Content warning: This article contains topics of murder, police brutality, and racism.
On Feb. 26, 2012, Trayvon Martin was shot and killed on his way home from a corner store. He was 17.
Thirteen years have passed, and senseless murders like his have become more prominent. However, America’s response to them has changed. From social media activism to #BlackLivesMatter, the world has changed for the better because of Trayvon Martin.
WHAT HAPPENED
Martin was visiting his father in Sanford, Florida, when he decided to run to the convenience store. He purchased an Arizona tea and Skittles put them in his hoodie pocket, and began walking back to his father’s house.
George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old member of the community’s neighborhood watch, saw Martin and called authorities. He reported a “real suspicious guy” who “looks like he’s up to no good.”
The dispatcher, Sean Noffke, asked Zimmerman if he was following Martin, and he confirmed he was. Noffke told Zimmerman this was not necessary.
That should have been the end of it.
Officers would soon be on their way to meet Zimmerman, but he continued following Martin. Martin stopped running and approached Zimmerman, asking, “What are you following me for?”
It is not certain what happened next, but minutes later, an unidentified female called 911 to report someone outside screaming for help. A gunshot can be heard on the call.
The officers Zimmerman called arrived on the scene, and Martin was dead.
A CALL FOR CHANGE
Social media activism was popular in 2012. Episode two of Hulu’s docuseries “Black Twitter: A People’s History” delved into the power of a hashtag and how online activism produced real-life results.
“Twitter really served as a space to document in a new way what was happening,” author, activist, and media strategist Raquel Willis said in Black Twitter: A People’s History.
With former-president Barack Obama in office at the time, things looked hopeful, especially for Black Americans. The term “post-racial America” was used regularly because it was thought the country had finally changed. The murder of Trayvon Martin proved that idea wrong.
“It was a reminder that we are not safe,” Dr. Meredith Clark of Northeastern University said in the series. “If Black children are not safe, then none of us are safe.”
God-is Rivera, a former global director of culture and community at Twitter, recalled listening to “The Michael Baisden Show” on the radio and repeatedly hearing a woman from Florida upset about how her son was killed and his murderer was not arrested.
The story was not big on major news networks yet, but Black Americans began discussing it on online spaces like Twitter, making the small Florida case a national issue.
“We were mad about it on Twitter,” TV writer and producer Judnick Mayard said in Black Twitter. “And then it became a national conversation.”
Social media personalities and Hollywood celebrities spoke out about the unjust killing of Martin. Obama’s words were heard loud and clear, especially in Black communities. He spoke to the fears of Black parents throughout the nation, stating, “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.”
ZIMMERMAN FREED
Zimmerman was not arrested immediately due to Florida’s Stand Your Ground law. He had claimed self-defense, and at the time, there was no evidence to disprove it.
The lack of an arrest upset many Americans. There was a call for Zimmerman to be arrested and stand on trial. An online petition posted by Martin’s parents garnered over 2 million signatures. Zimmerman was eventually taken into custody on March 12 and charged with second-degree murder on April 11.
He was found not guilty by a jury on July 13, 2013.
#BLACKLIVESMATTER
Alicia Garza posted the following statement on Facebook after the verdict was delivered: “Black people. I love you. I love us. Our lives matter.”
That 11-word post started a movement that would change the world.
The #BlackLivesMatter hashtag circulated through platforms like Facebook, X, Tumblr, and Instagram. It did not start as a protest or a call to action. It was to remind other Black people that their lives mattered even if society acted like they didn’t.
“People started realizing the power of the platform to actually create change socially,” author and speaker Luvvie Ajayi Jones said in the Black Twitter series, “so then, we used it to create change intentionally.”
The hashtag became a method of shining light on other Black victims of police brutality, hate crimes, and race-based violence. Most notable was the story of 18-year-old Michael Brown.
X users in Ferguson, Missouri tweeted in real-time about a young, Black man who was shot and killed by the police and how his body was still in the street. He lay there for four and a half hours on Aug. 9, 2014, according to CNN. People nationwide came to march for Brown the same way they did for Martin.
“I CAN’T BREATHE!”
Two NYPD officers had murdered Eric Garner only a month before. It wasn’t the first time America would hear the words “I can’t breathe” escape the voice of a Black man suffering at the hands of the police.
And it wasn’t the last.
In 2020, the murder of George Floyd brought the hashtag to the main stage again when Derek Chauvin, a Minneapolis police officer, pinned Floyd down with his knee in an illegal chokehold. Chauvin held Floyd there for over nine minutes. He ignored Floyd’s pleas and those of the onlookers.
Protests sparked all over the world, from Minnesota to California, from Paris to Australia. Changes were made in several states, implementing bans on carotid chokeholds like the one used on Floyd and no-knock warrants that led to the murder of Breonna Taylor.
But it isn’t over. Tamir Rice. Philando Castile. Elijah McClain. Sonya Massey. The list never ends.
These people may not have been known if not for Martin, his mother, and the fight to get him justice. He would have turned 30 this year. Although he was unable to continue his life on Earth, his name and the change he has sparked will be immortalized in history.