The Smithsonian Wants Trayvon's Hoodie

The Smithsonian has expressed an interest in acquiring the hoodie worn by Trayvon Martin on the night he was murdered.

Lonnie Bunch, director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture told The Washington Post Martin's hoodie represents an to further the discussion about race in America. “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 told the newspaper. “Because it’s such a symbol, it would allow you to talk about race in the age of Obama.” Bunch, who has acquired a guard tower from Louisiana’s Angola State Penitentiary and the handcuffs used to restrain Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. in 2009, said he'd like to have the hoodie for his collection once the legal case is over.

All of the physical evidence in the case is being held while the Justice Department mulls a possible civil rights case against George Zimmerman.