Churches respond to Zimmerman-Martin verdict with “Hoodie Sunday”

Paul Raushenbush of Huffington Post reports that at several black churches, clergy wore hoodies today in response to George Zimmerman’s acquittal for the murder of Trayvon Martin.

Rev. Tony Lee was in his car on Saturday night when he heard the news that George Zimmerman had been found not guilty on all charges in the trial over the death of Trayvon Martin.

“My phone and texts just started blowing up — they all said, ‘they found him not guilty,'” Lee said.

Realizing that he was going to have to preach in the morning, the pastor began thinking of what he would say to his largely black congregation called Community of Hope outside of Washington, D.C. Many in the congregation have lost loved ones to gun violence, and are simultaneously grieving and seething from what is being widely experienced in the black community as an injurious miscarriage of justice.

“I knew I would be wearing my hoodie while preaching,” Lee said, “and I wrote to all the pastoral staff that hoodies are welcome.”