Trayvon Martin's father speaks at Arcadia University

GLENSIDE, Pa. (WPVI) -- Thursday marked the third anniversary of Trayvon Martin's death. He was the unarmed teen killed by George Zimmerman in Florida.

On Saturday night, Trayvon's father visited Arcadia University for a conversation about the case, and the national dialogue that has developed in the wake of that case.

There were about 300 people in attendance for a wide ranging discussion.

There was a performance, there was thought provoking art, and a high school student shared a letter he wrote to Trayvon Martin.

That was the backdrop for an evening with Trayvon Martin's father, Tracy.

Organizers called it "a celebration of black men and boys."

Early in the night Martin was asked about the decision there would be no federal prosecution of his son's killer.

Tracy said, "It still hurts to know that that was the last level of justice we could have gotten, and that was denied."

Martin said police and others need to understand the African American culture, and blacks need to understand how police function. He used an example of a car stop.

"The officer tells you to hand over your license, your license is in glove box and you reach into the glove box. Now you're becoming vulnerable to him shooting you because he thinks that you're reaching for a gun or something," he said.

The soft spoken son of a preacher said parents need to focus on giving their sons direction.

Tracy said, "We need to go back to just teaching them life skills. How to become better people."

He went on to say, "One thing I've noticed is that if our young people don't respect their own selves, they're not going to respect you. So we have to get back to the basic Parenting 101."

In the wake of his son's killing, Tracy Martin and Trayvon's mother had formed the Trayvon Martin Foundation. Among its goals is increased awareness of racial and ethnic profiling, and increased awareness in how violent crime devastates families.