Photo gallery: After George Floyd, unrest, reckonings, dreams
The little daughter of the murdered Minnesotan said her father, in his suffering, had “changed the world.” Those tracking the stubborn arc of our racist history can only hope she’s right.
By Sahar Fatima Globe Staff,Updated May 25, 2021, 12:10 a.m.
People paid their respects at the mural of George Floyd at the intersection of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue following the verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial on April 20, 2021 in Minneapolis.Brandon Bell/Getty
It wasn’t the first instance of police brutality caught on video, nor the last. But George Floyd’s graphic murder on May 25 last year, pinned under the knee of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, shook the nation and beyond into the streets to demand justice for him and other Black Americans who fear for their lives every time they are stopped by police.
With the rallying cry of “Black lives matter,” thousands of protestors around the globe demanded an overhaul of policing, sparking a larger conversation that forced individuals, governments, and businesses to reexamine their role in either upholding or dismantling structural racism.
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A year later, Chauvin has now been convicted of murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death, offering a rare example of accountability. But the demands of this movement go beyond a single case. Though some signs of slow progress have emerged, so too have many more reminders of deeply rooted injustices that permeate the very foundations of this country. And the fix won’t be easy.
“Daddy changed the world,” Floyd’s young daughter said. Those fighting for equalitycan only hope she was right.
A protester carried a US flag upside down, a sign of distress, next to a burning building on May 28, 2020, in Minneapolis. Julio Cortez/Associated Press
Protesters and National Guardsmen faced off in St. Paul on May 29, 2020.John Minchillo/Associated Press
Protestors demonstrated outside of a burning fast-food restaurant on May 29, 2020, in Minneapolis. John Minchillo
In Boston, protesters made themselves heard in front of the State House during a peaceful march in May 2020 to protest the death of George Floyd.
Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff
On June 1, 2020, President Trump walked across Lafayette Square after protesters in the square had been tear-gassed.Doug Mills/NYT
On June 2, 2020, a woman shouted at a line of police standing near a metal fence erected in front of Lafayette Square to keep protestors at bay.ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images
Throngs of protesters gathered in Minneapolis at the end of May 2020.John Minchillo/Associated Press
Motorists were ordered to the ground by police on May 31, 2020, during a protest in Minneapolis over the death of George Floyd.John Minchillo/Associated Press
Activists enjoined Boston police to kneel with them during a demonstration outside of the Forest Hills MBTA Station on June 2, 2020. The rally and vigil were to honor George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and others. Erin Clark/Globe Staff
Human rights advocate Martin Luther King III and his family paid their respects before a memorial service in honor of George Floyd on June 4, 2020, at North Central University's Frank J. Lindquist Sanctuary in Minneapolis.KEREM YUCEL/AFP via Getty Images
In Washington, D.C., in June 2020, volunteers, with permission from the city, painted "Black Lives Matter" on 16th Street near the White House.Tasos Katopodis/Getty
Families participated in a children's march in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and national protests against police brutality on June 9, 2020, in Brooklyn, New York.ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images
In Seattle on June 8, 2020, police and Washington National Guard personnel moved to retake control of an intersection as demonstrators clashed with law enforcement near the Seattle Police Department East Precinct. Earlier in the evening, a suspect drove into the crowd of protesters and shot one person.David Ryder/Getty
In Boston, Stephen Passacantilli of the Parks and Recreation Department examined the statue of Christopher Columbus in Christopher Columbus Park in the North End. The head of the statue was removed overnight in early June 2020. Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff
A statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee was removed from the National Statuary Hall Collection in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 21, 2020. The statue, which represented Virginia in the US Capitol for 111 years, was removed after a state commission decided that Lee was not a fitting symbol for the state.Jack Mayer/Associated Press
Corey Harper kneeled with his fellow health care workers at Boston Medical Center during an 8-minute, 46-second moment of silence in June 2020 in memory of George Floyd and other members of the Black and brown communities who have lost their lives to police violence.
Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff
NASCAR drivers Kyle Busch and Corey LaJoie joined other drivers and crew members as they pushed the car of driver Bubba Wallace to the front of the field prior to the start of the NASCAR Cup Series auto race at the Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Ala., on June 26, 2020. John Bazemore/Associated Press
A Black Lives Matter protestor yelled out of her car window as she joined others responding to a law enforcement and first responder rally in West Roxbury in June 2020. Erin Clark/Globe Staff
A large mural of Breonna Taylor was painted at Chambers Park in Annapolis, Md., in July 2020. Patrick Smith/Photographer: Patrick Smith/Gett
A man and woman disagreed on the removal of the Emancipation Memorial in Lincoln Park in Washington, D.C., in June 2020. Evelyn Hockstein for The Washington Post/Associated Press
Armed homeowners Mark and Patricia McCloskey, standing in front their house along Portland Place, confronted protesters marching to the house of St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson in July 2020.Laurie Skrivan/Associated Press
On July 4, 2020, Danielle Ruffen (left) embraced her friend as they held sacred space for the Black women who have been slain by law enforcement. They were among more than 1,000 people who gathered to celebrate the lives of Black women and demand an end to police violence with a march from Nubian Square in Roxbury to Boston Common. Erin Clark/Globe Staff
Members of the Milwaukee Bucks and the Boston Celtics kneeled around a Black Lives Matter logo before the start of their game on July 31, 2020, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. Ashley Landis/Associated Press
A mourner wore a shirt bearing the image of the late Representative John Lewis as people gathered outside of Ebenezer Baptist Church during the funeral service for the civil rights pioneer on July 30, 2020, in Atlanta.Joe Raedle/Getty
A police officer yelled at protestors in Kenosha, Wis., on Aug. 24, 2020, the day after a Black man, Jacob Blake, was shot seven times by police.Scott Olson/Getty
Kyle Rittenhouse (left) walked along Sheridan Road in Kenosha, Wis., with another armed civilian on Aug. 25, 2020. Rittenhouse, then 17, is charged with fatally shooting two people during the protests that followed the police shooting of Jacob Blake.ADAM ROGAN/Associated Press
Demonstrators stood in the reflecting pool near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington on Aug. 28, the 57th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech.Drew Angerer/Getty
Crowds filled the National Mall during the "Commitment March: Get Your Knee Off Our Necks" protest against racism and police brutality on Aug. 28.ERIC BARADAT/AFP via Getty Images
During the insurrection on Jan. 6, a man carried a Confederate flag into the US Capitol. Erin Schaff/NYT
Kamala Harris was sworn in as vice president by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor as Harris's husband, Doug Emhoff, held the Bible on Jan. 20. Harris is the first female vice president, as well as the first Black and Asian American vice president.Andrew Harnik/Associated Press
Demonstrators held up portraits of George Floyd and Daunte Wright during the sixth night of protests over the shooting death of Wright by a police officer in Brooklyn Center, Minn., on April 16, 2021. CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images
On March 25, 2021, state Representative Park Cannon, Democrat of Atlanta, was placed into the back of a Georgia State Capitol Patrol car after being arrested by Georgia state troopers at the Capitol building in Atlanta. Cannon was arrested after she attempted to knock on the door of Governor Brian Kemp's office during his remarks after he signed into law a sweeping Republican-sponsored overhaul of state elections. Alyssa Pointer / Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com/Associated Press
In this image from video, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was taken into custody on April 20, 2021, after he was found guilty of the murder of George Floyd.Associated Press
Leon Lyons celebrated the guilty verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd, at George Floyd Square in Minneapolis on April 20, 2021. VICTOR J. BLUE/NYT
