Protesters confront police officers on Monday, July 15, in Los Angeles, during a demonstration against George Zimmerman's acquittal. A jury acquitted Zimmerman of all charges related to the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. View photos of key moments from the trial. 
Leon McCutchin participates in a candlelight vigil for Martin on July 15 in New York City. 
Activists in Chicago's South Side rallied for Trayvon Martin and called for an end to gun violence in their own city on July 15. 
A large group of demonstrators march through downtown Atlanta on July 15 during a protest of the acquittal of George Zimmerman. 
Residents of Sanford, Florida, attend a prayer vigil to promote peace and unity in their city in the wake of the George Zimmerman trial on July 15. 
Outside the Department of Justice in Washington on July 15, Rev. Anthony Evans, president of the National Black Church Initiative, leads a prayer during a demonstration asking for justice for Trayvon Martin. 
About 500 demonstrators gather during a rally and march in support of Trayvon Martin on July 15 in Birmingham, Alabama. 
A man argues with a police officer as supporters of Trayvon Martin march while blocking traffic in Union Square in New York on Sunday, July 14. 
Police hold positions on I-10 in Los Angeles as protesters retreat up an embankment, after demonstrators walked onto the freeway, stopping traffic, on July 14. 
People gather at a rally honoring Trayvon Martin at Union Square in New York on July 14. 
Demonstrators march following a peaceful rally at the Torch of Freedom in downtown Miami on July 14. 
People hold hands in a circle at a rally honoring Trayvon Martin at New York's Union Square on July 14. 
Parishioners arrive for Sunday service at Allen Chapel AME church in the historic black neighborhood of Goldsboro on Sunday, July 14, in Sanford, Florida. During the service Pastor Valarie Houston compared Trayvon Martin to civil rights icons Medgar Evans and Emmett Till. 
People wear hoodies during services remembering Trayvon Martin at Middle Collegiate Church in New York on Sunday, July 14. 
People in New York react to the news that George Zimmerman was found not guilty on Saturday, July 13. 
"Justice for Trayvon" is written on the ground as people gather at Union Square in New York on July 13. 
People attend a rally in Los Angeles following the Zimmerman verdict on July 13. 
A protester shouts in the streets of New York on July 13. 
People gather for a demonstration in Los Angeles on July 13. 
A man in Los Angeles wears a shirt in support of Trayvon Martin on July 13. 
Protesters chant outside the Seminole County courthouse in Sanford, Florida, after Zimmerman was found not guilty on July 13. 
Tanetta Foster cries in front of the courthouse on July 13 after hearing the verdict. 
A Trayvon Martin supporter rallies outside the courthouse on July 13. After Martin's death, protesters started wearing hoodies in solidarity against racial profiling. 
Darrsie Jackson cries and comforts her children Linzey Stafford, left, 10, and Shauntina Stafford, 11, outside the courthouse on July 13. 
A woman addresses the media after the verdict on July 13. 
Protesters react to the not guilty verdict on July 13. 
Melinda O'Neal, left, breaks into tears and hugs Shedrick Burfect outside the courthouse on July 13. 
A man outside the courthouse gets emotional after the verdict was announced on July 13. 
A woman outside the courthouse reacts to the verdict on July 13. 
Demonstrators and members of the media gather outside of the courthouse on July 13. The jurors deliberated for more than 16 hours before delivering their verdict. 
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
- Cornell Belcher: What would civil rights pioneers have done about verdict?
- He says protests are fine but a smart strategy would focus on organizing
- Belcher says voters should rally around Trayvon case, hold politicians accountable
- He says voters must push politicians to favor gun control, anti-profiling legislation
Editor's note: Cornell Belcher, a CNN contributor, was the Democratic National Committee's pollster under Chairman Howard Dean in 2005 and worked on the 2008 and 2012 Obama campaigns. Follow him on Twitter: @cornellbelcher
(CNN) -- I was in Florida this week, not for the vigils and protest at the Sanford courthouse, but as a guest of an organization that changed this country's political, cultural and moral trajectory through its protest and more importantly through its organizing before I was even born.
As I sat on a panel on civic engagement at the NAACP convention in Orlando, looking out at the crowd of still passionate, but aging warriors of grassroots organizing who fought injustice, I couldn't help but think in the face of this tragedy fanning a deep hunger for action -- what would Fannie Lou Hamer do? What would Baynard Rustin do? What would Cesar Chavez do?
What would some of the organizing pioneers of the movements that changed our country do in the face of such injustice and subsequent unrest growing out of this irreconcilable moral incongruity?
The acquittal of George Zimmerman is triggering a truly grassroots hunger for action to help heal the hurt the community feels. There needs to be a modicum of moral satisfaction to help heal the divide. And yes moral, because while pundits can argue all day about the legal correctness of the verdict, one has to submit that letting an armed grown man off scot-free after he stalked and killed a teenager who was doing nothing more than walking home with candy does not sit well in the court of moral opinion.
There being no consequence for killing an unarmed child who wasn't bothering anyone has to be in conflict with our nation's moral compass or we have to admit that our moral compass is at best broken and at worst a convenient lie. This moral distress needs a positive outlet.
So what is the community to do now? (I initially wrote "What is the progressive community to do now?" But I quickly checked myself because, frankly, the so-called mainstream progressive political organizations that always, always have something to say around gender issues or immigration or marriage equality issues have been deafeningly silent up to this point on the issue of the Zimmerman verdict.)
The community (and define community as a coalition of the willing, not simply by race) now must take a page from the NAACP organizer's handbook and give this dissatisfaction an avenue toward a positive reaffirming conclusion in the absence of justice from the courts.
And frankly, I don't think there is a court solution now that will make Zimmerman do time for the murder. My fear is that the current round of protest and vigils will go the way of Occupy Wall Street which in the end, I'm sorry, was a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing in a political, economic or even a cultural sense.
No one in the halls of Congress or Wall Street today fears or is inspired to action because of those protests. And that's a shame, but as is often typical of movements on the left that tend to resemble cat herding, nothing happens much beyond speeches -- as opposed to recent movements on the right such as the tea party uprising. They organized into something that for better or worse has defined much of the policy debate for the last couple of years in this country.
Anderson Cooper discusses Juror B37 What must we do now? Organize! Organize the hurt and frustration into a set of actions that will have policy ramifications and drive the political debate in this country.
So yes protest, but at those protests hand out registration forms and targeted street maps for registration drives in those areas where the protests are being held. Split the marchers up into groups, hand out hoodies and have them fan out across the communities in hoodie registration drives.
Borrow from Howard Dean's 50-State Strategy and organize neighbor to neighbor canvassing programs where people inside the community are engaging the people they live beside in those communities in a conversation about why this matters.
Don't allow politicians who need the votes of our community to avoid addressing laws that will make this sort of profiling and murder more difficult in the future.
Hold those politicians accountable at the federal level, but more importantly at the state level where most of these laws are written. And if need be, yes, organize primary challenges to state senators and city councilmen who don't seem to get it.
Define an agenda that starts with gun control and anti-profiling legislation and challenge politicians to sign on or get primaried. By the way, you will be surprised by how few votes you need to win most state senate races.
In politics we love to simplify complex political narratives with tags like "Soccer Moms" or "Nascar Dads" that defines an election cycle -- Let's bring organizing power to our protest so that 2014 is defined by the Trayvon voter!
Follow us on Twitter @CNNOpinion
Join us on Facebook/CNNOpinion
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Cornell Belcher.
