already made some changes, but still sees challenges.
“There is still much ingrained distrust, and that will still take a while to heal,”said Smith, who is black. “But we have made improvements.”
Smith, a former deputy chief from Elgin, Ill., with experience in dealing with racial friction within communities, was hired after former Sanford Chief Bill Lee was fired.
Within a few months on the job, Smith saw nearly 70% of his 130 officers and other staff resign. Many of them were nearing retirement and others did not want to want to deal with the nationwide backlash against the Sanford Police Department following Trayvon’s death.
“In a way, that was good,” Smith said. “I got the opportunity to hire people that want to be part of the community.”
The department today has about 140 officers.
Smith and his officers established a community presence by knocking on doors in black neighborhoods, introducing themselves and handing out their cell phone numbers. Smith also invited residents to join him for tea or coffee at local restaurants.
In 2013, Sanford was one of the first police departments in Central Florida to mandate that every officer wear and turn on their body cameras when responding to a call.
At the urging of a U.S. Department
of Justice mediator who moved into Sanford to help relieve tensions, an estimated 80 Sanford-area pastors – black, white and Hispanic – held meetings to address racism.
Sanford also established a
“blue ribbon” citizens committee made up of two dozen business owners, pastors, lawyers, and a former mayor that delivered a report to the commission with recommendations on improving relations between police and residents. Many of those recommendations have been implemented, including that the city hire more officers, increase pay and build better relationships with residents.
Smith said his officers have had regular bimonthly meetings with residents in various neighborhoods. But lately, because of the coronavirus pandemic, those have been postponed.
The Police Department’s web site now lists the names of the officers assigned to each community district.
Jeff Triplett, who recently resigned as Sanford mayor to run for Seminole County property appraiser, went through a revelation back in 2012 that many white elected officials are facing now.
“When I first became mayor, I thought that there was a decent relationship with the police and [black] residents,” Triplett said. “But I was so naïve…. There was a huge mistrust… and it was important that we just sat and listened. We as elected officials like to talk a lot, but I said to myself: ‘You need to just shut your mouth and listen.’ And we listened to the anger, the anguish and the pain that was there.”
Despite those conversations and changes inside the police department, many residents remain skeptical and say decades of mistrust can’t fade so quickly.
“I still don’t trust Sanford police,” said Francis Oliver, who took to the streets with thousands of protesters in 2012 calling for Zimmerman’s arrest. “Cecil Smith has done some cleaning, but he’s still got some more cleaning to do. There are some good police officers in Sanford, but there are also some bad officers.”
Oliver is one of the founders of the Goldsboro West Side Community Historical Association and the Goldsboro Museum. She recently took part in a march outside of Orlando calling for justice for George Floyd.
Oliver said she doesn’t want to defund or dismantle the Sanford Police Department, as some activists in other cities have called for.
Rather, she would like to see a top-to-bottom restructuring, with every officer reapplying for their jobs, as a way of weeding out “the bad apples.”
She added that residents in Sanford’s black neighborhoods still do not have enough voices at City Hall and on the city commission. And when they explain their grievances, they are often not heard or ignored.
Still, Oliver said she was encouraged in recent weeks to see the response of so many young people at Black Lives Matter marches around the country in the wake of Floyd’s death.
“It gave me hope,” she said.
The Floyd case also rekindled memories of police brutality against black residents in Sanford going back years. Those include a 2005 incident in which a white Sanford police officer — with a reputation for aggressive behavior toward blacks — repeatedly punched a black man who was on the ground with handcuffs after being Tased by other officers.
City Commissioner Patty Mahany also agreed that there is still much work to be done on rebuilding residents’ trust. She credits city officials — including former Commissioner Velma Williams, who represented the historic black community of Goldsboro at the time, and City Manager Norton Bonaparte — with helping to enact changes and leading discussions with residents that helped keep demonstrations peaceful in 2012 and after Zimmerman’s acquittal on charges of second-degree murder.
“I think Sanford was very fortunate,” she said. “And I think the good Lord was looking down on us at the time.”
“Trust has to be built over a long period of time. We still have only one black commissioner, and his voice becomes diluted by the other commissioners.”
Turner Clayton, former president of the Seminole County
NAACP