When the killing of Trayvon Martin made headlines, the news struck people across the nation 11 years ago. Now, University of Delaware students and community members will get the opportunity to hear from his mother, Sybrina Fulton, during an on-campus event on Tuesday.
Martin, a Black 17-year-old man, was fatally shot in Feb. 2012 in a gated community in Florida by George Zimmerman, a Hispanic neighborhood watch volunteer. The killing sparked protests and rallies in Delaware and across the country. Martin was unarmed and wearing a hoodie at the time, and many have argued that he was a racially profiled.
Tuesday’s event is touted “Black Mothers and Police Violence” and will feature a conversation between Fulton and Loretta Prater at the college’s inaugural Ida B. Wells Lecture (the name refers to Ida B. Wells, an African American investigative journalist and early leader in the civil rights movement). In 2004, Prater’s son, Leslie, suffocated and died after four police officers in Chattanooga, Tennessee, restrained him to the ground for several minutes while he was face down.
The lecture is free and begins at 7 p.m. Tuesday and is located in UD’s Mitchell Hall. Registration is required, according to a news release.
This event, sponsored by UD’s Women and Gender Studies Department, comes a month after a viral TikTok video showed a Delaware State Police officer holding his knee to the back of a 13-year-old boy. The incident has prompted calls for consideration on how police treat minors.
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