George Zimmerman has been found not guilty of second0degree murder in the killing of Trayvon Martin, and on Saturday’s Up, former Virginia Gov. Doug Wilder, a Democrat and the first African-American ever elected to a governor’s office, spoke with Steve Kornacki about the verdict and offered some context based on his own experience.
Wilder said of the tragedy and the outcome. “It’s not just a shame on what’s happened in Florida,” he said. “America can’t stand this kind of justice. People around the world will look at us and say, ‘What were you talking about when you tell us how to behave?’”
As someone who was deeply involved with the civil rights movement, Wilder responded to Martin family lawyer Benjamin Crump’s comparison of Martin to movement-era casualties Medgar Evers and Emmett Till, Wilder said, “How many Emmett Tills, how many Medgar Evers, how many Trayvon Martins must be sacrificed before the wheels of justice, which grind so slowly, grind to the extent of meting out justice for all, impartial?”
Watch the whole clip above.
Meredith Clark
Meredith Clark is a freelance writer and editor. She was previously a senior news producer for "Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj," a reporter with MSNBC.com, the digital politics and culture editor at Glamour and a senior news and politics editor at Refinery29. She has written for Vulture, Rolling Stone, Self, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, The Daily Beast and Bustle. Recommended
