Trayvon Martin
Trayvon Benjamin Martin (February 5, 1995 – February 26, 2012) was a 17-year-old African American teenager from Miami Gardens, Florida who was fatally shot by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, in Sanford, Florida. Martin had gone with his father on a visit to the father's fiancée at her townhouse at The Retreat at Twin Lakes in Sanford. On the evening of February 26, Martin went to a convenience store and purchased candy and juice. As Martin returned from the store, Zimmerman spotted him and called the Sanford Police to report him, saying he looked suspicious. Moments later, there was an altercation between the two individuals in which Martin, who was unarmed, was shot in the chest. Zimmerman was not charged at the time of the shooting by the Sanford Police, who said that there was no evidence to refute his claim of self-defense and that Florida's stand your ground law prohibited law-enforcement officials from arresting or charging him. Zimmerman was eventually charged in Martin's death and a jury acquitted Zimmerman of second-degree murder and of manslaughter charges in July, 2013.

Martin was born in Miami, Florida, and attended both Norland Middle School and Highland Oaks Middle School, in north Miami-Dade County, Florida. He attended Miami Carol City High School in Miami Gardens for his freshman and sophomore years, and at the time of the shooting was a junior at Dr. Michael M. Krop High School in north Miami-Dade.

Following Martin's death, rallies, marches and protests were held across the nation. In March 2012, hundreds of students at his high school held an orderly walkout in support of him. An online petition calling for a full investigation and prosecution of Martin's killer garnered 2.2 million signatures. The media coverage surrounding Martin's death was greater than that of the 2012 presidential race, which was underway at the time. A national debate about racial profiling and stand your ground laws ensued, and the governor of Florida appointed a task force to examine the state's self-defense laws. Martin's life was scrutinized by the media and bloggers who examined the digital footprint he had left behind. On social media, the name "Trayvon" was tweeted (mentioned in posts to Twitter web feeds by users of the service) more than two million times in the 30 days following the shooting.[1][2][3][4][5][6] More than 1,000 people attended the viewing of his remains the day before his funeral, which was held on March 3, 2012 in Miami, Florida. He was buried in Dade-Memorial Park (North), in Miami. A memorial was dedicated to Martin at the Goldsboro Westside Historical Museum, a black history museum in Sanford in July, 2013