After Trayvon

This February will mark ten years since his death sparked a movement. But ten years on, are Black lives any safer? Featuring Derecka Purnell on Sybrina Fulton’s grief; Michael Arceneaux on George Zimmerman’s acquittal; Elizabeth Hinton on the return of mass protest; Sean Campbell on the murky finances of the Black Lives Matter organization; Brittney Cooper on standing your ground while Black; Ramsey Orta, Feidin Santana, Abdullah Muflahi, and Diamond Reynolds on the long-lasting consequences of filming police killings; and more.

- By Lindsay Peoples Wagner and Morgan Jerkins

ON FEBRUARY 26, 2012, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida, because as a Black boy walking in a gated community, he was deemed “suspicious.” Zimmerman’s acquittal appalled a nation often willfully blind to the vulnerability of living while Black. Ten years later, “BLACK LIVES MATTER” has grown from a hashtag to a protester’s cry to a cultural force that has reshaped American politics, society, and daily life. It is, at the same time, a specific collection of organizations and people whose decisions have attracted both applause and criticism; whose actions have been a source of intrigue; whose personal relationships have both strengthened and splintered under the stress and exposure. This special issue attempts to tell the story of the first decade of Black Lives Matter, the movement—as well as the country it moved.

Chapter 1: THE BEGINNING

February 26, 2012

Trayvon Martin, 17, leaves his relative’s home in Sanford, Florida, to go to a local 7-Eleven for a bag of Skittles and a beverage. As he is walking home, George Zimmerman, a neighborhood-watch captain, calls 911 and reports seeing a person who looks “suspicious.” Zimmerman then confronts Trayvon and shoots and kills him.

February 28, 2012