For Immediate Release
July 24, 2012
For More Information Contact:
Patti Hassler
Vice President of Communications and Outreach
202-662-3554 office
phassler@childrensdefense.org
The Children’s Defense Fund to Host Trayvon Martin’s Parents at its Community and Youth Empowerment Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio Wednesday, July 25, 2012
The parents of Trayvon Martin, the Florida teen who was shot and killed by a self-appointed neighborhood watch captain last February, will participate in a Town Hall on Violence and Racial Healing at the Children’s Defense Fund’s (CDF) national conference. Martin was walking home from a convenience store in his father’s gated community when he was confronted by George Zimmerman who had called police about a suspicious person, and then despite being told not to follow him, confronted Martin and shot him, claiming self-defense. Zimmerman is charged with second-degree murder and was recently let out on a million dollar bail.
CDF president Marian Wright Edelman called the killing of the unarmed teenager outrageous. “At the time Trayvon was walking home from the nearby 7-11 carrying a bottle of Arizona iced tea and a bag of Skittles for his younger stepbrother,” said Edelman, “leaving many people to guess that the main thing he was doing that made him look like he was up to no good was wearing a hooded sweatshirt in the rain and walking while Black.”
Martin’s parents Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton will be accompanied by their lawyer Benjamin Crump. The shooting of Trayvon Martin sparked a wildfire of demonstrations by young people on social media and on college campuses around the country and young people are here at the CDF conference to address these and other issues of concern. Almost 1500 students are learning about community organizing, voter registration, in an effort to go back home with the skills to pursue social and political justice for children.
What: National and Racial Healing Town Hall with the parents of Trayvon Martin
Who: Sybrina Fulton, mother of Trayvon Martin, Tracy Martin, father, and their attorney Benjamin Crump; Rev. Al Sharpton, Dr. Maya Angelou, Rev. Dr. Otis Moss, III,
Where: At the Children’s Defense Fund’s National Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio at the Duke Energy Convention Center’s Grand Ballroom.
When: Wednesday, July 25, 2012 at 10:45 a.m.
The Children’s Defense Fund Leave No Child Behind® mission is to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start, and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities.