When justice was not done for Trayvon, the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter was born, along with a new era of activism. At his trial, Zimmerman’s attorney said he was “not guilty of anything but protecting his own life.” An almost all-white jury found Zimmerman not guilty of second-degree murder and manslaughter. Zimmerman was not charged with a crime until much later, and only after a national outcry. Police and prosecutors initially bought his story. 24 in Brunswick, Georgia.Įven though he provoked the entire confrontation, Zimmerman said he acted in self-defense. Travis McMichael looks back at his mother and sister in the courtroom after the jury convicted him for the murder of Ahmaud Arbery in the Glynn County Courthouse on Nov. There was a fight, and Zimmerman absorbed some blows before killing Trayvon with a bullet to the chest.
He followed Trayvon in his car, exited and confronted the teenager. Trayvon was returning from the store, a pack of Skittles in his pocket, but Zimmerman racially profiled him as a suspect. There had been some burglaries in the area. 26, 2012, Zimmerman saw Trayvon passing through his neighborhood in Sanford, Florida. But given where we began the latest chapter of the African American journey, it’s worth taking a moment to reflect on the struggle. This should not be a remarkable thing - “While the guilty verdicts reflect our justice system doing its job, that alone is not enough,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. Arbery’s life is still lost, but the justice system said his life mattered. His killer, George Zimmerman, acted under the same false assumptions as Arbery’s murderers, claimed the same justifications, used the same argument of self-defense - and a jury declared Zimmerman not guilty.Īhmaud Arbery’s mother Wanda Cooper-Jones cries after the jury convicted Travis McMichael in the Glynn County Courthouse on Nov. Back then, the unarmed Black male was 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. This is the twisted, racist rationalization that led to the creation of the Black Lives Matter movement almost 10 years ago. The verdict was delivered by an almost all-white jury in southeast Georgia after the defense used an argument that - until now - had been historically and infuriatingly successful: The white men feared they would be killed by an unarmed Black male, so they had to shoot him dead. Travis McMichael, his father, Gregory McMichael, and William Bryan were convicted of murder, false imprisonment, aggravated assault and other charges that carry a maximum sentence of life in prison. The three white men who killed Arbery were found guilty Wednesday. But the verdict in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery is about measuring the distance we have come.
These past 10 years of pain, protest, violence, suffering, blood, sweat and tears have pushed, pulled and sometimes dragged America to a better place.Īt least for the moment - injustice is always just one fresh bullet away for Black folks.