On February 26th, 2012, Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by a white neighborhood watch volunteer named George Zimmerman. Trayvon Martin was walking home wearing a black hoodie and holding a pack of skittles and an Arizona in his hand when Zimmerman shot him, claiming he looked suspicious. 

On February 26th, 2016, just 4 years later North Carolina A&T supported Trayvon Martin in front of the reflection pool, with spoken word, poems, songs, and a discussion. In the discussion many people talked about where they were when they first heard about what happened and how they felt about it. Many people said they were at home and when they heard about it. One person stated that race had not even been a factor at the time. He just felt that the whole situation was messed up in general. Other people felt that we go to an HBCU and almost everyone should be out by the reflection pool to support and share their ideas, however there was only a good 15 of us outside. The discussion went as deep as to talking about how everyone felt when they found out Zimmerman was acquitted. They felt that it was officially going to be a war. This whole situation officially opened everyone’s eyes and showed people what has still been going on in the world. We had candles with people’s names on them who died in the same situation that people never even heard about before the Trayvon Martin case. Travon Martin sparked the Black Lives Matter Movement, the peace riots, etc. One boy stated that he had went into a store with his mother and a white man was following him around and the boy stopped and the man said “May I help you?” And the boy said, “I’m just shopping in the store with my mother is that okay?” And so he went and told his mother what happened and his mother approached the man and said why were you following my son around and the man said “Because your son is resembles the type of people we are looking for.” And his son had on an A&T hat a hoodie and some sweatpants. Another person stated that African Americans as a whole should stop worrying about what people see them as and what people are going to think and just go out and do what they feel is right and what needs to be done. They stated that people like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X had people behind them supporting them in what they were doing. It wasn’t just them by themselves but they had a whole community supporting what was right. And that is what we need to do as a whole and as an HBCU.

 My personal experience of the whole Trayvon Martin case was when I participated in the Trayvon Martin march in New York. It surprised me when some people rolled up their windows or even yelled out that we should listen to the police. I couldn’t believe that they felt it was okay to just shoot a random boy who did nothing wrong. I remember when I found out Zimmerman was acquitted I was personally hurt. There were black mothers on the jury who had sons and they still felt that Zimmerman had a right to be free.