The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People-Hawaii Chapter next week will be among chapters of the civil rights organization nationwide to honor Trayvon Martin and Martin Luther King Jr. on the 44th anniversary of King’s death.

Martin, 17, was fatally shot Feb. 26 by a neighborhood watch volunteer, George Zimmerman, 28, in Sanford, Fla., and the incident has sparked protests and widespread calls for Zimmerman’s arrest. King, the civil rights movement leader, was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., on April 4, 1968.

Honolulu’s sunset vigil will be held from 6 to 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Kakaako Waterfront Park.

Participants will honor King’s legacy and demonstrate solidarity in calling for a fair investigation in Martin’s death.

“The NAACP has taken a prominent lead alongside other civil rights organizations calling for a fair, a just and prompt investigation into the killing of Trayvon Martin,” said Alphonso Braggs, president of the NAACP-Hawaii Chapter.

“I think it is absolutely essential that the facts surrounding the needless loss of a human life be thoroughly investigated, and for the benefits of a peaceful society, we need to be as transparent and forthright as justice will permit,” Braggs said.

Martin, who was black, was walking to the home of his father’s fiancee when Zimmerman, patrolling the neighborhood, spotted him. The two exchanged words in an altercation that ended in Martin’s death.

The fatal shooting has sparked turmoil and racial tension as Zimmerman, who is white and Hispanic, was not arrested. Zimmerman told law enforcement officials he acted in self-defense. Martin was found to be carrying only a container of ice tea and a bag of Skittles.

“One of the things that Dr. King constantly reminded us was the future,” Braggs said. “Our young people represent our future. Unfortunately, we have a disproportionate number of ethnic minorities being killed in America.

“All of these young people that are being killed, that are being victimized, that are disproportionately becoming victims of injustice, we have to stand up and say, ‘Enough is enough.'”

Braggs said he is saddened that Martin’s case is “becoming more of a mechanism for division among races.”

King, who fought to end racial segregation and pushed for social change through nonviolent activism, became in 1964, at age 35, the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Price. In that same year Congress passed the Civil Rights Act.