Trayvon's father Tracy Martin, family attorney Benjamin Crump and mother Sybrina Fulton, at a protest in Union Square, New York

Demonstrators in Chicago hold up bags of Skittles as a symbol of Trayvon Martin's wrongful death. Martin purchased candy and iced tea just before he was killed by George Zimmerman in 2012.

This photo of Trayvon Martin wearing a hoodie was widely circulated in the aftermath of his killing.

Mugshot of George Zimmerman taken in 2012

Bystanders taunt civil rights activists during a lunch-counter sit-in in 1963 in Jackson, Mississippi. Photo by Fred Blackwell.
Thousands protest the shooting death of Trayvon Martin in Union Square, New York City, in March 2012. Photo by David Shankbone.

The public hanging of Henry Smith in Paris, Texas, in 1893. African Americans see the shooting death of Tryvon Martin as a continuation of unpunished post-slavery violence against blacks.

This 1867 illustration depicts recently emancipated African Americans voting in New Orleans. Former slaves enjoyed expanded civil rights for a time, but white citizens curtailed their freedom with violence both wanton and systematic.

Jet magazine, along with many other national news outlets, expressed outrage over Emmett Till's killing and published photos of his mutilated body. Till's aggrieved mother, Mamie, insisted on an open casket at his funeral.
Record producer Russell Simmons and rapper Ice Cube expressed their outrage over Zimmerman's acquittal to millions via Twitter.

This issue of Look from January 1956 carried the confessional tale of Emmett Till's murder along with a cover story about the American teenager.

The Supreme Court ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson institutionalized "separate but equal" and led to local Jim Crow laws in the South and elsewhere. Photo by Jack Delano, 1940.

Sanford, Florida, where Zimmerman shot Martin

Ebony magazine used four different covers for its September 2013 issue featuring African American celebrities with their sons and the cover line "We are Trayvon." One cover also features Martin's family. One aim of the coverage is to render Martin relatable to other families, a task at which Florida prosecutors failed during the Zimmerman trial.

The Retreat at Twin Lakes, where Zimmerman killed Martin

People magazine described the death of Trayvon Martin as an American tragedy.

This set of Pew Research Center poll results reveals a wide disparity in how black, white, and hispanic citizens viewed the racial implications of the Zimmerman case.

This ABC News/Washington Post poll shows that most white Americans approved of the not-guilty verdict for George Zimmerman, while the overwhelming majority of black Americans disapproved.