ahead this morning, i'll speak to roland martin. he's been speaking to trayvon martin's family.in just a moment. this is $100,000. we asked total strangers to watch it for us. thank you so much, i appreciate it, i'll be right back. they didn't take a dime. how much in fees does your bank take to watch your money ? if your bank takes more money than a stranger, you need an ally. ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense. and who ordered the yummy cereal? yummy. [ woman ] lower cholesterol. [ man 2 ] yummy. i got that wrong didn't i? [ male announcer ] want great taste and whole grain oats that can help lower cholesterol? honey nut cheerios. have 46 grams of whole grains... mmmm. ...and a touch of sweetness. you'll be delighted to discover how good they taste. a little bird told me about a band... ♪ an old man shared some fish stories... ♪ oooh, my turn. ♪ she was in paris, but we talked for hours... everyone else buzzed about the band. there's a wireless mind inside all of us. so, where to next? ♪ >>> eight years ago, elliott was hit by a car when she was riding her bike. it left

cnn contributor roland martin. and he's joining me live, next. >>> and james cameron is known for reaching new heights in filmmaking. now he has gone to new depths of discovery. cameron rode his veridical torpedo submarine to the bottom of the mare anna trench, the deepest point on the earth's surface, nearly seven miles under water. seven miles, straight down to the ocean floor. it's the farthest solo dive anyone has ever made. so for pushing the limits of discovery and imagination, james cameron, you are today's rock star. ♪ slow ride take it easy ♪ ♪ slow ride take it easy ♪ ♪ ♪ when your chain of supply goes from here to shanghai, that's logistics. ♪ ♪ chips from here, boards from there track it all through the air, that's logistics. ♪ ♪ clearing customs like that hurry up no time flat that's logistics. ♪ ♪ all new technology ups brings to me, that's logistics. ♪ at meineke i have options... like oil changes starting at $19.95. my money. my choice. my meineke. >>> civil rights activists, community leaders and p

in a candid conversation i had with roland martin he tells me he still feels, even himself continue toacial injustice. he demands justice for trayvon martin. >> here was a young man, 17 years old, wants to be an airplane pilot on the phone with his girlfriend, living in a gated community, doing the right thing, not in trouble and he ends up dead. and what it says is wait a minute, how in the world can you do all the right things, how can you raise your child the right way, how can you stay out of trouble and someone still cast a suspicious eye on you and you end up dead? and this is the concern that we all have in terms of being black, driving while black, walking while black that somebody can have a stereotype in their mind and still take you out and that's really what was driving this whole issue. >> well, you tweeted about this plenty this week but you tweeted out this to miami's nba team saying until george zimmerman is arrested every nba player should wear a hoodie during player introductions to stand up for trayvon martin and, roland, you got attention. miami heat's team responde

. >> roland martin is a cnn contributor. there are counties in america that have faced persistent poverty levels for decades. they get -- they've been hit worse off in this recession. but we want to talk about solutions and you recently spoke to representative james clyburn about the clyburn amendment which he thinks could be implemented in other programs that reduce chronic poverty. let's listen to this. >> it is called the clyburn amendment. 10, 20, 30. i believe all of these resources coming out of these programs, at least 10% of it ought to be directed into these communities where 20% or more of the population is stuck below the poverty level for the last 30 years. >> so if we're talking about two americas or more, this idea -- this is james clyburn's idea, to try and at least give the worst off in america a leg up. what do you think of this idea? >> first of all, i love the idea and i was a little upset that when he told me i hadn't heard about it in the last three years. he said there was a stimulus bill put into effec

we're bringing back cnn contributor roland martin and joined by michael scolknick. also with us is c.l. bryant. a tea party member and a former president of the naacp. michael, it was you on social media that brought a lot of attention to this case early on. could you have done it without social media? >> i think that's very care -- very kind. we created a story on global grind.com, said he has a name, trayvon martin. to give him dignity when he passed. it wasn't until weeks after that that people paid attention. we had a hundred people the first day and now we have 185,000 people. and young people they brought it to the forefront. they said we care about this young man. we want justice for this young man. we see it as an international discussion. >> here's what folks don't realize. i first delved into this story on march 9. i called many of the leading civil rights leaders, they didn't know about it. if someone wants to frame this as civil rights leaders driving the story, absolutely not. they had to come along because the energy that we were amassing on social med

