George Floyd was an African American man who was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer on May 25, 2020. He was memorialized via events, protests, artwork installations, organizations, official designations, and campaigns.
A public memorial, with Al Sharpton delivering the eulogy, was held June 4, 2020, at North Central University in Minneapolis, Minnesota. [1] Many state and local officials attended, including Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar, Saint Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, and Police Chief Medaria Arradondo. The service also drew national officials and civil rights leaders, such as Martin Luther King III, Reverend Jesse Jackson, as well as several celebrity figures. [2] [3] [4]
A public viewing and a family memorial was held in Raeford, North Carolina, on June 6, near Floyd's hometown. [5]
Floyd's family held a public memorial in Houston, Texas, on June 8 that was livestreamed globally, and a private service on June 9. Professional boxer Floyd Mayweather paid for the services. [6] [7] Floyd's body was on public view on June 8 in his hometown of Houston. Former Vice President and the 2020 presumptive and eventual Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, met with the Floyd family privately and gave a video message at the funeral. [8] [9] [10]
Floyd is buried next to his mother at Houston Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Pearland, Texas. [8] [9] [10]
On June 9, 2020, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz issued a statewide proclamation declaring 8 minutes 46 seconds of silence at 11:00 a.m. CDT to coincide with the beginning of Floyd's funeral in Houston. [4] On May 24, 2021, on the one-year anniversary of Floyd's murder, Walz declared a statewide moment of silence for 9 minutes and 29 seconds for 1:00 p.m. On October 14, 2022, Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey declared it George Floyd Day on the date of what would have been Floyd's 49th birthday. [11]
George Floyd Global Memorial is a 501(c)3 organization in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with a headquarters office on the 3500 block of Chicago Avenue. The organization acts as a curator of the demonstrator-installed art exhibits at George Floyd Square. Its mission is to inventory, collect, and preserve the public art installations and the approximately 5,000 offerings that were left by visitors. [12] [13] [14]
The George Floyd Memorial Foundation is a non-profit organization founded by George Floyd's sister, Bridgett Floyd, in Mooresville, North Carolina. [15]
The George Floyd Community Benevolence Fund, later renamed the Ward 8 Community Benevolence Fund, is a non-profit organization of Floyd's family and estate. The fund was seeded from $500,000 of the $27 million wrongful death settlement between the City of Minneapolis and George Floyd's family. The fund has awarded grants of between $5,000 and $25,000 to organizations and businesses to the neighborhood surrounding the East 38th Street and Chicago Avenue South in Minneapolis where Floyd was murdered. [16]
The George Floyd protests began in Minneapolis on May 26, 2020. Protests were held in the United States and in other countries in reaction to Floyd's murder and in his memory. The street intersection where Floyd was murdered was held by demonstrators during the George Floyd Square occupied protest.
"Justice for George Floyd”, a Change.org petition, as launched on May 30, 2020. As of early July 2020, the petition had nearly 19 million signatures, making it the most signed petition in the history of the platform. [17]
Official George Floyd Memorial Fund was established by Philonise Floyd, George Floyd's brother, in the aftermath of the murder to cover funeral expenses and education expenses for Floyd's children. One week after the tragedy and only four days after the start of the fund, it raised $7 million, putting it in ranking as one of the most highly funded GoFundMe campaigns at the time. [18]
Commitment March: Get Your Knee Off Our Necks was an event held in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 2020. [19] [20] The march was organized by the National Action Network, and was led by Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III. [19] The march's speakers included relatives of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, [21] Jacob Blake, [22] and others. [23]
Colleges and universities which have created scholarships in Floyd's name included North Central University, [24] [25] Alabama State, Oakwood University, [26] [27] Missouri State University, Southeast Missouri State, Ohio University, [28] [29] [30] Buffalo State College, Copper Mountain College, [31] [32] and others. [33]
Eight minutes and 46 seconds, the length of time that Derek Chauvin was originally reported to have had his knee on Floyd's neck, was widely commemorated as a "moment of silence" to honor Floyd. [34] [35] It was also used in chants, protest signs, and messages. [36]
Slogans and phrases such as "Justice for George", "I can't breathe", [37] "Black Lives Matter", [38] and "No justice, no streets", [39] among others, were also used in protests and campaigns about Floyd's murder.
Thousands of works of street art were created in the aftermath of Floyd's murder. George Floyd and Anti-Racist Street Art database was created by researchers at the University of St. Thomas as a free virtual art library for the works of art created around the world. [40] Each artwork is identified with the artist, the story behind its creation, and where it is located. [41] [42] [43] Save the Boards, a nonprofit organization based in Minneapolis, was formed to collect and preserve street and murals on boards. [44]
Artists created several murals of George Floyd in the aftermath of his murder.
