UM News

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (March 27, 2015)—Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, the African-American teenager from Miami Gardens who neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman fatally shot in Sanford, Fla., will be among the speakers at a symposium on race, social justice, and the concept of the American dream at  7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 1, at the Student Activities Center Ballrooms on the Coral Gables campus.

Tickets to the symposium are free but required for entry. Faculty and staff with a valid ’Cane Card may pick up one ticket at the SAC, room 206, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Monday, March 30 through Wednesday, April 1, or while supplies last.

Fulton is the co-founder of the Trayvon Martin Foundation, a not-for-profit organization to create awareness about racial, ethnic, and gender profiling and to educate youth on conflict resolution techniques. Other speakers include:

Jasiri X, a Pittsburgh rapper who released a video for a song called “Trayvon” in May 2012. The video recounts the night Martin was killed.

Johnetta Elzie, a 25-year-old who went to the streets to protest the shooting of Mike Brown, Jr., an unarmed 18-year-old shot in Ferguson, MO. She has used her Twitter account to raise awareness about other cases like Brown’s. She now has more than 20,000 followers, and publishes a daily newsletter about events in Ferguson that has more than 7,000 subscribers.

Dr. Jelani Cobb, an American writer, author and associate professor of history and director of the Institute for African-American Studies at the University of Connecticut. Cobb reported on the trial of Zimmerman, who was acquitted in Martin’s death, for The New Yorker.

The symposium will be moderated by UM’s David Ikard, director of the Africana Studies Program and professor of English. Ikard has published extensively on racial politics in the U.S. and is currently working on a book, Lovable Racists, Magical Negroes and White Messiahs, which uses Martin’s death and related instances of racial injustice to discuss the challenges of racial relations in the 21st century.

The symposium is co-sponsored by the  Africana Studies Program and the Division of Student Affairs.