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A historic partnership has been born between OneUnited Bank, the largest Black owned bank in the country, and #BlackLivesMatter to organize the $1.2 trillion in spending power of Black America and launch the “Amir” card during Black History Month. Both OneUnited Bank and #BlackLivesMatter are strong advocates for the empowerment of Black people, and have taken special care to communicate this focus through their messaging and their work. #BlackLivesMatter was sparked by the acquittal of the killer of 17 year-old Trayvon Martin and founded in 2013 as a rallying cry to decree that while every human life matters, it is...

Feb. 11 When I spoke to artist Malcolm Peacock last year in advance of his experiential/participatory artwork "Let the Sun Set on You," he reflected on the many ways in which the deaths of Black people affect history and spark movements, memorials, solidarity. Reflecting on his research for that piece, he said: "It was interesting how history affects death, and how death affects history, depending on who dies, depending on what dies, what will determine how it's spoken about." In this new work, Peacock continues to grapple with death and violence, this time looking at Trayvon Martin, whose death (and...

IOWA CITY — Her lip quivering, Patrisse Cullors’ heart sank. It was 2013, and she was in a motel room on a website, waiting for the news of George Zimmerman’s verdict. Guilty, or not guilty, in the killing of Trayvon Martin — a black 17-year-old who was fatally shot by a neighborhood watch volunteer while on his way home from buying candy at a convenience store. “Not guilty, and they say not guilty, and they continue to say not guilty until they say, ‘not guilty of all charges,’” Cullors, 32, of Los Angeles, recalled for a packed audience of hundreds...

Almost five years ago, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by a "neighborhood watch" member as he walked home from a convenience store where he had purchased a juice drink and a package of Skittles. George Zimmerman, the man who shot Trayvon, believed him to be "possibly dangerous" because of his race and the fact that he was wearing a hoodie. Trayvon's murder – and Zimmerman's eventual acquittal – incited nation-wide outrage and was part of launching the powerful Black Lives Matter movement. To this day, Trayvon's name serves as a reminder of the progress that is necessary in...

What do you call a mother whose child has been brutally and irrevocably snatched away from her? Usually, we call her an "advocate." And that's what Sybrina Fulton describes in her new book, Rest in Power: The Enduring Life of Trayvon Martin, a biography of her slain son, which was released on Tuesday. An "advocate" is the modern characterization you can give a woman like Mamie Till, who in 1955 insisted that her 14-year-old son, Emmett, be buried in an open casket. Emmett had been lynched by two white men in Mississippi and, as the world had clocked to the...

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/01/29/trayvon-martins-parents-five-years-after-his-shooting-weigh-political-bids-trump-race-justice/97185846/

New medical findings link Florida's Stand Your Ground law to a significant increase in gun deaths. JAMA Study: 24.4% increase in homicide associated with Stand Your Ground Study authors say findings should be used to make informed decisions A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association states implementing Stand Your Ground in Florida is associated with a 24.4 percent increase in homicide and a 31.6 percent increase in firearm-related homicide in the state. "So the implication of these findings is that almost immediately after Stand Your Ground was enacted, rates of homicide and firearm homicide have gone...

On March 23, 2012, President Barack Obama gave a press conference in the Rose Garden. A little less than a month before, George Zimmerman, a self-appointed neighborhood watchman, had shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin after a violent encounter prosecutors said was instigated by Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida. Local police had released Zimmerman after five hours of questioning, saying there was not enough evidence to refute his claim of self-defense. It was an obviously incomplete investigation, and the Martin family was demanding justice. In the weeks that had passed, journalists, especially Trymaine Lee then at The Huffington Post and Ta-Nehisi Coates at...

The ‘Mothers of the Movement,’ women dedicated to social justice in the wake of police brutality, were on hand to support Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in her quest for the Presidency over the weekend in North Carolina. Sybrina Fulton (mother of Trayvon Martin), Gwen Carr (mother of Eric Garner), Lucia McBath (mother of Jordan Davis), Maria Hamilton (mother of Dontré Hamilton) and Geneva Reed-Veal (mother of Sandra Bland) voiced their support for Mrs. Clinton at Union Baptist Church in Durham. According to NBC News, Clinton said that the women, whose children were killed by police brutality or gun violence, were...

When night falls, Chinese restaurant chef A-Shun heads out in his SUV with a box of Red Bull in tow. A-Shun patrols various south Sacramento neighborhoods from 9 p.m. until the early hours of the morning, waiting to respond to potential crimes targeting Asians. He is part of a self-organized volunteer patrol group of at least a dozen Chinese immigrants. Their ranks include waitresses and construction workers, store owners and massage therapists.

Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton, the parents of Trayvon Martin, the Florida teenager whose killing sparked a national firestorm about white violence against African-Americans, are writing a book titled Rest in Power: The Enduring Life of Trayvon Martin. The book will be published by Random House’s One World, the multicultural imprint being rebooted by editor Christopher Jackson, who announced the project in an interview with THR.

Hillary Clinton will issue a challenge to the Black Lives Matter movement at the Democratic National Convention next week by spotlighting the mothers of several African Americans who have been recently killed by police or gun violence. The Mothers of the Movement organization will be featured Tuesday at the convention at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, The Hill reports. The group first met with Clinton in November. The seven mothers include those of Trayvon Martin, the Florida teen killed by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, in 2012; Eric Garner, a New York man killed in 2014 by a...

"Bill Clinton will be joined by Mothers of the Movement, which includes the mothers of black men and women who have been killed by gun violence or in police custody. The mothers of Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown are scheduled to appear at the DNC."

Bill Clinton and Trayvon Martin's mother headline DNC speakers Ivan Levingston | @IvanLevingston 1 Hour Ago CNBC.com Hillary Clinton hugs Sybrina Fulton, mother of Trayvon Martin who was fatally shot by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in 2012, as she attends the third annual Circle of Mothers conference on May 21, 2016 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Getty Images Hillary Clinton hugs Sybrina Fulton, mother of Trayvon Martin who was fatally shot by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in 2012, as she attends the third annual Circle of Mothers conference on May 21, 2016 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. When Democrats gather...

An activist, writer, and investigative researcher, Gina McGill, tells the truth about Trayvon Martin’s murder Everyone has heard about Trayvon Martin and his dreadful death at the hands of George Zimmerman. However, the murder cover-up and what Zimmerman actually did has not been told in any mainstream media. Gina McGill researched it all and wrote a strong book titled “State of Florida v. Trayvon Martin (A Murder Cover-Up & Obtaining Justice).” Today we are talking about the book and the murder itself....

Like just about every other person on the left – save for attorney Alan Dershowitz – Hillary Clinton has actively embraced the falsehoods surrounding the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin. Not surprisingly, the living symbol of those fictions, Martin’s birth mother, Sybrina Fulton, has endorsed Hillary. “Sybrina, you and all mothers of gun violence victims have taught us hate will never win,” Hillary tweeted last week. “Thinking of you today.” For the last four years, George Zimmerman has struggled under the weight of this agitprop and is openly hostile to those, like Clinton, who profit from it. This week...

Donald Trump's gun policies are "not just way out there" but "dangerous" and would make America less safe, Hillary Clinton said Saturday. "This is someone running to be president of the United States of America — a country facing a gun violence epidemic — and he's talking about more guns in our schools, he's talking about more hatred and division in our streets," the likely Democratic presidential nominee said of her presumptive Republican rival. "That's no way to keep us safe." ...

When Hillary Clinton speaks to the Trayvon Martin Foundation in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday, she will be continuing her groundwork to boost black voter turnout in Florida. Clinton will likely repeat familiar themes of importance to black voters, such as inequalities in the criminal justice system, voting rights, school segregation and gun violence, which helped her crush Bernie Sanders in the Florida primary March 15. ... A recent poll showed Clinton and Trump in a dead heat in Florida, a crucial swing state. A $1,500 minimum donation to the foundation is required to attend Saturday’s dinner, which will be held...

Selling the gun that killed Trayvon Martin adds to the travesty over his unpunished homicide Marketing the gun is more than bad taste — it’s a national shame The murder has been ‘commodified,’ turned into a trophy for display It was not enough just to kill Sam Hose. No, they had to make souvenirs out of him. Hose was an African-American man lynched by a mob of some 2,000 white women and men in 1899 near the town of Newnan, Ga. They did all the usual things. They stabbed him, castrated him, skinned his face, mutilated him, burned him alive....

George Zimmerman‘s gun sale attempt isn’t going very well. After having to move his online auction to a new site once already, the bidding on the weapon that killed Trayvon Martin seems to have been taken over by trolls determined to remind Zimmerman of his infamy. Despite his not-guilty verdict for the death of Martin four years ago, Zimmerman is a pariah to many for his apparent non-regret for the incident, and a myriad of controversial statements from him since then. Zimmerman posted the gun to be sold on United Gun Group, but the auction seems to have been taken...