Trayvon Martin's parents take readers beyond the headlines with an account that only they could provide: the intimate narrative of a tragically short life and the emergence of a movement.
Trayvon Martin, seventeen, was walking home with candies and a can of juice in hand and on the phone with a buddy on a February evening in 2012 in a tiny community in central Florida when he was fatally shot by a gun-wielding neighborhood watchman. The cops kept the watchman for a short time before releasing him.
Tracy, Trayvon's father, was a truck driver who sought to get answers from the authorities but was disregarded. Trayvon's mother, a city of Miami civil worker, was rendered speechless by the news of her son's death and was unable to leave her bed for days. However, their son's name would be pronounced by President Barack Obama, honored by professional sports, and passionately discussed all across conventional and social media in a matter of weeks. Trayvon's parents, propelled by their tremendous grief for their lost son, discovered their voices, collected supporters, and formed a movement that would transform the country, were at the forefront of a rising countrywide fight for justice.
Travyon Martin's name is still remembered every day, five years after his untimely death. His eerily recognizable image of a youngster still in the process of becoming a young man, wearing a hoodie and looking solemnly at the camera, has become a symbol of social justice advocacy. But who was Trayvon Martin before he became a national hero after his death? And how did the killing of a black youngster on a dark, wet street in a small Florida town ignite a civil rights crusade?
Rest in Power, delivered in alternating tales by Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, addresses those questions from the most personal of sources for the first time. It's the story of the beautiful and complicated kid they lost, the police's callous indifference, and the judicial system's antagonism, as well as their inspirational journey from loss and suffering to power, and from tragedy and senselessness to purpose.
Thinking about justice and mercy and grace, Frederick Douglass said, “I prayed for twenty years. Nothing happened until I got off my knees and started marching with my feet.” And that’s the role of the church. We already prayed about it. Now let’s take action on it.
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