Trayvon Martin to Be Honored With Street Named After Him – The Root

Photo: Ben Gabbe (Getty Images)

The death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin at the hands of neighborhood vigilante George Zimmerman was the first high-profile case to spark what would later become the Black Lives Matter movement. Now, the street outside of the high school Trayvon attended is set to be named after him.

The Miami Herald reports that last week, Miami-Dade commissioners approved a resolution to add Trayvons name to the part of Northeast 16th Avenue that leads to Dr. Michael M. Krop Senior High, where he was in the 11th grade at the time he was killed.

The portion of the road will be called Trayvon Martin Avenue and, according to the Herald, Miami-Dades Public Works Department said the new road signs should be up within a few weeks.

From the Herald:

The motion approved unanimously by commissioners without discussion includes a focus on Martins life as a teenager in the Miami Gardens area, where he lived with Fulton.

Trayvon Martin was a typical teenager who enjoyed playing video games, listening to music, watching movies, and talking and texting on the phone, read the resolution, whose primary sponsor was Commissioner Barbara Jordan, the outgoing District 1 commissioner.

Martin was also developing advanced mechanical skills and, among other things, was known to be able to build and fix dirt bikes... Martin intended to stay close to home and attend college at either the University of Miami or Florida A&M University.

The county resolution adds Martins name to Northeast 16th Avenue between Ives Dairy Road and Northeast 209th Street.

G/O Media may get a commission

The resolution also mentioned that although Trayvon Martins life was tragically cut short, his death elicited national conversations about race relations, racial profiling, gun rights, and stand your ground laws and was a catalyst that set nationwide demands for social justice reforms in motion.

Right now, we are in the midst of a racial reckoning in America. The movement has largely been mobilized on social media, which is used not only to organize demonstrations but also to bring attention to the stories of injustice that would likely get little to no national media coverage otherwise. Although Zimmerman was acquitted of murder, in many ways these relatively new methods for raising racial awareness and forcing change started with Trayvon. His death arguably created the modern civil rights movement.

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Trayvon Martin to Be Honored With Street Named After Him - The Root

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