In Minneapolis, Minnesota, two George Floyd murals were painted at the street intersection in Minneapolis where he was murdered. A blue and yellow mural of George Floyd on the side of the Cup Foods grocery store became one of the most recognizable images of the global protest movement that was sparked by his murder, and a digital rendering of it served as a backdrop to his casket at his funeral in Houston, Texas. [45] [46] [47] Created by community artists Cadex Herrera, Greta McLain, and Xena Goldman, the iconic mural was one of the first public artworks to emerge in Minneapolis that honored Floyd's memory in Minneapolis. [48] [49] Peyton Scott Russell, a Minneapolis native and street artist, created a 12-by-12-foot (3.7 by 3.7 m) black-and-white mural of Floyd's face in June 2020. Pictures of the mural were shared worldwide. [47]
The George Floyd mural in Portland, Oregon, was painted by Emma Berger and installed outside Apple Pioneer Place in downtown Portland, on June 1, 2020 (since removed). She completed the mural, which depicted Floyd and the phrase "I can't breathe", in approximately two hours and without seeking permission. [50] [51] Berger later added the faces of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor, [52] [53] as well as the phrases "black lives matter" and "say their names". The image of Floyd was 8-foot (2.4 m) tall. [54]
A bust of George Floyd is situated in Union Square in New York City. [55] [56] The sculpture sits on a marble base, with the 6-foot (1.8 m) bust being made of layers of plywood. [57] It was created by artist Chris Carnabuci and unveiled by Floyd's brother Terrence, as part of the 2021 Juneteenth federal holiday. [55] [58]
A statue of George Floyd is situated in Newark, New Jersey. It was completed by Stanley Watts and unveiled in 2021. [59] Located outside Newark's City Hall, [60] it weighs 700 pounds (320 kg), [61] and is sculpted larger than life. The statue is of Floyd sitting relaxed on a bench. [62]
On May 22, 2024, the sculpture "Floyd" was unveiled at the International African American Museum (IAAM) in Charleston, South Carolina. Created by Dan Reisner in 2020, shortly after the tragic incident in Minneapolis, Minnesota." Floyd", Commemorates George Floyd's murder, featuring tree rings at the neck's base representing the duration of his death with two lines resembling fractured tree rings like stopped watch dials at the time of his death. [63] [64] [65] [66]
George Floyd Square, officially designated as George Perry Floyd Square, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is the commemorative name of the intersection at East 38th Street and Chicago Avenue where Floyd was murdered. [67] [68]
Several bills were introduced in the United States Congress following Floyd's murder:
Dick Dowling is a 1905 marble sculpture of Confederate commander Richard W. Dowling by Frank Teich, previously installed in 1958 at the Cambridge Street entrance into Houston's Hermann Park, in the U.S. state of Texas. In June 2020, the memorial was removed in response to the George Floyd protests.
On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old black American man, was murdered in Minneapolis by Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old white police officer. Floyd had been arrested after a store clerk alleged that he made a purchase using a counterfeit $20 bill. Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck for over nine minutes while Floyd was handcuffed and lying face-down in a street. Two other police officers, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane, assisted Chauvin in restraining Floyd. Lane had also pointed a gun at Floyd's head before Floyd was handcuffed. A fourth police officer, Tou Thao, prevented bystanders from intervening.
The George Floyd protests were a series of riots and demonstrations against police brutality that began in Minneapolis in the United States on May 26, 2020. The protests and civil unrest began in Minneapolis as reactions to the murder of George Floyd, a 46-year-old unarmed African American man, by city police during an arrest. They spread nationally and internationally. Veteran officer Derek Chauvin was recorded as kneeling on Floyd's neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds; Floyd complained of not being able to breathe, but three other officers looked on and prevented passers-by from intervening. Chauvin and the other three officers involved were later arrested. In April 2021, Chauvin was found guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. In June 2021, Chauvin was sentenced to 22+1⁄2 years in prison.
Civil unrest over the murder of George Floyd began as local protests in Minneapolis–Saint Paul on May 26, 2020, the day after George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer. Protests and civil disorder quickly spread to other locations in the U.S. state of Minnesota, the United States, and internationally. This list includes notable protests and events of civil disorder in Minnesota in the aftermath of George Floyd's murder.
