More than 200 hundred Aggie-students and faculty alike banded — together in front of Gibbs Hall on Monday to remember Trayvon Martin.

More than 200 hundred Aggie-students and faculty alike banded — together in front of Gibbs Hall on Monday to remember Trayvon Martin.

Led by the university’s History Scholars club, everyone laid face down and stood up on, and around the grass area in front of Gibbs to listen to 911 tapes made by witnesses to Martin’s death.

“It could have been me, I’m wearing a hoody today and I don’t think I look threatening, but someone else may think I do,” said Derrick Newkirk a sophomore business management major from Fayetteville, N.C. “So I’m here to support so we can get justice for Trayvon, and to let his family know that they aren’t in this alone because this act was the result of a lot of things. I think that, though it’s an unfortunate event, it’s really going to bring a lot of people together.”

The students were asked to wear hoodies and lay in silence, some with skittles and Arizona ice tea at hand, to represent Martin lying dead after being shot by Zimmerman.

“I want them[students] to take away the feeling that something needs to change, and that they have to make the change” said Tiffany Holloman, a senior history major from Ahoskie, N.C., as well as the organizer and vice-president of History Scholars.

“I want the world to see that most people of color are good loyal members of society and not what they have us pictured to be. The civil rights movement is over but the civil rights revolution is just beginning.”

Tears ran down Holloman’s face as she hugged her wife, members of the History scholars club, and her History Scholars advisor Tiffany Quaye.

“I didn’t expect the turn out to be like this at first. When I first told my wife about it I thought it would be just she and I down there in the grass,” said Holloman. “I mentioned it to the history scholars and they were like ‘yeah let’s do it’ and all in a short amount of time they started passing out fliers.”

Among those in attendance were various news stations such as MyFox8, News 14 Carolina, and WXII12 as well as councilwoman T. Diane Bellamy-Small who said she wanted individuals to know that she is proud of A&T and the city of Greensboro for showing that as a community, we are one like mind when it comes to obtaining justice and illustrating that this case affects everyone.

“This was done in the A&T tradition: started by a few and picked up by a lot,” said Quaye. “It was very encouraging, to know that people still have a voice and are still in tuned and care about what is going on because we are all Trayvon Martin.”

Aggies weren’t the only ones requesting justice for Martin in the Greensboro area.

Community members all around Greensboro stood, laid, and sent bags of Skittles by the hundreds to the Stanford police department all in honor of Martin.

“Its great that people were so determined to take a stand for justice through all obstacles” said Brian ‘B DAHT’ McLaughlin a 102 JAMZ personality and one of the organizers of the 102 JAMZ rally. “We ran out of free stamps and people still got in the long lines and bought their own to send off these empty bags of Skittles. That says a lot about our community. ”

The rally set out to send empty bags of Skittles to the Stanford, Fla. police department on March 23 to symbolize the emptiness that Martin’s parents must feel now that their son is gone.

Martin was the 17-year-old teenage male killed in Stanford, Fla. in mid-February by accused shooter George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watchman that, though Martin was unarmed, claimed self-defense under Florida’s “stand your ground” law. Zimmerman is now out on bail and no charges have been filed against him for the shooting; a phenomenon that is upsetting many around the country.

“My friends and I went out and we bought ten bags of Skittles” said Dream Davis a sophomore pre-nursing major from Ashville, N.C. at the 102JAMZ rally. “We just came to send out our bags so we can be a part because its happening in 2012 and its ridiculous that justice was not served. What are skittles? We buy Skittles and we just eat them ourselves. What does it cost to send them off to make a difference?”

– [email protected] and follow us on Twitter @ATRegister

• Lilliane Long,Contributor