Derecka Purnell (’17), civil rights lawyer, organizer and author of Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protests, and the Pursuit of Freedom, authored an article for The Cut interviewing the mother of Trayvon Martin ten years after his death, discussing how Sybrina, Mamie Till-Mobley and other mothers of murdered Black sons have led diverse movements in activism after losing their children to racist violence (“Grief Over Time,” Jan. 31). “Sybrina Fulton, who lost her son Trayvon Martin ten years ago this month, found her painful place in American history. . . . Fulton, and so many families, seek to bring honor for their loved ones through the established means we have today, even if it is part of the system that created the injustice. . . . Her quest for systemic change and the movement’s demand for abolition emerge from a similar place of love and rage, a reaction to our government’s failure to protect us from the violence it perpetuates and sanctions. . . . In another ten years, I hope . . . for a culture of love, rigorous and principled debate, and deep experimentation in our strivings for justice.”
