 First edition | |
| Author | Sybrina Fulton, Tracy Martin |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Race relations, gun violence |
| Publisher | Spiegel & Grau |
Publication date | January 31, 2017 |
| Pages | 368 |
| ISBN | 978-0-8129-9723-1 |
Rest in Power: The Enduring Life of Trayvon Martin is a non-fiction book written by Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, the parents of Trayvon Martin, a teenager whose death by shooting drew nationwide protests against racial violence.
Rest in Power was written nearly five years after the killing of Trayvon Martin. Sybrina Fulton, Trayvon Martin's mother, says the book is intended as a means to heal, to share with the world the Trayvon Martin his parents knew and loved, and to describe the impact Martin's death and surrounding events had on their lives. [1]
The book is introduced by Fulton who states "no one gets over the death of a child." She describes how prior to the incident, she felt she was just another "anonymous" American who goes through life in a predictable rhythm of work, school, church and picnics. But after the death of Trayvon, she became an activist working to prevent other senseless gun violence. But this activism "failed to prevent the death of Jordan Davis (Jacksonville, Florida), Michael Brown (Ferguson, Missouri), Tamir Rice (Cleveland, Ohio), Eric Garner (New York City) as well as countless others". [2]
Fulton goes on to discuss her son Trayvon and how before he became a "martyr" and "symbol of racial injustice", he was simply a boy growing up trying to find his way in life. She reflects on her own life growing up, meeting and marrying Tracy Martin, and raising Trayvon together.
The rest of the book alternates between Fulton and Tracy Martin as they discuss being forced out of their lives as ordinary Americans and into the spotlight because of death of their son and the events that followed. [3]
The book was published by Spiegel & Grau (an imprint of Penguin Random House) in US on 31 January 2017, [4]
Rest in Power was widely and favorably reviewed. [5] [6] In USA Today it received three and a half of four stars; [7] in The Washington Post , Wesley Lowery called it "a beautiful, searing account of their experience...an intimate portrait of their slain son and a detail-rich chronicle of the year from his death to his killer’s acquittal." [3]
Mary Wesley was the pen name of Mary Aline Siepmann CBE, an English novelist. During her career, she was one of Britain's most successful novelists, selling three million copies of her books, including ten bestsellers in the last twenty years of her life.
Bernice Albertine King is an American lawyer, minister, and the youngest child of civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King. She was five years old when her father was assassinated. In her adolescence, King chose to work towards becoming a minister after having a breakdown from watching a documentary about her father. King was 17 when she was invited to speak at the United Nations. Twenty years after her father was assassinated, she preached her trial sermon, inspired by her parents' activism.
The National Action Network (NAN) is a not-for-profit, civil rights organization founded by the Reverend Al Sharpton in New York City, New York, in early 1991. In a 2016 profile, Vanity Fair called Sharpton "arguably the country's most influential civil rights leader".
Mamie Elizabeth Till-Mobley was an American educator and activist. She was the mother of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old boy murdered in Mississippi on August 28, 1955, after accusations that he had whistled at a white woman, a grocery store cashier named Carolyn Bryant. For Emmett's funeral, in Chicago, Mamie Till insisted that the casket containing his body be left open, because, in her words, "I wanted the world to see what they did to my baby."
Kamaria S. Muntu is a Black Feminist poet, writer and arts activist. She is also Editor and Founder of Femficatio Literary Magazine.
Frederica Smith Wilson is an American politician who has been a member of the United States House of Representatives since 2011, representing Florida's 24th congressional district. Located in South Florida, Wilson's congressional district, numbered as the 17th during her first term, covers a large swath of eastern Miami-Dade County and a sliver of southern Broward County. The district contains most of Miami's majority-black precincts, as well as parts of Opa-locka, North Miami, Hollywood, and Miramar. Wilson gained national attention in 2012 for her comments on the death of Trayvon Martin.
On the night of February 26, 2012, in Sanford, Florida, United States, George Zimmerman fatally shot Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old African-American boy. Zimmerman, a 28-year-old man of mixed race, was the neighborhood watch coordinator for his gated community where Martin was visiting his relatives at the time of the shooting. Zimmerman shot Martin, who was unarmed, during a physical altercation between the two. Zimmerman, injured during the encounter, told police he shot Martin in self-defense.
Trayvon Benjamin Martin was a 17-year-old African-American from Miami Gardens, Florida, who was fatally shot in Sanford, Florida, by George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old Hispanic American. Martin had accompanied his father to visit his father's fiancée at her townhouse at The Retreat at Twin Lakes in Sanford. On the evening of February 26, Martin was walking back to the fiancée's house from a nearby convenience store. Zimmerman, a member of the community watch, saw Martin and reported him to the Sanford Police as suspicious. Several minutes later, an altercation happened and Zimmerman fatally shot Martin in the chest.
