As the nation debates the verdict in the Trayvon Martin killing, young people in Oakland, California are reminded of the case of Oscar Grant, the 22-year-old who was shot by a Bay Area Rapid Transit officer on New Year’s Day 2009.
Both were unarmed, both African American young males. In both cases, protests followed the trial outcomes.
On the same weekend that George Zimmerman, the man who killed Trayvon Martin, was acquitted in a Florida courtroom, Fruitvale Station–a feature film about the Oscar Grant shooting–sold out four times at an Oakland theater.
Grant was shot on the Fruitvale BART station platform, in view of other train passengers. During protests related to his death, Youth Radio reported from the heart of downtown Oakland, capturing images of the outrage on the streets.
Youth Radio documented the 19 months following the Grant’s shooting, from the reactions of witnesses who recorded it on their cell phones, to the outrage and mass actions in the community, to Mehserle’s trial. These stories and photography are collected in the online magazine Grant Station, embedded below.