PBS News: June13 – 18, 2020, Outrage over George Floyd catalyzes movements for racial justice abroad, and Syrian civilians prepare for a new battle with invisible foe: coronavirus
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The New York Times: George Floyd, from ‘I Want to Touch the World’ to ‘I Can’t Breathe’
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PBS NewsHour full episode, June 18, 2020
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Jun 18, 2020 PBS NewsHour
Thursday on the NewsHour, the Supreme Court hands President Trump a major legal defeat on immigration, a cornerstone of his agenda. Plus: How officials in the U.S. and abroad are responding to John Bolton’s claims, Stacey Abrams on voting rights in America, weighing the risks of reopening, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on coronavirus in his state and grieving Italians demand the truth on the pandemic. Support your local PBS station here: https://pbs.org/donate WATCH TODAY’S SEGMENTS After SCOTUS decision, what’s next for American ‘Dreamers’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcD7X… News Wrap: Confederate portraits removed from U.S. Capitol https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fz2WC… What Bolton book claims mean for Trump, U.S. foreign policy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDKEe… Stacey Abrams on turning a ‘rallying cry’ into real policy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NA6Kr… Balancing the health and economic costs of the pandemic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ka0XU… Gov. Mike DeWine on managing COVID-19 as Ohio reopens https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBKNR… Grieving Northern Italians want answers on pandemic response https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAun0… Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6
PBS NewsHour full episode, June 17, 2020
Jun 17, 2020 PBS NewsHour
Wednesday on the NewsHour, a conversation with Sen. Tim Scott about the Republican police reform bill he is leading. Plus: Robert Gates on how the U.S. can overcome the challenges it faces, Japan’s pandemic response, the broad coalition of Americans demanding police reform and racial justice, federal funding for national parks and public lands and how artists connect with audiences from afar. Support your local PBS station here: https://pbs.org/donate WATCH TODAY’S SEGMENTS Tim Scott on ‘looking for a solution’ for police reform https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtr4m… News Wrap: Reports of explosive claims in Bolton’s new book https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Otss… Robert Gates on U.S. military’s ‘disproportionate role’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPc2A… Is Japan’s pandemic response a disaster or a success? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zgmdw… How protests against racism in the U.S. gained broad support https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQFQ9… What’s in a historic environmental bill passed by the Senate ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiY4SwP1BXI Connecting through art when a pandemic keeps us apart https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qHCX… Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6
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PBS NewsHour full episode, June 16, 2020
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Jun 16, 2020 PBS NewsHour
Tuesday on the NewsHour, President Trump signs an executive order on policing, as lawmakers continue to work on their own reform proposals. Plus: Use of force in the deaths of Rayshard Brooks and Breonna Taylor, a deadly face-off for China and India in the Himalayas, tensions escalate between North and South Korea, a virus scientist copes with COVID-19 and Mary Chapin Carpenter sings from home. Support your local PBS station here: https://pbs.org/donate WATCH TODAY’S SEGMENTS News Wrap: Man arrested after Albuquerque protest shooting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYVLx… Will Trump’s executive order force change in U.S. policing? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz8jw… 2 views on police use of force in killing of Rayshard Brooks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uwjmg… Breonna Taylor’s killing and police treatment of black women https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ubytk… Himalayan border dispute between China, India turns violent https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYi2T… What’s behind North Korea’s latest act of aggression https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QC0mM… A virus scientist on his own battle with COVID-19 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GT8RB… Mary Chapin Carpenter on music as a tonic for the times https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0c4K… Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6
PBS NewsHour full episode, June 15, 2020
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Jun 15, 2020 PBS NewsHour
Monday on the NewsHour, the U.S. Supreme Court rules job discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or transgender identity is illegal. Plus: What the decision means for LGBTQ rights, Atlanta protests intensify after police fatally shoot a black man, how Minneapolis could overhaul its police department, COVID-19 vaccine risks and research, two Americans jailed abroad and Politics Monday. Support your local PBS station here: https://pbs.org/donate WATCH TODAY’S SEGMENTS A ‘milestone’ Supreme Court ruling on LGBTQ job protections https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fxh_e… What landmark Supreme Court ruling means for LGBTQ rights https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0FGy… Atlanta protests after black man fatally shot by police https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wag9C… News Wrap: Coronavirus cases surge in at least 22 states https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZSqS… How Minneapolis wants to reimagine the future of policing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECs71… Why young people are volunteering to be exposed to COVID-19 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6X8CW… 2 Americans held abroad convicted in controversial trials https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Q4kB… Tamara Keith and Amy Walter on Trump and police protests https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIjYN… Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6
