The city’s first known Trayvon Martin mural is going up on a wall of an East New York laundromat – adding to a brewing campaign to make sure history doesn’t snub the slain teen’s image.
Teenage boys will start painting the 100-foot picture July 16 on New Lots Laundromat’s wall underneath the elevated tracks of the IRT No. 3 train.
The East New York mural will join a growing list of similar street art popping up in black neighborhoods across the country.
“We want him to become a martyr, and it’s sad that we even have to say that,” said Catherine Green, executive director of ARTs East New York Inc., who is overseeing the project.
“We want to see change coming out of this. People see a young man with a hoodie and they think he is a criminal.”
The seven young painters will show off the outline for the giant image in mid-July but are set on drawing Martin dressed in the his famed sweatshirt.
“It goes back to hip-hop and how people dress. When you see that hoodie, it signifies what people think about our young men in our community,” Green said.
Neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman gunned down the hoodie-clad Florida teen in February telling cops he thought the boy appeared suspicious.
Initially, authorities didn’t arrest Zimmerman, citing the state’s controversial “Stand Your Ground” law. A national debate on racial profiling ensued and officials later charged Zimmerman with second degree murder.
Martin snapped a picture of himself in a gray hoodie before his death. The image went viral as buzz surrounding the case intensified and is now on countless t-shirts and posters.
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article courtesy of TheDailyNews.com
Massive Mural Memorializing Slain Florida Teen Trayvon Martin Is Going Up In East New York was originally published on praisecleveland.com