Trayvon's Hoodie to Be Displayed in Museum?

The National Museum of African American History and Culture, currently under construction in Washington, D.C., has expressed interest in ultimately acquiring one of the most iconic symbols of the Trayvon Martin movement: the hoodie Trayvon wore the night he was gunned down by George Zimmerman.

It's a move that the Rev. Al Sharpton would support, the Washington Post reports. Museum Director Lonnie Bunch describes the hoodie as an "artifact" that has compelled people to continue the discussion about race. 

Sharpton would like to see the hoodie reside one day at the National Museum of African American History and Culture now under construction on the Mall and expected to open in 2015. The museum’s director, Lonnie Bunch, has assembled other pieces with legal themes. He acquired a guard tower from Louisiana’s notorious Angola State Penitentiary and the handcuffs used to restrain renowned African American scholar and Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. in an episode that sparked a national debate about race and led to a “beer summit” with Obama aimed at cooling passions.

Martin’s hoodie, Bunch said, represents a unique opportunity to further the discussion about race in America. (And, by the way, he’d love to have it for his collection once the legal case plays out. He also has his eye on the hoodie that Marian Wright Edelman, founder of the Children's Defense Fund, wore in solidarity with protesters.)

“It became the symbolic way to talk the Trayvon Martin case. It’s rare that you get one artifact that really becomes the symbol,” Bunch said. “Because it’s such a symbol, it would allow you to talk about race in the age of Obama.”

Read more at the Washington Post.