roland martin, great to have you on this morning. >> thanks so much. >> thank you. on tonight for a one-hour special on the trayvon martin killing. >>> as the national outrage intensifies, one group in particular caught our attention. minority mothers, hair their unique perspective and advice they give their children in hopes they don't end up dying young. >>> and you'll hear from neighbors and friends of trayvon martin. it's in a special cnn report with don lemon again at 7:00 p.m. eastern tonight. it's going be busy for the folks in the southwest and midwest. they're cleaning up after dangerous storms and tornadoes tore through the area. we'll have the latest on the damage and your full weekend forecast coming up. s with it. we make our coffee with it. but we rarely tap its true potential and just let it be itself. flowing freely into clean lakes, clear streams and along more fresh water coast line than any other state in the country. come realize water's true potential. dive in-to the waters of pure michigan. your trip begins at michigan.org. have more fiber than

facebook founder mark zuckerberg and our own roland martin has been seen in a hoodie.oodies are hugely popular, make a fashion statement. they can also make a negative statement. especially if you're a young man of color. roland is joining us. and also chris is back with us as well. let's start with you. how did the hoodie go from being a popular fashion accessory to being something that someone could perceive you as as a hoodlum or a thug? >> well, it's interesting. s noosed to be hoodies were not popular. so we would see images of people robbing banks or liquor stores. that was the image. before that it was the stocking cap. if you were a black man, you couldn't wear a stocking cap. folks would say that's a thuggish look as well. the clothes are not the problem. it's the consciousness. the problem is when you put the clothes on a certain skin that changes everything. >> so it depends who wears it. >> absolutely. >> geraldo rivera said this. >> parents, don't let your kids go out wearing these damn hoodies. they could attract the attention of not only the cops but nut

that's off roland martin's playlist. and will cain is columnist for blaze.com. we're talking about this new videotape that you have seen of george zimmerman. in a way it would be interesting and i don't think police did this if they had taken photos like high quality good photos where you could really make out any kind of damage to physical bruising or injury to george zimmerman because of course i think a lot of case is going to hinge on that. this surveillance tape is from the night that george zimmerman killed trayvon martin comes from the police station. it was obtained by abc news. you can see in it george zimmerman gets out of the police cruise and eventually is led into the building and it will be important for lots of reasons. this shot we showed you originally was a 2005 mug shot. the jacket has been described as wet after police say it looks like he got wet from lying on the grass. lots of attention paid to the physical condition of both trayvon martin and george zimmerman. you don't see blood streaming out of

let's talk about that more with cnn contributors will cain and roland martin. video the smoking gun? >> it continues to look bad for george zimmerman. that's the point here. much of what we see looks bad for george zimmerman's case but it doesn't answer all of our questions. there's still this mystery window of a one-minute period where we wonder what happened and this contributes to those questions. we need to ask when was the video taken, how long after the incident? it doesn't look good for zimmerman but i think it just contributes to we need to continue to seek the facts here. what is the next element in the story because every single little fact changes it. >> and roland, you hear increasing calls though for george zimmerman to be placed under arrest as in right now. >> when i was down in florida moderating the community forum talking with former prosecutors as well as defense attorneys, we went over the statute and talked that the police can still arrest him right now based upon probable cause. i do not believe the special prosecutor will actually do that

same thing with cnn commentator roland martin. >> they gave george zimmerman the benefit of the doubt because of who he is and they simply saw trayvon martin and i guarantee you in their minds said oh, young black kid, wearing a hoodie george has got to be right. >> bill: that is already being stirred up on msnbc and that is flat out dangerous. it is perfectly legitimate for the parents of trayvon martin to say what they want to say. if your son was dead you would certainly want justice and aggressively campaign for it. i have no problem with trayvon's parents demanding fair play. pundits who have no blanket idea what happend that night are putting innocent people in danger by commentary based on emotion not facts and that is the memo. now, for the top story tonight. handling racially charged crimes is one of the most difficult things for any law enforcement judicial or political person to do. with us is governor mike huckabee who ran arkansas for 11 years and saw his share of racial tension. i'm sensing danger here in the trayvon martin case. are you sensing the same? >> you have tak

roland martin is here with more.tate lawmaker who passed florida's law say zimmerman shouldn't be able to use their law as a defense. they say the law is being perverted in some way because of this case. >> it is being perverted. first and foremost, how was trayvon martin coming after george zimmerman? zimmerman is in an suv. he gets out of his vehicle. he goes up to trayvon martin. this makes no sense whatsoever. the nra should be shameful for what they are trying to do. you have seen justifiable homicide shoot up dramatically in florida. here's what i also want to know. where are law and order people prosecutors across the country do not like these laws because they say it makes it even more harder for them to prosecute cases where someone guns someone else down. >> you say you agree the law is being misused but you are complaining about the nra wanting to pass it in all 50 states. >> absolutely. first and foremost, we should not be sitting here saying, hey, if you think somebody is going to hurt you, then you shou

same thing with cnn commentator roland martin. >> they gave george zimmerman the benefit of the doubt because of who he is and they simply saw trayvon martin and i guarantee you in their minds said oh, young black kid, wearing a hoodie george has got to be right. >> bill: that is already being stirred up on msnbc and that is flat out dangerous. it is perfectly legitimate for the parents of trayvon martin to say what they want to say. if your son was dead you would certainly want justice and aggressively campaign for it. i have no problem with trayvon's parents demanding fair play. pundits who have no blanket idea what happend that night are putting innocent people in danger by commentary based on emotion not facts and that is the memo. now, for the top story tonight. handling racially charged crimes is one of the most difficult things for any law enforcement judicial or political person to do. with us is governor mike huckabee who ran arkansas for 11 years and saw his share of racial tension. i'm sensing danger here in the trayvon martin case. are you sensing the same? >> you have tak

cnn contributor roland martin will be the moderator. he joins us now live. uld we expect to come out of this meeting? >> reporter: well, first of all, you're going to have trayvon martin's family, the attorneys there also. you have the president of the naacp, a state rep and head of the paul pierce bar association, local bar association. so obviously talking about the case, but also what's the next steps. you know, one of the things that i've often said is, will this be a moment or will it lead to a movement? and so many people do not want this to simply end with trayvon martin. they want this to expand into a serious social justice movement. trying to bring in all of these young voices. because we remember, after gina sticks, a lot of people talked about what it could it lead to. lots of assumptions and then for the most part, it dissipated. and so a number of folks across the country don't want this to happen, and carol, i talked to individuals, lawyers all across the country, national bar association, naacp, defense and legal education fund, many people. t

we're bringing back cnn contributor roland martin and joined by michael schoolnik, globalgrind.com andical director for russell simmons and with us, c.l. bryant a tea party member, former president of the garland texas chapter of the naacp. nice to have all of you. michael, start with you. it was you on social media that brought a lot of attention to this case early on. could you have done it without social media? >> that's very kind, i think a lot of us, a lot of young people. amazing about this generation, this story was not in the national spotlight. we created a story early on called "he has a name: trayvon martin" to give him dignity when he passed. weeks after people paid attention. 100 people the first day. we have 185,000 people today. young people took this story, made it their own. brought it to the forefront and said we care about this young man. we want justice for this young man and see it almost as an international discussion. >> most folks don't realize, i first delved into this story on march 9th. i calling ee ee eed many of the rights leaders. if you want to frame this

will cain, cnn contributor and contributor to theblaze.com and roland martin, political analyst. 7:00. eastern and 6:00 a.m. in illinois. one of the most important primary, illinois, that's what we say always, 54 delegates at stake in the primary and the winner is expected to capture the bulk of the delegates. it will be the biggest haul since the georgia primary that happened earlier this month. mitt romney looking to pad his commanding lead in the delegate chase. rick santorum we spoke to the santorum campaign yesterday really hoping to burst governor romney's bubble and the two are going at each other in their own form of chicago style politics. listen. >> we're not going to be successful in replacing an economic lightweight with another economic lightweight. >> do you really believe this country wants to elect a wall street financier as president of the united states? do you think that's the kind of experience we need? >> what is a financier? what is that pronunciation? >> i guarantee you he was down state talking to a lot of the conservative areas as opposed to in chicago. >> fin

