Martin Gitlin

Black Lives Matter Martin Gitlin

In 2012, a seventeen-year-old African American boy named Trayvon Martin was murdered in cold blood by a neighborhood vigilante. When the murderer was acquitted, shockwaves ran through African American communities across the United States. The frustration over the perceived lack of value of African Americans in the United States spurred #BlackLivesMatter. The activist group mobilized as a rash of killings of unarmed African Americans by police seemed to plague the country. But many whites didn't understand their cause and responded with All Lives Matter. The viewpoints in this resource ask important questions regarding race in the United States.