"When Trayvon Martin took his last walk down a Florida street on a cool February evening in 2012, he was just another American teenager, heading home with candy and a soda, talking on the phone with a friend, and dreaming of the future. By the end of the night he was dead--gunned down by a neighborhood watchman. Within weeks his name would be on the lips of a President and the movement for justice in his case would spread all over the country. Today his name is still evoked -- in the media, by artists like Beyonce and Frank Ocean in their work, and by presidential candidates--and his iconic photo, a boy in a hoodie, gazing at the camera, has been seen all over the world. But who was Trayvon Martin before he became, in death, an icon? And how did one black child's death on a dark street in a small Florida suburb become the match that lit a movement? Rest in Power, told through the alternating narratives of his parents, will for the first time answer those questions from the most intimate sources. The book will take us beyond the news cycle, controversies, and familiar images to give their deeper account: The story of the beautiful and complex child they lost, the grief and confusion that followed, the cruel unresponsiveness of the police and the hostility of the legal system, and how these two humble, hardworking parents, powered by love for their lost son, made his life matter, even in death."--Provided by publisher. |