The shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin and its galvanizing effect on African-Americans has been compared to the 1955 lynching of Emmett Till. I have resisted this comparison because it was what took place after Till’s death — the Montgomery bus boycott — that gave the death of the young man such a pivotal role in launching the civil rights movement. Yet there is no denying that the death of Martin has moved this generation of African-Americans in a way that we have not seen in 40 years.