Fists in the air, George Floyd’s family members and friends along with a small crowd of activists chanted his name Friday night as they gathered across the street from the spot where was killed in the custody of Minneapolis police officers, remembering a man who would have turned 49 on Friday — and whose death changed a city forever.
In front of a banner of black, blue and silver balloons, Floyd’s girlfriend, Courteney Ross, spoke of how he cared immensely for his adopted community and never chose violence. She recalled the time that Floyd, who moved to Minneapolis from the Houston area and worked here as a bouncer, was once in tears after dealing with an unruly customer at the Salvation Army.
“He was so sad because it got to the point that he had to put his hands on someone,” Ross said. “He was the loving one.”
Floyd died after Chauvin placed his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes in May 2020. Floyd had repeatedly said “I can’t breathe.”
Floyd’s aunt, Angela Harrelson, said he always wanted to help the community, even as he dealt with adversity in his own life.
“Especially after he got out of prison, he wanted to do a lot of work helping the Black and brown youth living in the neighborhood [in Houston],” Harrelson said. “They used to call him ‘Big Floyd’ but not because he was so tall, which he really was, but because he really connected with the community.”
Family members spoke of their pain. But they also continued calls for change that have echoed across the city, country and world in the months and years after Floyd’s murder.
“Black and brown people ran through this door. The chain — it was broken. It’s like we were running for freedom” Harrelson said. “But this time we ran — we never looked back because we saw the dream that Martin Luther King talked about.”
