workingclasshistory:

On this day, 26 February 2012, Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black child, was shot and killed by a neighbourhood watch volunteer in Sanford, Florida.
Martin was born in Florida on February 5, 1995, and later attended Dr Michael M Krop high school where he played sports, and mathematics was said to be his favourite subject. He had a keen interest in aviation and considered becoming a pilot.
Initially, Sanford police filed no charges against the killer. But marches and protests had begun breaking out across the United States, and the Black Lives Matter movement was born. As public pressure grew, charges of second-degree murder were eventually filed, but the killer was acquitted. The killer also later sold the gun he used to an anonymous buyer for $250,000, and in 2019 he sued the Martin family and others for $100 million. The case was eventually thrown out of court in February 2022.
Pic of a protest against the killing in Austin, Texas in 2014 by Ann Harkness, CC 2.0 https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.1819457841572691/2219261924925612/?type=3