![Demonstrators prepare to march to protest the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the killing of Florida teen Trayvon Martin, July 17, 2013 in Beverly Hills, California.](https://ibw21.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Demonstrators-march-protest-acquittal-George-Zimmerman-killing-Trayvon-Martin-July-2013-910x512.jpg)
By Patrisse Cullors, HuffPost — Right after the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s killer in July 2013, Alicia Garza, Opal Tometi and I were devastated. We’d been following the proceedings closely. We’d watched the media criminalize 17-year-old Trayvon and humiliate his family to justify his cold-blooded murder presumably because his assailant was white-presenting. Still, we were sucker-punched by the acquittal. We stood perplexed; hadn’t we elected our first black president? Yet it was clear;…