John Legend highlights the activism of Trayvon Martin’s mother, Sybrina Fulton, in the first episode of his new mini-series Can’t Just Preach.
The clip arrives nearly seven years to the day after Martin was fatally shot in Sanford, Florida. In the clip, Fulton discusses how her son’s wrongful death pushed her to found the Trayvon Martin Foundation; the episode’s YouTube page serves as a fundraising tool for the foundation.
“The reason why I do this movement and I feel like I have to do what I’m doing is because my son, Trayvon, is not here to speak for himself,” Fulton says. “So I speak for all the Trayvon Martins, I speak for my son, I speak for your son, I speak for America. I have to fight, I have to fight for the people that cannot fight themselves.”
Can’t Just Preach will boast five episodes and each installment will highlight a different activist: Jaclyn Corin, a Parkland survivor and March for Our Lives co-founder; Desmond Meade, the executive director of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition; Isa Noyola, deputy director of Mijente and Mijente Support Committee; and Efrén C. Olivares, director of the racial and economic justice program at the Texas Civil Rights Project.
Episodes will also serve as fundraisers for the specific organizations that each activist works with. Can’t Just Preach arrives in the wake of Legend’s new song, “Preach,” the music video for which also doubled as a fundraising opportunity for FreeAmerica.