George Floyd

Floyd was born on October 14, 1973, in Fayetteville, North Carolina to George Perry and Larcenia "Cissy" Jones Floyd.[10][11] He had four siblings.[12][13][14]

When he was two, after Floyd's parents separated, his mother moved with the children to the Cuney Homes public housing,[15][16][17] known as Bricks, in Houston's Third Ward, a historic black neighborhood and one of the poorest areas of the city.[10][11][15] Floyd was called Perry as a child, but also Big Floyd; being over six feet (183 cm) tall in middle school, he saw sports as a vehicle for improving his life.[15]

Floyd graduated from Yates High School in 1993. While there, he was co-captain of the basketball team playing as a power forward. He was also on the football team as a tight end, and in 1992, his team went to the Texas state championships.[10][15][16][13]

The first of his siblings to go to college, Floyd attended South Florida Community College for two years on a football scholarship, and also played on the basketball team.[15][18][19] He transferred to Texas A&M University–Kingsville in 1995, where he also played basketball before dropping out.[20][21][22] At his tallest he was 6 feet 6 inches (198 cm)[23][24][25] though by the time of his autopsy he was 6 feet 4 inches (193 cm) tall and weighed 223 pounds (101 kg).[26]

Floyd returned to Houston from college in Kingsville, Texas, in 1995 and became an automotive customizer and played club basketball.[20][27] Beginning in 1994, he performed as a rapper using the stage name Big Floyd in the hip hop group Screwed Up Click.[28][29][30][31] The New York Times described his deep-voiced rhymes as "purposeful", delivered in a slow-motion clip about "'choppin' blades' – driving cars with oversize rims – and his Third Ward pride."[15] The second rap group he was involved in was "Presidential Playas" and he worked on their album Block Party released in 2000.[32][33]

Between 1997 and 2005, Floyd served eight jail terms on various minor charges, including drug possession, theft, and trespass.[9][15][13][note 2] In 2009, he was sentenced to five years in prison for a 2007 armed robbery in a home invasion[34][35] and was paroled in January 2013.[20] After Floyd's release, he became more involved with Resurrection Houston, a Christian church and ministry, where he mentored young men.[10][15][36] He helped his mother recuperate after a stroke. He delivered meals and assisted on other projects with Angel By Nature Foundation, a charity founded by rapper Trae tha Truth.[37] Later he became involved with a ministry that brought men from the Third Ward to Minnesota in a church-work program with drug rehabilitation and job placement services.[15]

In 2014, Floyd moved to Minneapolis to help rebuild his life and find work.[38][39] Soon after his arrival, he completed a 90-day rehabilitation program at the Turning Point program in north Minneapolis. Floyd expressed the need for a job and took up security work at Harbor Light Center, a Salvation Army homeless shelter.[40] He lost the job at Harbor Light and took up several other jobs. Floyd passed a drug test and hoped to earn a commercial driver's license to operate trucks, but he dropped out of the program as his job at a nightclub made it difficult to attend morning classes, and he felt pressure to earn money. Floyd later moved to St. Louis Park and lived with former colleagues.[40]

In 2017, he filmed an anti-gun violence video.[10][22] In 2019, George Floyd worked security at the El Nuevo Rodeo club, where police officer Derek Chauvin also worked off-duty as a security guard.[41] In 2020, Floyd lost his security job at a bar and restaurant affected by the COVID-19 pandemic rules,[42] and in April of that year contracted COVID-19 himself, but recovered a few weeks later.[15][12]

On May 25, 2020, Floyd was arrested after allegedly passing a counterfeit $20 bill at a grocery store in the Powderhorn Park neighborhood of Minneapolis.[43] He died after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, pressed his knee to Floyd's neck for over eight minutes[note 1] during the arrest. Floyd was handcuffed face down in the street,[44][45][46] while two other officers further restrained Floyd and a fourth prevented onlookers from intervening.[47]^:6:24[48][49] During the final two minutes,[50] Floyd was motionless and had no pulse.[51][52] Though the officers called for medical assistance, they took no action to treat him.[53]^:6:46 Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd's neck as emergency medical technicians arrived.[53]^:7:21

