Scientific American Getty Images Protest expert Aldon Morris explains how social justice movements succeed By: close Aldon Morris Aldon Morris is Leon Forrest Professor of Sociology and African American Studies at Northwestern University and president of the American Sociological Association. His landmark books include AUTHOR Aldon Morris Aldon Morris is Leon Forrest Professor of Sociology and African American Studies at Northwestern University and president of the American Sociological Association. His landmark books include Credit: Nick Higgins One evening nine years ago 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was walking through a Florida neighborhood with candy and iced tea when a vigilante pursued him and ultimately shot him dead. The killing shocked me back to the summer of 1955, when as a six-year-old boy I heard that a teenager named Emmett Till had been lynched at Money, Miss., less than 30 miles from where I lived with my grandparents. I remember the nightmares, the trying to imagine how it might feel to be battered beyond recognition and dropped into a river.