bryant and roland martin are out front now.have made the comment that reverend al sharpton and rev rn jesse jackson are "exploiting the tragedy." what do you mean? >> whenever there is something like this that occurs like bradley or the duke lacrosse team you can guarantee that two faces will show up in order to heighten the tension in this type of situation and they are usually reverend sharpton and reverend jackson. our hearts do go out to this mother because she has lost a son who is 17 years old. that, though, is an issue that i do believe justice will find its way to remedy. >> roland, how do you respond to that? i mean, is there anything to that concern about reverend sharpton? >> here's the deal. two million people have signed the change.org petition. so reverend bryant is taking issue with two folks. were they the only people who were there? i was in sanford yesterday. there were thousands of people there. reverend bryant of baltimore was there. there were aem pastors there. there were baptist preachers there. if he has

. >> i talked to roland martin earlier why the president hasn't come out and said something strongly e. some members in the black community want him to but others say don't come out and say anything strong because it's a win-lose proposition for the resident -- the president. >> i think the president will stay away from more local or regional issues. you saw what happened when he weighed in on the cambridge police situation, the blow back that came from that at first he said that was not something that he wanted to weigh in and then made bold comments on it so that is in the back of their minds, whenever the president is asked or this white house is asked to weigh in on that these kind of stories and situations. this is one that has been growing steadily over the last couple weeks, certainly in the last week with the justice department now getting involved and the president deciding he should get involved it in as well, at least in making a statement but being careful as to what he said. >> dan lothian reporting live, thank you. >>> mitt romney is giving his side of the story, details

they have been at a press conference with cnn contributor roland martin at a town hall, but they sayress this news, this is breaking news as we get it, that a family spokesperson does confirm to one of our cnn producers in field that trayvon martin had been suspended from school for ten days prior to his visit to his father in sanford, florida. he lives in miami. he goes to school in miami. and he was down in sanford, florida, visiting his father and his father's fiancee who lived in this complex where he ended up shot dead. of course, george zimmerman is the shooter, self-acclaimed neighborhood watch patrol who has not been arrested in this case. the continuing investigation ongoing. the state attorney saying there are several options in this case. an arrest, no arrest, or a grabbed jurgrand jury, those ar the options we're waiting on. our analyst sunny hostin joins us by phone. i want to talk to you about this news we just broke. does this play into the case at all, that this young man was suspended from school and that there was drug residue found in his book bag? >> well, it only

. >> roland martin is black. he's a friend of mine.mentators silent on this issue? i said to roland, do you feel like there's a conclusion that should be forwarded right now. for me in this case when i look at it, i need to see the whole story. this is an investigation that's not finished. there's evidence yet to come. i'm not sure, here i am. i'm white. i'm a commentator, what do you want me to say right now? >> let's put aside this actual case. what i want you to say is there is a problem in this country. it's an epidemic that young black men and latino men are being killed at a record rate. let's recognize the problem. there is a problem. if a kid can walk in the street with bag of skittles and ice teaed can, hoodie on and jeans and no matter what race you are, he looks suspicious? i don't look suspicious to you? >> i totally agree with you. every element we've seen in this case is condemning and shady toward george zimmerman. the slow rationale side of me says this is a legal case. shouldn't i be quiet until we know everything? i'm

cnn analyst roland martin and chris. guys, nice to see you. haven't seen you in a while.d to have you back in the game. >> have a little fun dealing with chris. chris, you're looking well. >> he set you up. he's setting you up, being really nicend getting ready to tear you down. >> my show, what it's all about. >> let's get to it. you both saw the president talking energy policy at the keystone pipeline there in oklahoma. roland, is the president trying to outflank republicans now by saying, hey, i'm doing something, too. i'm talking about gas prices. i don't want to be dependent on oil. i want to drill. i want to be proactive. >> first of all, this portion of the keystone pipeline was not the controversial part. so the president always supported this. in fact, this particular portion, 99% of the landowners already approve of it. the controversial part is the northern portion of the pipeline. what today was all about was really more about style as opposed to substance. the president has always talked about renewable energy, has always talked about alternative sources of f