The Shakerite VOL 91 ISSUE I

Sign lists the names
of Black peoeple
killed by police
during the time of the
Black Lives Matter
movement. Photo by
David Vahey.
#BLACKLIVESMATTER
WHAT BEGAN AS A HASHTAG HAS BECOME A MOVEMENT
Annie Sullivan Campus and City Reporter
T
rayvon Martin was a 17-year-old
Black boy murdered on the street
in a Sanford, Florida, neighborhood
Feb. 26, 2012. His killer? George Zimmerman,
a white man serving as a
neighborhood watch volunteer.
Zimmerman saw Martin walking in his neighborhood
and called the police because he thought
Martin looked “suspicious.” Although police told
Zimmerman not to do anything, he followed Martin
who was walking home while wearing a hoodie
and carrying Skittles. Zimmerman confronted him,
then shot and killed him as the two struggled.
Zimmerman faced no consequences for weeks
after the shooting but was finally charged with second-degree
murder and arrested in April 2012, after
protestors demanding his prosecution flooded
streets across the United States. At Zimmerman’s
trial, which took place more than a year later, he
claimed he had acted in self-defense.
When Zimmerman was acquitted in July 2013,
further nationwide protests ensued.
Black Lives Matter, which defines itself as a
“Black-centered political will and movement building
project,” was co-founded in 2013 by three Black
women: Patrisse Khan-Cullors, Alicia Garza and
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VOL. 91 ISSUE I