State of Florida v. George Zimmerman was a criminal prosecution of George Zimmerman on the charge of second-degree murder stemming from the killing of Trayvon Martin on February 26, 2012.
On November 23, 2012, Jordan Davis, a black 17-year-old high school student, was murdered at a Gate Petroleum gas station in Jacksonville, Florida, by Michael David Dunn, a white 45-year-old software developer, following an argument over loud music played by Davis and his three friends, in what was believed to be a racially motivated shooting.
Johnetta "Netta" Elzie is an American civil rights activist. She is one of the leaders in the activist group We The Protesters and co-edits the Ferguson protest newsletter This Is the Movement with fellow activist DeRay Mckesson.
Beyoncé: Lemonade is a film and visual album executive produced by American singer Beyoncé. The film serves as a visual companion to the 2016 album of the same name. It premiered on HBO on April 23, 2016.
Mothers of the Movement is a group of women whose African American children have been killed by police officers or by gun violence. Members of the group have appeared on various television shows, at award ceremonies, and political events to share their experiences losing a son or daughter to police violence and advocate for political change.
George Dewey Yancy is an American philosopher who is the Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Philosophy at Emory University. He has been a professor of philosophy at Emory University since fall 2015. He is also a distinguished Montgomery Fellow at Dartmouth College, one of the college's highest honors. In 2019-20, he was the University of Pennsylvania's Inaugural Provost's Distinguished Visiting Faculty Fellow. He is also the editor for Lexington Books' "Philosophy of Race" book series. He is known for his work in critical whiteness studies, critical philosophy of race, critical phenomenology, and African American philosophy, and has written, edited, or co-edited more than 20 books. In his capacity as an academic scholar and a public intellectual, he has also published over 200 combined scholarly articles, chapters, and interviews that have appeared in professional journals, books, and at various news sites. For example, as a public intellectual, Yancy has authored numerous influential essays and conducted intellectually engaging interviews at both The New York Times' philosophy column "The Stone," and at Truthout. He has also published at CounterPunch, The Guardian, Inside Higher Ed, and The Chronicle of Higher Education. At "Academic Influence," Yancy is cited as one of the top 10 influential philosophers in the last 10 years, 2010-2020, based upon the number of citations and web presence. Yancy has been interviewed on various radio stations throughout the U.S. He has also appeared in two documentaries, Lillian Smith: Breaking the Silence, an independent documentary directed by Hal Jacobs and Henry Jacobs, with support from Georgia Humanities, 2019, and Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story, a six-episode series released on July 30, 2018 on Paramount Network. Series was directed by Jenner Furts and Julia Willoughby Nason. Executive producers: Sybrina Fulton, Tracy Martin, Jay-Z, Chachi Senior, Michael Gasparro, Jenner Furst, Julia Willoughby Nason, and Nick Sandow.
Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story is an American documentary television series that premiered on July 30, 2018 on Paramount Network. The six-episode series documents the killing of Trayvon Martin and explores the racial tension in the United States that was brought about in its wake. The series is executive produced by Sybrina Fulton, Tracy Martin, Jay-Z, Chachi Senior, Michael Gasparro, Jenner Furst, Julia Willoughby Nason, and Nick Sandow. Furst and Nason also directed the series as well.
Rest in Power may refer to:
Rest in power is an expression used to mourn, remember or celebrate a deceased person, especially someone who is thought to have struggled against systemic prejudice such as homophobia, transphobia, racism or suffered because of it, particularly in Black and LGBTQ communities in the United States. It has been used to eulogize victims of hate crimes while protesting the social inequality and institutionalised discrimination that may have led to their deaths. It is a common phrase to use to honor someone’s legacy, though as an activist.
Natalie Aleta Jackson is an American trial attorney from Orlando, Florida. She is also known as an author and human rights activist. Her involvement in the Trayvon Martin case and her use of the #TrayvonMartin Twitter hashtag has led to her being connected to the formation of that movement. She is frequently invited to speak on the Black Lives Matter movement. She is best known for her work on the Trayvon Martin case, though she has been mentioned in the media regarding a number of other high-profile cases. Jackson is a frequent commenter on ongoing cases for news publications.
Tameka Bradley Hobbs is a historian, educator, author, and activist. She is the Executive Director of the A. Philip Randolph Institute for Law, Race, Social Justice, and Economic Policy at Edward Waters University. She previously was the associate provost of Florida Memorial University and the founding director of the FMU Social Justice Institute think tank and research center. She is the author of the 2015 history book Democracy Abroad, Lynching at Home: Racial Violence in Florida.
Milan "Mimi" Bolden-Morris is a former basketball player for the Boston College Eagles and Georgetown Hoyas, and a current graduate assistant football coach for the Michigan Wolverines.
