Ten years to the day that 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was killed, his mother Sybrina Fulton’s message was one of hope.
« If you don’t do anything else, don’t give up. That’s my message, don’t ever give up. Ten years later, and I’m still standing strong, » Fulton said at a Saturday morning event in New York City accompanied by Mayor Eric Adams, the Rev. Al Sharpton, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and other city leaders. Fulton shared the pain of losing her son on February 26, 2012. Martin, a Black high school student, was fatally shot by 28-year-old George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch captain in Sanford, Florida, where the teenager was visiting his father. « So, a lot of people talk about Trayvon Martin’s story. It’s not a story for me, it’s a tragedy, because the story has a beginning and an ending. There is no ending for what I carry in my heart, » Fulton said. Martin was walking back to the home of his father’s fiancée after buying a snack from a nearby 7-Eleven when he encountered Zimmerman, who called 911 to report a « suspicious person » in the neighborhood.
