Rest in Power: The Enduring Life of Trayvon Martin
The intimate story of a tragically foreshortened life and the rise of a movement that would transform two parents, awaken a nation’s conscience, and find meaning in an unspeakable loss.
On a February evening in 2012, in a small town in central Florida, seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin was walking home with candy and a soda in hand and talking on the phone with a friend when a fatal encounter with a gun-wielding neighborhood watchman ended his young life. The watchman was briefly detained by the police and released. Trayvon’s father—a truck driver named Tracy—tried to find answers from the police but was shut down and ignored. Trayvon’s mother, a civil servant for the city of Miami, was paralyzed by the news of her son’s death and lost in mourning, unable to leave her room for days. But in a matter of weeks, their son’s name would be spoken by President Obama, honored by professional athletes, and passionately discussed all over traditional and social media. And at the head of a growing nationwide movement for justice for Trayvon were his parents, who—driven by their intense love for their lost son—discovered their voices, gathered allies, and launched a movement that would change the country.
Five years after his tragic death, Travyon Martin’s name is still evoked every day. He has become an icon of social justice activism, as has his hauntingly familiar image: the photo of child still in the process of becoming a young man, wearing a hoodie and gazing silently at the camera. But who was Trayvon Martin, before he became, in death, an icon? And how did one black child’s death on a dark, rainy street in a small Florida town become the match that lit a civil rights crusade?
Rest in Power, told through the compelling alternating narratives of Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, will, for the first time, answer those questions from the most intimate of sources. The book will take us beyond the news cycle, controversies, and familiar images to give the account that only his parents can offer: the story of the beautiful and complex child they lost, the grief and confusion that followed, the cruel unresponsiveness of the police and the hostility of the legal system, and the inspiring journey they took from pain to power. It is, in the end, an intensely human story about two humble, hardworking parents who, confronted with an unimaginable tragedy, determined that they would make their son’s life matter to the world.
This event is free and open to the public. Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin will be in conversation with Emory Univiserty Philosophy professor George Yancy.
Online ticket reservations have ended, but there seats are still available at the venue.
If you cannot attend the event, but would like to pre-order a signed copy of the book, click the link below.