The official autopsy report classified Floyd's death as a homicide attributed to cardiopulmonary arrest caused by subdual and restraint. Fentanyl intoxication, recent methamphetamine use and cannabinoids were listed as "significant underlying conditions" that had a part in the cardiac arrest. He also tested positive to Covid-19. [26][54][55][56] [57] A second autopsy, commissioned by Floyd's family and performed by Michael Baden, without access to various tissue and fluid samples, found that the "evidence is consistent with mechanical asphyxia as the cause" of death, with neck compression restricting blood flow to the brain, and back compression restricting breathing.[43] This is in discordance with the preliminary reports of the Hennepin County Medical Officer, which "revealed no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation", according to prosecutors. [58] After Floyd's death, protests were held globally against the use of excessive force by police officers against black suspects and lack of police accountability. Protests began in Minneapolis the day after his death and developed in cities throughout all 50 U.S. states and internationally.[59][60]

The carriage carrying Floyd's casket to his burial in Pearland, Texas, June 9

Several memorial services were held. On June 4, 2020, a memorial service for Floyd took place in Minneapolis with Al Sharpton delivering the eulogy.[21][61] Services were planned in North Carolina with a public viewing and private service on June 6 and in Houston on June 8 and 9.[62] Floyd was buried next to his mother in Pearland, Texas.[63][64][65]

Colleges and universities which have created scholarships in Floyd's name included North Central University (which hosted a memorial service for Floyd),[66][67] Alabama State, Oakwood University,[68][69] Missouri State University, Southeast Missouri State, Ohio University,[70][71][72] Buffalo State College, Copper Mountain College,[73][74] and others.[75] Amid nationwide protests over Floyd's killing, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and his wife Patty Quillin made a $120 million donation to be split equally among Morehouse College, Spelman College and the United Negro College Fund.[76] The donation was the largest ever made to historically black colleges and universities.[77]

Tributes and mural outside Cup Foods, where Floyd died.

George Floyd mural created by protesters in Portland, Oregon

Street artists globally created murals honoring Floyd. Depictions included Floyd as a ghost in Minneapolis, as an angel in Houston, and as a saint weeping blood in Naples. A mural on the International Wall in Belfast commissioned by Festival of the People (Féile an Phobail) and Visit West Belfast (Fáilte Feirste Thiar) featured a large portrait of Floyd above a tableau showing Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck while the three other officers turn their backs and each covers his eyes, ears, or mouth in the manner of the Three Wise Monkeys ("See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil").[78][79][80] One Houston mural is on the side of Scott Food Mart in the Third Ward,[81] while the other is on the property of The Breakfast Klub restaurant in Midtown.[82]

By June 6, murals had been created in many cities, including Manchester, Dallas, Miami, Idlib, Los Angeles, Nairobi, Oakland, Strombeek-Bever, Berlin, Pensacola, and La Mesa.[83][84]

A bill proposed by US Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, the George Floyd Law Enforcement Trust and Integrity Act, was designed to reduce police brutality and establish national policing standards and accreditations.[85][86]

The length of time that Chauvin was initially believed to have had his knee on Floyd's neck, eight minutes 46 seconds, was widely commemorated as a "moment of silence" to honor Floyd.[87][88][note 1]

Floyd's death was featured prominently in The Economist, with the magazine running an obituary, multiple articles, and numerous reader letters, ultimately making the legacy of his death its June 13 cover story.[89] It wrote that his legacy "[is] the rich promise of social reform."[90]

On September 18, 2020, the Minneapolis City Council approved designating the section of Chicago Avenue between 37th and 39th Streets as George Perry Floyd Jr. Place, with a marker at the intersection with 38th Street where the incident took place. The intersection had been the location of a makeshift memorial that emerged the day after his death.[91]

On October 6, 2020, Amnesty International delivered a letter with one million signatures from around the world to the US Attorney General William Barr to demand justice for George Floyd. The human rights advocacy group demanded that the police officers involved in the killing of George Floyd be held accountable.[92]

Floyd had five children, including two daughters (aged 6 and 22 at the time of his death) and an adult son.[93][94][95][96] He also had two grandchildren.[12] A GoFundMe account to support Floyd's funeral costs and benefit his family broke the site's record for number of individual donations.[97]

• Lists of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States

• Media related to George Floyd at Wikimedia Commons
• George Floyd at IMDb

External video
George Floyd Memorial Service in Minneapolis, June 4, 2020, C-SPAN
George Floyd Funeral Service in Houston, June 9, 2020, C-SPAN