Beyonce hosts Trayvon Martin's mother and brother at New York gig
Beyonce played host to the mother and brother of slain teenager Trayvon Martin at a concert in New York City on Wednesday (08Jun16).
The 17-year-old African-American was shot and killed by Neighborhood Watch volunteer George Zimmerman in Florida in 2012, with Zimmerman's subsequent acquittal of Trayvon's murder sparking a wave of protests across the United States.
Since Trayvon's death, his mother Sybrina Fulton and brother
Jahvaris Fulton have prominently engaged in civil rights and
anti-gun campaigns.
And the pair have also struck up a friendship with Beyonce, with
Jahvaris posting a picture on Instagram of himself and his mother
meeting the superstar backstage at the latest stop on her Formation
world tour at New York's Citi Field stadium on Wednesday,
captioning the image, "Mommy & Me + Bey #formationworldtour."
He seemed to enjoy Beyonce's New York gig, posting another picture
of him and his mother at the concert displaying broad smiles.
The accompanying video for Beyonce's latest album, Lemonade, also
featured Sybrina and Lesley McSpadden, the mother of Mike Brown, an
18-year-old shot by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014.
The two women were shown holding up pictures of their sons in the
video.
As well as her tributes to the parents of the slain teens in her
Lemonade imagery, Beyonce also used her slot at the Superbowl in
February (16) to include nods to the Black Lives Matter movement
and revolutionary 1960s black nationalist organization the Black
Panther Party in her performance of her single Formation.
The Black Lives Matter movement was founded by African-American
activists in response to George Zimmerman's 2013 acquittal of
Trayvon's murder and unprosecuted deaths of young black men in
police custody.