Alex Slitz/Daily News A handmade sign sits on a ledge Saturday before a march calling for justice for Trayvon Martin in Bowling Green. Goals of the march included showing support for the Martin family, protesting racial injustice and bringing awareness to stand your ground laws.

While walking Saturday with a crowd of about 200 people from the Warren County Justice Center to State Street Baptist Church, Patricia Marlow of Bowling Green felt bound by love to the marchers, who were protesting the verdict in a Florida shooting case. 

“I feel there’s an injustice being done,” Marlow said. “I came here to stand up for all rights.”

George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watchman in Sanford, Fla., was charged with second-degree murder in the February 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager. A jury of six women found Zimmerman not guilty July 13, ending a weeks-long trial that drew national attention.

The trial became personal for Marlow because of the way Martin died.

“I feel it’s personal because I wouldn’t want it to happen to my children,” she said.

She hopes the Martin family pursues a civil case against Zimmerman, because she thinks Martin was treated unfairly when Zimmerman approached him.

“I don’t believe he could have done a lot of damage being unarmed,” Marlow said.

After the march, which was presented by the Martin Luther King Jr. Planning Committee, the Rev. Carl Whitfield, pastor of Eleventh Street Baptist Church, received a standing ovation for his address at State Street Baptist. He told the crowd that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

“No matter the ethical background, this could have been anyone’s child,” he said of Martin. 

But disappointment in the verdict will not bring Martin back, and Whitfield told the crowd to take comfort in the fact that God is the ultimate judge.

“I declare to you today, the righteous judge is still in charge, and one day justice will be served,” he said.

Chris Carothers of Bowling Green, coordinator for Project No Bars, which aims to break the cycle of incarceration among youths, held a hooded sweatshirt during the march that had the words “misunderstood” and “profiled” printed on it to represent the hoodie Martin was wearing when he died.

“I came to show my son that we want to be part of making a difference,” Carothers said. “Our young African-American guys are looked at from the outside. … Our young people are some good people; they just need a chance.”

Claudia Hanes of Bowling Green has been devastated since the jury found Zimmerman not guilty.

“I just can’t understand why a boy is dead and his killer is free,” she said.

She believes Florida’s stand your ground law played a part in Zimmerman’s confrontation of Martin. The law allows someone in a situation of perceived danger to stand their ground rather than retreat. But to Hanes, the law is not sensible.

“What if the person that you’re standing up against is someone you have pursued, and you know you’re the one with the gun?” she said.

“Nobody should be afraid to walk home from a convenience store with Arizona iced tea and Skittles and have somebody follow them and question them,” she said.

After President Barack Obama’s public remarks Friday about the trial and racial issues, Hanes decided to carry an American flag with the president’s face on it during Saturday’s march.

“Our president took on the persona of every man, particularly every black man,” she said. “It spoke to everyone who had a sense of community … and that’s what this flag stands for.”

She said it was a risk for Obama to speak so freely about racial issues, and she’s proud of him for doing so.

“A lot of people probably never ever even gave it a thought until he spoke about it,” Hanes said.

Cities across the country are having marches for Martin, and she hopes those events will lead to meaningful discussions about race and stand your ground laws, which she wants repealed.

“Hopefully, this is the start of a big movement,” she said.

— Laurel Wilson covers faith and general assignments for the Daily News. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/FaithinBG or visit bgdailynews.com.