'Keep fighting': Sybrina Fulton speaks in Indianapolis, offers advice to grieving mothers

Nine years later, Sybrina Fulton still talks about the day her life changed like it just happened.

She remembers "a normal weekend," attending a comedy show in February 2012. She remembers getting a call from her ex-husband Tracy the Monday after. Her son hadn't come home, he told her, but she wasn't too concerned yet. She remembers leaving work to find out what was going on. She remembers getting in her car and fastening her seatbelt.

The mundane details of daily life that get usually get swept up in the routine.

On this day, they came to be defined by tragedy.

She received a second phone call.

Trayvon Martin, her "baby," had been shot and killed.

Fulton talked about that day and her journey since at this year's Indianapolis Public Library's Fall Fest, hosted in support of the central library's Center for Black Literature & Culture. She wore a red hoodie with Trayvon's face on it.

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It's the face that many Americans have come to recognize.

Martin was 17 years old from Florida when he was walking home from a convenience store, killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer who thought he was "suspicious." His death — and the acquittal of the man who shot and killed him — emboldened activists and helped spark the Black Lives Matter movement.

'Have to start changing our mindset'

Many have heard the story and seen the news, but still, years later, Fulton likes to share her experience in her own words.

"Let's start at the beginning," she said to a crowd of dozens in Indianapolis, including several mothers with children. "Who am I? Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin.

"And also Jahvaris Fulton," she adds, noting her older son.

Kristian Green attended the event to hear firsthand from Fulton as a mother.

The experience touched her heart, she says. But it also forced her to reflect, once again, on the challenges to come as she raises her three young children.

“One day I'm gonna have to have a talk with them to let them know that your skin color could easily get you killed, you know,” Green said, with her one-year-old son playing nearby. “So it's hard. It's hard.”

Saturday's message came after nearly a decade in the public eye, after seeing even more people of color die through gun violence and police shootings.

Fulton's "Circle of Mothers" group, dedicated to supporting grieving mothers, has continued adding new members over the years, including the mothers of Eric Garner, Michael Brown and Tamir Rice.

"How did we get to a country that's filled with so much hate for each other?" Fulton said. "We have to start changing our mindset."

Some of that comes with inspiring the next generation, she says.

“We all want to push our children to do a little better than what we've done,” Fulton said. “We want to teach our children to be better than the last generation … But we can't do it at the rate that we're going. We can't do it ... without trying to instill something positive in our kids. Because this killing that's going on, it's time out for all of that.”

'Keep fighting'

Fulton carries her message through her activism with the Trayvon Martin Foundation, and her 2017 book "Rest in Power," written in alternating chapters alongside her ex-husband, Tracy. In the summer of 2020, she tried to enter the politics realm, narrowly losing her campaign for a seat with the Miami-Dade County Board of County Commissioners.

Before her appearance at the library, Fulton recalled telling a group on Friday: "If you are not a person of color, then you're safe. Right?"

That same day, the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse — the teenager who fatally shot two people and injured another during protests in Wisconsin — changed her mind.

"Now I'm gonna come back today and revise that," Fulton said. "Nobody's safe. Nobody's safe."

After Fulton spoke, one audience member asked for advice, pointing out that there were a few mothers in the crowd who had also lost children to gun violence.

Fulton asked them to identify themselves. Three women raised their hands.

“Keep fighting. Don’t give up,” Fulton said. “A lot of times, we look out the window and we see that it's raining outside. And we think the whole day is gone.

“Just remember, the sun is coming out again. Just remember joy comes in the morning.”

Contact Rashika Jaipuriar at rjaipuriar@gannett.com and follow her on Twitter @rashikajpr.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Trayvon Martin's mother speaks about grief, activism in Indianapolis