The violent deaths of Black teenagers have rarely drawn even fleeting attention. But this was an exception, and the effects still ripple.
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It was especially jarring in 2012, when the occupant of the White House was Barack Obama, the country's first Black president. His election had some insisting that America had turned a real corner in its troubled racial story; even many skeptics thought there had been progress. "This person did not have a badge," he said."This person had not been trained how to operate a firearm in the case of an emergency and not been trained in conflict management, had no skills for determining who is and who isn't the risk."
Kevin Cunningham, then a 31-year-old graduate of Howard University's law school who was working as a social media consultant for a Muslim organization, had been intrigued by the power of social media since he saw the role it played in the 2011 Egyptian revolution. He posted a petition on Change.org calling for Zimmerman's prosecution, and it soon had about 10,000 signatures.
While Zimmerman set up a site to seek donations to help his defense, his online detractors were many. Social media brought together multitudes for protests like the Million Hoodie March, as well as countless celebrities and everyday folk who posted images of themselves wearing hoodies with the hashtag,"I am Trayvon Martin."
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