Trayvon Martin would have been 19 years old today, Feb. 5, 2014. Very early on Wednesday, his mother posted a picture on her Twitter account of Trayvon's face on an American flag with the words "Happy 19th Birthday Trayvon." We all remember the highly publicized case and trial of George Zimmerman, 29, who fatally shot and killed the teenager on Feb. 26, 2012 in Sanford, Florida.
Zimmerman was acquitted under the “stand your ground” self-defense law. Although the case is over, the fight to honor Trayvon’s memory is very much alive, and we’ve gathered 10 quotes from Trayvon’s parents Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin to remember his life, his trial and why we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.
"I really didn't believe that he was not guilty. My first thought was shock, disgust. I think people are forgetting that Trayvon was a teenager so he probably thought as a teenager." -- Sybrina Fulton
"I really do believe he was afraid because he did call George Zimmerman creepy. So he was afraid and if you are 17 years old and you are afraid, you may not know what to do." -- Sybrina Fulton
"I just wish they had an opportunity to really know who Trayvon was and to put that in context with what their decision was." -- Tracy Martin
"He was a kid. They didn't know him as a human being, a very decent human being, a fun-loving kid. He loved kids." -- Tracy Martin
"I think moving forward we need to educate ourselves as a community on the gun laws, on the laws, on the statutes. We need to come together more as a whole, not individual people, not individual races, and religions. We need to come together as God's people. We need to start learning each other, understanding each other. You can't just judge a book by its cover. Something is wrong in so many ways to say that someone is suspicious just because you don't know them." -- Tracy Martin
“Not only I vow to do what I have to do for Trayvon Martin, I promise I’m going to work hard for your children as well.” -- Sybrina Fulton
"My son was profiled, followed and murdered by George Zimmerman, and there was nothing accidental about that." -- Sybrina Fulton
“To have your son taken away like that, it hurts. And it’s a process that will take a long time to start the recovery from.” -- Tracy Martin
“Instead of placing the blame on the teenager, we need to place the blame on the responsible adult. There were two people involved. We had an adult who was chasing a kid, and we had a kid who I feel was afraid.” -- Sybrina Fulton
“I thought surely that he would be found guilty of second degree murder, manslaughter at the least. I just knew that they would see that this was a teenager just trying to get home.” -- Sybrina Fulton
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