Thread by @MiamiHerald

IN TODAY’S MIAMI HERALD: Our reimagined newspaper features an in-depth look at the killing of Trayvon Martin – the 10th anniversary of his death is less than a week away – and what, if anything, has truly changed for Black and brown people in America. 🧵

Sybrina Fulton, Trayvon’s mother, has spent much of the last decade ensuring that her son’s memory doesn’t fade, organizing peace walks, creating a group of grieving mothers and becoming the voice for the son who could no longer speak for himself. miamiherald.com/news/local/com…

“It seems like we’re taking two steps forward and two steps back,” Fulton said.

Although both Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd’s killers were convicted, the bigger issue was that these incidents of racial violence kept occurring.

Trayvon’s killing at the hands of George Zimmerman launched a modern civil rights movement that has forced America to confront race relations and the long tendrils of the slave trade.

His mother, father and a generation of activists spurred to action by his death say the growing list of Black men and women wrongly killed shows that, a full decade later, much work remains to be done.

“We have gotten through the infancy of the movement but now it’s time to build institutionally,” said Melina Abdullah, co-founder of the Los Angeles chapter of Black Lives Matter, an organization born from Trayvon’s killing. “It’s time to make sure our tree takes root.”

It’s evident of America’s larger societal problem, the very same problem that has motivated the work of Trayvon’s father, Tracy Martin, for the last decade.

“We’re not just talking about Trayvon Martin,” Tracy Martin said.

“We’re talking about countless and countless of young Black and brown boys and girls [who experienced] injustices that haven’t been pulled to the forefront. If I gave up on fighting for Trayvon, I’m giving up everything. I’m giving up on the Black community.”

Many of the same factors that precipitated Emmett Till’s murder and Martin’s killing still exist today.

As Fulton writes in her essay “Trayvon: Ten Years Later,” “Being Black in America still comes at a great risk.”

“[Trayvon] was cheated out of at least 50 years of life,” Tracy Martin said.

“Even though we didn’t get the outcome we would’ve loved to get during the court proceedings, we weren’t going to let the acquittal of the person who killed my son let that be the last of it or define who Trayvon was.”

Thousands of Americans, if not millions, agreed.

Dream Defenders, Black Lives Matter and countless organizations spawned after the courts ruled that Zimmerman acted in self-defense when he shot and killed an unarmed teenager.

Trayvon’s death — and Zimmerman’s subsequent acquittal for second degree murder — touched lives both inside of Florida and out. President Barack Obama said that had he had a son, he would have looked like Trayvon. LeBron James and other athletes used their platforms to protest.

Less than a month after Trayvon's killing, members of the Heat basketball team, including @DwyaneWade and @KingJames, felt like they needed to make a statement.

They did just that in a photo posted to social media. miamiherald.com/sports/nba/mia…

@DwyaneWade @KingJames The 13 members of the roster came together to take a photo while all wearing hoodies ​with their heads bowed and their hands dug into their pockets just hours before taking on the Detroit Pistons on March 23, 2012.

@DwyaneWade @KingJames “We were a team mostly full of Black people,” Wade said. “Once that hoodie went up, you couldn’t tell if it was Dwyane Wade or LeBron James. We were just another Black person wearing a hoodie … we’re no different than the 17-year-old young man that was just murdered.”

@DwyaneWade @KingJames It’s a reality that today’s high school students – now around the age Trayvon was when he was killed – still face each day.

Which is why Renee O’Connor, who teaches African American history at Norland Senior High, discusses it with her students every year around the anniversary.

@DwyaneWade @KingJames “It’s the brunt I have to bear to teach this class,” O’Connor said. "It’s challenging and difficult to relive the events of a decade ago over and over again,” she said, “but it also helps connect what I teach – history – with reality. Because this is [my students’] reality.”

@DwyaneWade @KingJames Some students shared with the class what stood out to them.

One drew a heart with a hole in it; another said the day Martin was killed, Feb. 26, 2012, stuck out; another chose two words: ​Racism kills.

One student chose the word ‘hope.’ miamiherald.com/news/local/edu…

@DwyaneWade @KingJames 🗣️ We’d like to know how Trayvon’s death impacted you and your life.

Please fill out the form inside the article if you would like to share your story. miamiherald.com/news/local/com…

@DwyaneWade @KingJames Visit our website or eEdition to read more.
You can find all of our coverage here: miamiherald.com/e-edition/today

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