Barack Obama honours the 10th anniversary of Trayvon Martin's death.
Key Takeaways:
- The tenth anniversary of Trayvon Martin's death is marked by former President Barack Obama.
- Martin, a 17-year-old black kid, was shot and killed by George Zimmerman on February 26, 2012, while Obama, 60, was president of the United States of America.
Former President Barack Obama commemorates the tenth anniversary of Trayvon Martin's death.
In Florida, Obama, 60, was president when Martin, a 17-year-old black teenager, was shot and killed by George Zimmerman on February 26, 2012. With a video posted to Instagram on Saturday, the former president marked a decade since Martin's assassination by reflecting on Martin's legacy.
"It's hard to believe Trayvon Martin has been dead for ten years. Trayvon wasn't all that dissimilar to me. When I look at photos of myself as a teenager, I see how much I resembled him and how I was perceived similarly to Trayvon as a young Black man. It's possible that luck was the only thing that kept us apart. "He began his journey.
"In the aftermath of [Martin's] death, I was deeply frustrated and tried to figure out what my administration might do to address the systemic issues that led to this tragedy," Obama said.
As a result, Obama established the My Brother's Keeper initiative, which aims to "empower and support young boys and men of color across the country," according to Obama.
"By leveraging social media, constructing a coalition, and making their voices heard, they were able to move so many people from anguish to action," Obama said, adding that Martin's death inspired "an entirely new generation of young civil rights leaders who took grassroots organizing to a new level."
"We still hold a long way to go," he added, "but I hope that we will be able to look back on this moment as well as the movement that arose in response to Trayvon's death as one further step in our country's journey to come to terms with our past."
Obama concluded, "It will take everybody to make that a reality, and I hope you'll join us in this work."
Zimmerman claimed he was defending himself under Florida's "Stand Your Ground" laws when he fatally shot Martin in 2012 while the teen was on his way to a convenience store to buy Skittles and iced tea. In 2013, he was located not guilty of murder charges.
Martin's mother spoke to PEOPLE for the 10-year annual celebration of her son's death. "I miss Trayvon, and Then I'll miss him every day of my life," Sybrina Fulton said, adding that she still cries "every day" since her son's death.
Fulton told PEOPLE that she wants to "help end senseless gun violence" in the future.
"If there's a silver lining to what happened to Trayvon, it's that people are more aware," she said. "Perhaps that'll make a difference."