'Bigger Than Stand Your Ground': Protesters Mark 13 Days of Florida Capitol Occupation

“I’m here because you called. I’m here because I am a part of your history,” notable civil rights activist and musical icon Harry Belafonte declared Friday to a crowd of hundreds of demonstrators inside the main rotunda of the Florida capitol building.

The rally, billed as #theTakeover, was one of a number of demonstrations staged by the Dream Defenders since the group took residence in the capitol on July 16 in an ongoing sit-in to call attention to what they are saying is the ‘systemic criminalization of black and brown youth.’

The protesters are calling on Florida Governor Rick Scott to hold a special session of the legislature to repeal the controversial Stand Your Ground law, address the dangerous and ongoing practice of racial profiling, and amend the “war on youth that paints us as criminals and funnels us out of schools and into jails.”

“We understand that we have to go right to the source of power and we have to fight with them in order to make real change,” protester Daniel Agnew recently told YES! Magazine. “That’s why we’re at the state capitol, because that’s where things change.”

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Over the weekend, the Defenders’ camp was buoyed by a number of faith-based organizations and students from up and down the east coast. Since occupying the capitol building, the sit-in demonstrators—whose numbers fluctuate from 15 or 16 to over 100, depending on time of day—have been busy building and organizing for upcoming demonstrations.