theGrio: Family upset at Martin memorial move

The decision to move a memorial to slain Miami teen Trayvon Martin was accompanied by a brief statement emailed to the media Monday.

?In an effort to protect and preserve the remaining Trayvon Martin curbside memorial items, and after communicating with representatives of Trayvon Martin?s family,? the statement read, ?Sanford City Manager, Norton Bonaparte announced that the curbside memorial site items placed outside the entrance of the Retreat at Twin Lakes Subdivision in Sanford have been taken to the Sanford Museum as of 2:30 pm today by city staff.?All the items retrieved have been carefully handled and inventoried.?

However, representatives for Martin?s family, and leaders of Sanford?s African-American community, say key parts of that statement are not true.

Natalie Jackson, an attorney for Martin?s parents, say the family?s attorneys were contacted, but that they referred the city official back to community leaders. And Francis Oliver, who runs the black history museum in Sanford?s Goldsboro neighborhood, says the city initially asked to move the memorial there ? even though Martin was killed in a mixed-race neighborhood in the city, across from an elementary school.

According to Oliver, the Retreat at Twin Lakes homeowner?s association?had been pushing to have the makeshift memorial, comprised of a cross surrounded by cards, stuffed animals and flowers, moved almost from the moment she and other members of Sanford?s black community began to erect it. ?They have been calling the city, they have been calling lawyers and different people,? Oliver told TheGrio.

Reached by telephone, Kent Taylor, who works for the management company representing the Retreat at Twin Lakes homeowner?s association, declined to comment.

Oliver said she was contacted about three weeks ago by a city official, Andrew Thomas, who asked if the group of black civic leaders and ministers called the Concerned Citizens of Sanford, would mind moving the memorial to the Goldsboro museum, located on 13th Street, the dividing line between Sanford proper, and its oldest black neighborhood. ?I said [Trayvon Martin] didn?t die on 13th Street. He didn?t die in the black community.?

Oliver said she spoke with Sanford?s lone black commissioner, Velma Williams, who also agreed the memorial should stay where it was.

According to an attorney for the Martin family, Thomas later contacted Ben Crump, the lead attorney representing Martin?s parents, who told Thomas that since the Martin family doesn?t live in Sanford, they were leaving all decisions about the memorial to the city?s black community. Crump suggested that Thomas contact Ms. Oliver. She says that never happened, and that neither the community leaders, nor the Martin family, gave the consent described in the city release.

Source: http://thegrio.com/2012/07/10/trayvon-martin-sanford-decision-to-move-memorial-causes-uproar-in-black-community/

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