UUs Attend Trayvon Martin Anniversary Demonstration

UUs attended the demonstration on Febuary 26, 2022 in Pensacola to mark the 10-year anniversary of the killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida, on Feb. 26, 2012. The event, organized by the Pensacola chapter of Dream Defenders, was held at the Graffiti Bridge on 17th Avenue, where large protests were held continually in May and June 2020 after the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis. The speakers at today’s memorial event remarked on all that has changed over the 10 years since the circumstances surrounding the eventual arrest and then acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s killer. Martin was killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer who invoked Florida’s Stand Your Ground law to claim that Martin, an unarmed teenager walking home from the convenience store, was a threat. The speakers also observed that Black people and other people of color continue to be fearful as killings by police and civilians have not ceased in the 10 years since Martin’s death, despite tireless organizing and public action to demand justice. Names were read of 100 people of color who have been unjustly killed in the last 10 years.