Ian Johnston / msnbc.com

Slain Florida teen Trayvon Martin's parents and brother with Doreen Lawrence, mother of murdered British teenager Stephen Lawrence, outside the University of London Union in London, England, Friday. From left: Lawyer Daryl Parks, Trayvon's parents Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, Doreen Lawrence (front), Jahvaris Fulton and lawyer Benjamin Crump.

The parents of slain Florida teenager Trayvon Martin held a public meeting in England Friday to highlight the dangers of “profiling” people by the color of their skin or outward appearance.

Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton took to a stage at the University of London with the mother of a black British teenager, Stephen Lawrence, who was murdered in a racist attack in Eltham, South London, in 1993.

Doreen Lawrence campaigned for years to get justice for her son, and two men, Gary Dobson, 36, and David Norris, 35, were only found guilty of Stephen’s murder in January. Three other suspects remain at large.

Trayvon Martin, 17, who was unarmed and walking back to the home of his father’s fiancée, was shot dead by George Zimmerman, 28, in a gated community in Sanford, Fla., on Feb. 26.

Zimmerman saw the teenager, called 911 and began following him. Zimmerman claims Martin attacked him and he shot in self-defense, citing Florida's "stand your ground" law. Zimmerman was not charged for more than six weeks, sparking protests across the U.S. and also in London, and is now awaiting trial for second-degree murder.

Ian Johnston/msnbc.com

Slain Florida teen Trayvon Martin's parents Sybrina Fulton (left) Tracy Martin (back) and brother, Jahvaris Fulton, (right) with Doreen Lawrence, mother of murdered British teenager Stephen Lawrence.

With tears in her eyes, Fulton told an audience of journalists, activists, students and others, “I should not be looked at differently because of the color of my skin.”

“Although it’s a sad moment for us to be here, it warms my heart to know there are other people who are supporting us,” she said.

“I say to you today … just stand up, stand up and be heard. Don’t let this happen to another one of our children,” Fulton added.

“Until you have lost a child, it’s very difficult for you to understand how we feel, and the hurt and the pain that we have," she said.

Fulton also released a Mother's Day video appeal on YouTube and the Justice for Trayvon Martin Foundation's website Friday for people across the United States to campaign for "stand your ground" laws to be re-examined.

She said she would say a prayer on Mother's Day for other mothers who had lost their children to "senseless gun violence."

"Nobody can bring our children back, but it would bring us comfort if we can help spare other mothers the pain that we will feel on Mother's Day and every day for the rest of our lives," Fulton said.

At the meeting in London, Tracy Martin said that Doreen Lawrence was “an inspiration" to their fight for justice.

“We can stand together on common ground … the loss of children. It certainly is a unique fraternity to be in, one that we didn’t choose to be in,” he said. “She [Lawrence] is proving you can turn tragedy into something positive… there is light at the end of the tunnel.”

He said profiling was “not just an issue of black and white.”

“It’s a profiling issue in general, profiling of all sorts,” he said.

After the public meeting, a vigil was held just outside Downing Street, home to the British prime minister's official residence.

Trayvon's parents spoke briefly and then stood with the crowd of about 100, who chanted "I am Trayvon Martin" and "No justice, no peace."

 18 years after racist slaying, fear still stalks London's streets 

The meeting was organized by the Million Hoodies Movement for Justice, JusticeTM.org, a website set up after Trayvon’s murder, and Occupy London.

“You cannot be afraid to leave home, you cannot be afraid to walk down the street and feel someone is going to do something to you. You have to be comfortable in your surroundings,” Tracy Martin said.

He added that more needed to be done to teach people how to resolve conflict peacefully.

Ben Crump, a lawyer representing the family, said that the support for Trayvon’s family in England showed the case was an “international issue” and “one of human rights, not just profiling.”

It was a reminder to “the local people who so conveniently went to sweep the death of a young black child under the rug” that “every life is important, every life matters.”

Racist killers sentenced in UK's 'Rosa Parks moment'

“Trayvon was 17, Stephen was 18, they had so much life ahead of them,” Crump said. “These children did not deserve this tragic, untimely end to their lives.”

Zita Holbourne, of British campaign group Black Activists Rising Against Cuts, said there had been cases where people had died in police custody and at the hands of the state in the U.K. and “they’ve been predominantly black.”

“We’re not seeing the justice that we should see,” she said. “What we are seeing is family upon family having to set up campaigns to fight for justice.”

“I think it’s important to come together from across the globe to fight injustice and racism.”

More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• Bad neighbors for Team USA? Occupy camp axed
• WWII fighter plane found preserved in Sahara Desert
• Egypt's first televised presidential debate is a hit
• 88,000-mile voyage? Plastic card found after 33 years
• Hell-raising holy men: Boozy monks caught gambling
• Sources: Spy who uncovered underwear bomb plot is a Brit
• Video: Murder and corruption scandal rocks China
• In debt or jobless, some Italians choose suicide
• Move over, Al Roker! Prince Charles becomes weatherman

Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world

Carl Court / AFP - Getty Images

Flowers were left at the Stephen Lawrence memorial in the Eltham area of south London on Wednesday.

By Jason Jouavel, NBC News

LONDON -- A plaque near a bus stop in south London marks where murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence took his last few breaths and serves as a grim reminder of one of Britain's most notorious racist crimes. 

The memorial at the site of Lawrence's killing -- which has been described as the U.K's "Rosa Parks moment" -- has been vandalized several times. That strikes me as a sign that deep hatred still exists.

• Racist killers sentenced in UK's 'Rosa Parks moment'

I'm a black south Londoner. And almost two decades after the slaying, I still feel very anxious walking through certain streets in Eltham after dark.

