Forever President Barack Obama is marking ten years since the tragic death of Trayvon Martin.
Obama, 60, was in office when Martin, 17, was fatally shot by George Zimmerman in Florida on Feb. 26, 2012.
The former president commemorated a decade since the death with an Instagram video posting reflecting Martin’s legacy.
“It’s hard to believe it’s been ten years since Trayvon Martin was killed. Trayvon wasn’t so different from me. When I look at photos, I see how I resembled him as a teenager, and as a young Black man, the way I was perceived was similar to the way Trayvon was perceived. Luck might have been the only thing that separated us,” he began his caption.
Adding that he “was deeply frustrated in the wake of [Martin’s] death and tried to figure out what my administration could do to address the systemic issues that led to this tragedy.”
Obama formed the My Brother’s Keeper initiative, an organization founded “to empower and support young boys and men of color across the country,” he explained.
Obama said that the teenager’s death activated “an entire new generation of young civil rights leaders who took grassroots organizing to a new level,” adding, “by leveraging social media, building a coalition, and making their voices heard, they were able to move so many people from anguish to action.”
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“We still have a long way to go, but my hope is that we can look back on this moment and the movement that emerged in response to Trayvon’s death as one more step in our country’s journey to come to terms with our past,” he continued.
“It will take all of us to make that a reality, and I hope you’ll join us in this work,” Obama concluded.