George Perry Floyd Jr. was an African American man who was murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during an arrest made after a store clerk suspected Floyd might have used a counterfeit twenty-dollar bill, on May 25, 2020. Derek Chauvin, one of four police officers who arrived on the scene, knelt on Floyd's neck and back for 9 minutes and 29 seconds, causing his death from a lack of oxygen. After his murder, a series of protests against police brutality, especially towards black people, quickly spread across the United States and globally. His dying words, "I can't breathe", became a rallying slogan.
The Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm is an initiative established on 9 June 2020 by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, to review public tributes in the British capital, including statues and other landmarks.
A bronze statue of Christopher Columbus was installed on the grounds of the Minnesota State Capitol in Saint Paul, Minnesota in 1931. The 10-foot statue was created by Italian American Carlo “Charles” Brioschi.
Local protests over the murder of George Floyd, sometimes called the Minneapolis riots or the Minneapolis uprising, began on May 26, 2020, and within a few days had inspired a global protest movement against police brutality and racial inequality. The initial events were a reaction to a video filmed the day before and circulated widely in the media of police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck for several minutes while Floyd struggled to breathe, begged for help, lost consciousness, and died. Public outrage over the content of the video gave way to widespread civil disorder in Minneapolis, Saint Paul, and other cities in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area over the five-day period of May 26 to 30 after Floyd's murder.
A statue of former Minnesota Twins baseball team owner Calvin Griffith stood in front of Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota from 2010 until 2020.
A wave of civil unrest in the United States, initially triggered by the murder of George Floyd during his arrest by Minneapolis police officers on May 25, 2020, led to protests and riots against systemic racism in the United States, including police brutality and other forms of violence. Since the initial national wave and peak ended towards the end of 2020, numerous other incidents of police violence have drawn continued attention and lower intensity unrest in various parts of the country.
Many artworks related to the Black Lives Matter movement were created in Portland, Oregon, United States, during local protests over the murder of George Floyd and other Black Americans. Oregon Arts Watch contextualized the artistic works, stating that a "whitewashed pre-COVID lens" on American life, which obscured systemic racism, had been "cracked", and describing artists' response to racial violence being brought into the public eye was a "marathon, not a sprint".
Many artworks related to the Black Lives Matter movement have been created. These works are either seen as a direct tribute to those who have died or more broadly to the movement. Often the pieces are created in the streets as to be more publicly visible. As such several attempts have been made at preserving the art created in protest on the basis of their artistic merit and cultural significance. Increasingly, the erasure of the artwork has been a problem for preservationists. As such, the artworks below represent a fraction of the works created.
As a reaction to the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, racial justice activists and some residents of the Powderhorn community in Minneapolis staged an occupation protest at the intersection of East 38th Street and Chicago Avenue with a blockade of the streetway lasting over a year. The intersection is where Derek Chauvin, a white police officer with the Minneapolis Police Department, murdered George Floyd, an unarmed 46-year-old Black man. Activists erected barricades to block vehicular traffic and transformed the intersection and surrounding structures with amenities, social services, and public art depicting Floyd and other racial justice themes. The community called the unofficial memorial and protest zone at the intersection "George Floyd Square". The controversial street occupation in 2020 and 2021 was described as an "autonomous zone" and a "no-go" place for police, but local officials disputed the extent of such characterizations.
The bust of George Floyd is a sculpture of George Floyd (1973–2020), an African-American man who was murdered by a police officer during his arrest in Minneapolis. Initially situated in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, it is currently displayed in Union Square, Manhattan.
We Stand With You is a 2020 mural of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor by artist Christian Grijalva, installed in Portland, Oregon.
A mural of George Floyd was painted by Emma Berger outside Portland, Oregon's Apple Pioneer Place, on June 1, 2020, a week after his murder, against the background of the ongoing protests against police brutality. She expanded the mural to show Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor and phrases associated with the Black Lives Matter movement. The work was vandalized in August, and repaired by the artist. It was covered by Apple Inc. in December for preservation, then removed in January 2021 to be donated to Don't Shoot PDX.
Say Their Names is a 2020 mural in Louisville, Kentucky.
George Floyd Square, officially George Perry Floyd Square, is a memorialized streetway in Minneapolis for the section of Chicago Avenue that intersects East 38th Street. It is named after George Floyd, a black man who was murdered there by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin on May 25, 2020. The commemorative street name is signed along Chicago Avenue between East 37th Street to East 39th Street and includes the 38th and Chicago intersection.
Memorials to George Floyd commemorate the African American man who was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer on May 25, 2020.
Save the Boards is an American nonprofit organization based in Minneapolis that collects and preserves street art that emerged during local protests of the murder of George Floyd in 2020.