Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Trayvon Martin And The International Press, Michael Leslie, Stania Antoine

Center for the Study of Race & Race Relations: Lectures and Events

Just as international coverage of the Emmett Till case in 1955 marshaled domestic support for the civil rights movement, international coverage of the Trayvon Martin murder focused attention on the disgraceful mishandling of the Martin’s murder case, spurring international, national and local public protests, and ultimately forcing the indictment of his killer. This paper examines the international discourse generated around the Martin affair and argues that such discourse widened domestic discourse regarding the murder, transforming the murder of yet another black youth into a referendum on the functioning of the American criminal justice system and the myth of the American …