ABC's Word News Tonight
February 26, 2022
WHIT JOHNSON: We turn now to a somber anniversary -- 10 years since the death of Trayvon Martin -- a 17-year-old black teen fatally shot on his way back from a convenience store. The killing inspiring a movement, drawing worldwide attention to issues of race and justice. Here's ABC's Zachary Kiesch.
ZACHARY KIESCH: Just 17 years old when his life was taken, Trayvon Martin's promise was never fully utilized, but a seed was planted the day he died.
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT: My hope is, is that we look back on what happened with Trayvon and be able to say that was the start of America looking inward in fits and starts coming to terms with -- with what has always been our original sin.
KIESCH: Tonight, his mother's pain, still raw.
SYBRINA FULTON, MOTHER OF TRAYVON MARTIN: Not even the death of my son will separate me from the love of my son.
DAVID MUIR, ABC NEWS HOST (from 2013): Zimmerman has been found not guilty in the murder of Trayvon Martin.
FULTON: My heart is broken, but it breaks even more to know that we have not gotten justice yet.
KIESCH: The jury with six white women called the killing justified, and critics said it said more about us than it did the man who pulled the trigger.
GEORGE ZIMMERMAN (audio from 911 call): This guy looks like he's up to no good -- he looks black -- a dark hoodie.
OBAMA (from 2012): If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon.
KIESCH: Trayvon's death marked an inflection point for our country's first black President and for everyday people trying to divorce themselves from America's racist past and present. ...