The dads of slain black teens Trayvon Martin and Ramarley Graham shared an emotional embrace yesterday as they prepared for their first Father’s Day without their sons.
“Anytime I talk about my son is tough,” Tracy Martin said of Trayvon, 17, who was shot dead Feb. 26 by neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman in Sanford, Fla. “It’s hard to imagine Father’s Day without Trayvon. That was my future that was taken away. I am blessed to have other kids, but a piece of my puzzle was taken away. Every day is a struggle.”
Frank Graham, whose son Ramarley, 18, was gunned down by an NYPD officer Feb. 2 during a drug bust in The Bronx, said, “My son is gone, but I am living for my son.”
Neither teen was armed — and both were shot by white men, sparking national outrage from groups that say the slayings were racially motivated.
The two fathers were joined by the Rev. Al Sharpton and other civil-rights leaders as they prepared for today’s Harlem march to protest the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk policy, which they believe unfairly targets minorities.
“To me, my son was murdered,” Graham told a crowd of nearly 200 people at the Manhattan headquarters of Sharpton’s National Action Network.
“But I want to ensure that no one else has to go through this.”