Fla. City Healing Year After Trayvon Martin Death

But officials are aware that protests and racial tension could return during Zimmerman's June trial or April self-defense hearing. It's then that a judge will decide whether his defense argument is sufficient to allow for the case to be dismissed under the "stand your ground" law. Weighing on local leaders' minds are the 1992 Los Angeles riots that followed the acquittal of three white police officers in the beating of black motorist Rodney King.

"History has shown it can happen if people feel justice isn't served," Bonaparte said.

"The community itself is standing fast, waiting to see what happens," Turner Clayton, president of the Seminole County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said this month at a gathering to commemorate what would have been Martin's 18th birthday. "Right now there is a lot of calm throughout the city. ... They're just laidback, waiting to see what goes on. So we'll see."

And while the fervor over the Martin shooting may have calmed for now, Sanford residents point out other problems, such as a recent rash of shootings between rival gangs.

"Unfortunately, there's a lot that's still going on with violence in our community, with violence against other people," resident Marc Booker said. "There's a lot of people trying to pull together and understand that there needs to be unity."

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