Trayvon Martin's 30th Birthday: Black Lives Still Matter

Trayvon Martin's 30th Birthday: Black Lives Still Matter

Trayvon would have turned 30 today, but he will always be 17, forever frozen in time because of the color of his skin. His legacy lives on through our fight, and even if we no longer hashtag it, the truth remains: Black lives still matter.
By Liz Courquet-Lesaulnier | February 5, 2025

On a Sunday evening in February 2012, I sat with my family in Los Angeles, watching the NBA All-Star Game. I was rooting for LeBron James and the Eastern Conference, while my sons, raised in L.A., cheered for Kobe Bryant and the West.

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away in Sanford, Florida, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was preparing to watch the game too. Like many teens, he decided to grab some snacks for the night—Skittles and Arizona iced tea from a nearby convenience store.

But Trayvon never made it back home. He was shot and killed by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood vigilante.

Trayvon should be celebrating his 30th birthday today. He should be reminiscing with friends about the game—how LeBron and Durant dropped 36 points and how Dwayne Wade broke Kobe’s nose. But Trayvon will remain 17 forever, because of the threat society saw in his Blackness. He was gunned down by someone who believed he didn’t belong in his own neighborhood.

Black Lives Matter
“Happy heavenly birthday, Trayvon,” his mother, Sybrina Fulton, posted on Instagram.

Sybrina turned her grief into activism, founding the Circle of Mothers, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting and empowering women who’ve lost loved ones to gun violence. It’s an organization she never should’ve had to create, but one that’s still desperately needed because America refuses to acknowledge the truth: Black people, particularly Black boys and men, are not safe. Not in their own neighborhoods, not in schools, and certainly not in a society that too often views them as a threat simply for existing.

For many, the visual of L.A. police beating Rodney King in 1991 is unforgettable. Or perhaps you remember the city burning after the officers responsible walked free. Or the tragic killing of Amadou Diallo in New York, or Oscar Grant in Oakland, both victims of police violence.

And in my hometown of Chicago, the 1919 killing of Eugene Williams by a white mob sparked the Red Summer, while the murder of Emmett Till in 1955 galvanized the civil rights movement. His mother, Mamie Till, kept his casket open, exposing the truth about his brutalization to the world.

Rosa Parks, inspired by Till’s murder, stood her ground on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, refusing to give up her seat. She had lived with the grief of Till’s death and, in that moment, was driven to act.

We became familiar with the phrase Black Lives Matter—on T-shirts, social media posts, and public protests. We said their names: Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, Sandra Bland, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and many others.

We marched, demanded justice, and made our voices heard. Black Lives Matter Plaza, two blocks of 16th Street in D.C., now stands just steps away from the White House.

A Movement Born of Tragedy
In 2022, on the 10th anniversary of Trayvon's death, columnist Charles Blow drew a comparison between Trayvon’s killing and the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, calling Trayvon’s death the "Big Bang" of the modern civil rights movement—Black Lives Matter.

We’ve seen the hashtag evolve from social media posts to a worldwide movement, and although the phrase may not be as prominent on our feeds today, the battle is far from over. The legacy of Trayvon Martin, like that of so many others, is still with us, pushing us forward in the fight for justice.

Trayvon Martin’s death is a reminder that Black lives must be valued, not just in words, but in action. We cannot allow the violence, the discrimination, and the denial of humanity to continue unchecked in 2025.

As Sybrina Fulton wrote in an op-ed for USA Today in 2021, “I want my son to rest in power. I want his name and spirit to rise, to change the world.”

Trayvon’s legacy isn’t just about hashtags or hashtags fading from social media. It’s about continuing the fight. Whether we say it aloud or not, Black lives still matter.

Tags;

demure,
demure trend,
very demure trend,
give me my money trend,
just give me my money trend,
what is demure trend,
what is the demure trend,
demure meaning,
demure trend meaning,
bta trend,
i love your daughter trend,
gimme my money trend,
nice try diddy trend,
legging legs trend,
hey brother trend,
who started the demure trend,
what is the very demure trend,
where did the demure trend come from,