From our August issue
On the night of February 26, 2012, Sybrina Fulton’s world was shaken and shattered. Her 17-year-old son, Trayvon Martin, was fatally shot as he returned to his father’s residence from a quick 7-Eleven trip in Sanford, Florida. Trayvon was unarmed, carrying nothing with him but a bag of Skittles and a can of Arizona when he was shot.
His killer, George Zimmerman, walks free today.
After that February night, Sybrina was forced out of a life in comfort as a Miami-Dade Housing Agent into a life in the public eye, where political advocacy and community organizing began to dictate her day-to-day. She founded the “Trayvon Martin Foundation,” co-wrote a book and produced a TV show on Trayvon’s life story, and created a support group for mothers who have lost their children to gun violence.
She managed to mobilize communities across the nation (and in her hometown of Miami) through Black Lives Matter rallies and gun safety speeches, becoming a matriarch for young activists everywhere. For her, the hope that her son’s story will never repeat is her drive.
But after seven years of public advocacy, she announced this summer that she is now taking a different route to impact political change, making a powerful stride in her hometown amid election campaigns: running for the Miami-Dade Commission.
“At first, I didn’t want to be the voice for Trayvon after he died, but I have no choice,” said Fulton in an Instagram video announcing her campaign. “It took my son to be shot down in order for me to step up — but I’m standing now,” she continued.
Fulton, who graduated from Florida Memorial University and worked for over 20 years in housing for Miami-Dade County, says her campaign has three main non-partisan priorities: improving transportation, economic development, and housing affordability. Beyond these priorities, Fulton says she will push towards curbing gun violence in our communities, as well as helping the Miami-Dade Police Department transition into a sheriff’s office.
Her campaign quickly garnered national attention, receiving thousands of small-dollar donations and the endorsement of prominent Democratic politicians such as Hillary Clinton and Cory Booker over the past months. Clinton even held a virtual fundraiser for Fulton’s campaign in June — and Fulton herself had been positive about her political bid, saying that she has always been a “winner.”
Still, after a pressing race against Miami Gardens mayor Oliver Gilbert, she had lost the run M-DCPS commissioner by a narrow count of less than one percent, trailing a lasting imprint upon those who had stood before her in endorsement.
Fulton is now part of a small group of “Mothers of The Movement” — black mothers who have lost their children to gun violence or police brutality — who have run for political office.
For many, her campaign is a herald of much-needed hope, a start in the right direction for the possibility of change.