Lawrence, 18, was stabbed to death by a gang of white youths in an unprovoked attack as he waited at the bus stop in Eltham in 1993. The investigation was bungled and despite multiple court appearances by suspects over the years no one was convicted until Tuesday.

At least three people involved in Lawrence's slaying remain at large and to this day a notable lack of local people have come forward with information about what happened.

Duwayne Brooks, who was with Lawrence at the time of the attack, told investigators that they had been racially abused before the stabbing. However, police initially treated Brooks like a suspect -- as opposed to a key witness.

The crime also resulted in a 1999 public inquiry that branded London's Metropolitan Police force as "institutionally racist."

Paul Hackett / Reuters, file

David Norris (rear with blue shirt) runs for cover as he and some of the others suspected of involvement in the killing of Stephen Lawrence are pelted with eggs after leaving a 1999 public Inquiry into police handling of the case in London.

 Stephen's parents, Doreen and Neville Lawrence, have waged a nearly 19-year battle for justice, which finally paid dividends with this week's murder convictions of Gary Dobson and David Norris.

I've seen the slain teenager's courageous mother several times on the streets of south London as she continues her fight to clean-up the police, strengthen laws and support victims of racially motivated crimes. My immediate impulse is always to just salute her.

'Deep darkness'
Although there was celebration in some quarters over the conviction and sentencing of Dobson and Norris, I have to agree with the Reverend Jesse Jackson. He summed up this week's events as "little light with deep darkness."

It's important to remember that the people who killed Lawrence have been harbored by their community for years and some are still being protected.

Some progress has undoubtedly been made since Lawrence's slaying.

Reuters

Stephen Lawrence was aged 18 when he was stabbed to death near a bus stop in Eltham, south London, in 1993.

However, recruitment drives aimed at attracting more black and Asian officers have failed to make the Metropolitan Police representative of London's ethnic diversity.

A disproportionate number of black people are still stopped and searched by the police. It's something I've been through several times. On one occasion, I was driving to work when I was stopped. The police officer said that I looked "suspicious."

Many young black men in London complain about being prejudged and stereotyped. 

I was astonished when a well-educated acquaintance told me she thought that black people should be stopped because they commit most crimes as we casually discussed last summer's London riots. I wonder whether this is also the view of some police officers.

The police must be commended for pursuing Lawrence's killers for close to two decades. But let's not forget that if the investigating officers had been more rigorous when the crime was committed, the Lawrence family may have had justice much sooner.

LONDON - A judge in Britain has sentenced two men to minimum prison terms of 14 years and 3 months and 15 years and 2 months for stabbing a black teenager to death almost two decades ago.

The murder of 18-year-old Stephen Lawrence shocked the country and came to be seen as a festering racial injustice, attracting the attention of civil rights leaders in the U.S., such as Jesse Jackson and msnbc host Al Sharpton.

It was almost 19 years before anyone was convicted and three other suspects remain at large, to the frustration of prosecutors.

The investigation — which has seen multiple court appearances by all five suspects over the years — led to strong criticism of London's Metropolitan Police and resulted in an investigation that found the force was "institutionally racist" and had bungled evidence-gathering.

It also led to a change in Britain's double jeopardy rules, permitting a second prosecution if compelling new evidence emerges.

Gary Dobson and David Norris were convicted Tuesday. On Wednesday, Dobson received the 15 years and 2 months sentence. Norris was jailed for 14 years and 3 months.

Judge Colman Treacy said the murder, by a gang of five people, was an evil crime motivated by racial hatred.

Crown Prosecution Service / Reuters

Gary Dobson (left) and David Norris, pictured in two undated photos released by Britain's Crown Prosecution Service, were found guilty of murdering black teenager Stephen Lawrence.

Because Dobson and Norris were teenagers at the time, their minimum sentences were shorter than if they had been adults.

The judge said Lawrence's death was a "murder that scarred the nation," according to BBC News.

"I'm sure that you knew one of your group was armed with a knife that night," the judge told Dobson and Norris. He said it was "a brief but coordinated attack, a racist taunt, a charge and a swallowing up of Stephen Lawrence."

"The evidence does not prove you had the knife, but the holder had it with your approval," he said. "It does not matter the knife was not in your hands. You -- Dobson -- repeatedly lied as part of group loyalty."

• Two men found guilty of racist murder that rocked UK

An inquiry into Lawrence's death found the investigation by London's Metropolitan Police had been hampered by its "institutionally racist" nature.

Matthew Ryder, a lawyer who represented the Lawrence family in a civil lawsuit against the police, told BBC News that the case was a "Rosa Parks moment" for the U.K.

Lawrence family via PA / AP, fil

An undated family handout photo of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence.

"It was a moment when you saw the victims of injustice fighting for justice and the system letting them down and I think for that reason it profoundly changed how we view race and racism within this society," Ryder added.

"On the face of it, it was a crude, violent form of racism, which every reasonable person would condemn, but what followed on from that, what's always been part of the Lawrence case, was the pernicious, systemic forms of racism which caused the investigation to fail," he said, according to the BBC.

Speaking after the two men were convicted, but before the sentencing hearing, Jackson said that black people in the U.K. were treated as "second class citizens -- free but not equal, not adequately protected by law," according to a report by the Daily Telegraph.

Jackson said local people in the community of Eltham, London, where the killing took place, had "incubated" the murderers.

"All these years many people knew who they were and they would end up being convicted on the strength of a drop of blood or a strand of hair," Jackson said, according to the Telegraph's report.

"It was much more obvious down through the years who was involved in this killing," he added.

The Associated Press and msnbc.com editor Ian Johnston contributed to this report.