Dream Defenders

Dream Defenders is a human rights organization aimed at ending police and state brutality geared towards people of color, ending the school-to-prison pipeline, and shifting culture through transformational organizing.

Dream Defenders founded after a group of individuals marched from Daytona to Sanford, Florida in order to protest Trayvon Martin's murder. Gabriel Pendas, Ahmad Abuznaid and umi selah (formally known as Phillip Agnew) knew each other from activist work in college, and came together to plan an event. They contacted Ciara Taylor and Nelini Stamp - other activists with similar interests. Pendas suggested a march from Daytona to Sanford, and they all agreed. Their plan was to march to the Sanford police station and hold a sit-in. They started marching April 6, 2012, with about 40 people. Throughout their course they sang civil rights songs, while bystanders would join in and walk for a couple of miles. At night they slept in African Methodist Episcopal churches. The night before arriving in Sanford, there were rumors that the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups would be waiting at the police station. The group discussed their plan, and ultimately decided to continue. The following morning, they marched to the Sanford, Florida police station and knelt outside of the doors. They had no idea what would happen, but a few of them, including Taylor, were willing to get arrested. Instead of getting arrested, they were invited into the police station to meet with local elected officials and police. They were able to speak with the attorney on the case, Angela Corey, and she informed them that George Zimmerman, the man who shot and killed Martin, would be arrested. Taylor, and the fellow students and alumni who took part in this stand in, would eventually form Dream Defenders.

Taylor, one of the founders, grew up in the suburbs in Florida and attended Florida A&M University in Tallahassee. She served as both the Political Director and the Director of Political Consciousness at Dream Defenders. In high school, Taylor protested the United States 2000 presidential election, between Al Gore and George W. Bush, after Bush was named President. Taylor felt frustrated and hopeless in this process, because she felt as though she could not actively influence the decision being made about her soon-to-be president. She continued this activism into college at Florida A&M, where she advocated for living wages for campus workers and advocated against budget cuts that defunded her major a year before she graduated

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