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PBS NewsHour Weekend full episode June 14, 2020
Jun 14, 2020 PBS NewsHour
On this edition for Sunday, June 14, Atlanta, Georgia erupts after police fatally shoot a black man, prompting the city’s police chief to resign; and protests over George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis continue in the U.S. and around the world with demands for police reform and racial justice. Hari Sreenivasan anchors from New York. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6
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PBS NewsHour Weekend full episode June 13, 2020
Jun 13, 2020 PBS NewsHour
On this edition for Saturday, June 13, President Trump addresses West Point’s graduating class, protesters across the global continue to march for racial justice, and coronavirus cases surge as cities and states begin to reopen. Hari Sreenivasan anchors from New York. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6
Outrage over George Floyd catalyzes movements for racial justice abroad
Jun 11, 2020 PBS NewsHour
The killing of George Floyd has led to racial reckonings far beyond the U.S. In France, protesters point to incidents of police violence against black people and complain the government hasn’t done enough to address systemic racism. Activists in the United Kingdom say their national history is “whitewashed.” And in Berlin, Black Lives Matter is calling for reparations. Nick Schifrin reports. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6
Syrian artists Aziz Asmar and Anis Hamdoun finish a mural depicting George Floyd in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province. https://t.co/fsWfkv8XHB pic.twitter.com/YUMQhn07M6
— ABC News (@ABC) June 1, 2020
Syrian artists Aziz Asmar and Anis Hamdoun finish a mural depicting George Floyd in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province. https://abcn.ws/2TWPRXy
Syrian civilians prepare for a new battle with invisible foe: coronavirus
Jun 10, 2020 PBS NewsHour
The brutal war in Syria is now in its 10th year, and amid renewed bombing by the air corps of Bashar al-Assad and his Russian backers, a new worry looms: coronavirus. The country’s health care system has been destroyed in the conflict, and people who have already suffered so much are now rushing to produce homemade COVID-19 tests, ventilators and disinfectant. Nick Schifrin reports. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6
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Today’s top stories: Boris tells adults the best present they can give their mother for Mother’s Day is to stay away, the health secretary has said 4,500 retired healthcare workers have signed up to help battle coronavirus and lockdown in the Italian region of Lombardy has been tightened as the country confirmed more than 53,500 cases of COVID-19. ? Boris Johnson warns of ‘stark’ and ‘accelerating’ coronavirus numbers ahead of Mother’s Day https://trib.al/lrbMq77 ? 4,500 retired doctors and nurses sign up to battle COVID-19 pandemic https://trib.al/LYsfa83 ? Lockdown tightens in parts of Italy hardest hit by COVID-19 https://trib.al/oBdZFdy SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube channel for more videos: http://www.youtube.com/skynews Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/skynews and https://twitter.com/skynewsbreak Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skynews Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skynews Sky News videos are now available in Spanish here/Los video de Sky News están disponibles en español aquí https://www.youtube.com/skynewsespanol For more content go to http://news.sky.com and download our apps: Apple https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/sky-n… Android https://play.google.com/store/apps/de…
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George Floyd, From ‘I Want to Touch the World’ to ‘I Can’t Breathe’
Mr. Floyd had big plans for life nearly 30 years ago. His death in police custody is powering a movement against police brutality and racial injustice.
A memorial to George Floyd in Minneapolis.Credit…Joshua Rashaad McFadden for The New York Times
By Manny Fernandez and Audra D. S. Burch
June 11, 2020 Leer en español
HOUSTON — It was the last day of 11th grade at Jack Yates High School in Houston, nearly three decades ago. A group of close friends, on their way home, were contemplating what senior year and beyond would bring. They were black teenagers on the precipice of manhood. What, they asked one another, did they want to do with their lives?
George Floyd
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“George turned to me and said, ‘I want to touch the world,’” said Jonathan Veal, 45, recalling the aspiration of one of the young men — a tall, gregarious star athlete named George Floyd whom he had met in the school cafeteria on the first day of sixth grade. To their 17-year-old minds, touching the world maybe meant the N.B.A. or the N.F.L.
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Petal, Miss., a predominantly white community sees neighbors confronting one another and talking about racial divides.
“It was one of the first moments I remembered after learning what happened to him,” Mr. Veal said. “He could not have imagined that this is the tragic way people would know his name.”
The world now knows George Perry Floyd Jr. through his final harrowing moments, as he begged for air, his face wedged for nearly nine minutes between a city street and a police officer’s knee.
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Mr. Floyd’s gasping death, immortalized on a bystander’s cellphone video during the twilight hours of Memorial Day, has powered two weeks of sprawling protests across America against police brutality. He has been memorialized in Minneapolis, where he died; in North Carolina, where he was born; and in Houston, where thousands stood in the unrelenting heat on Monday afternoon to file past his gold coffin and bid him farewell in the city where he spent most of his life.
Many of those who attended the public viewing said they saw Mr. Floyd as one of them — a fellow Houstonian who could have been their father, their brother or their son.
“This is something that touched really close,” said Kina Ardoin, 43, a nurse who stood in a line that stretched far from the church entrance. “This could have been anybody in my family.”
Listen to ‘The Daily’: ‘I Want To Touch the World’
Today we remember George Perry Floyd Jr.
Transcript 0:00/33:27
Listen to ‘The Daily’: ‘I Want To Touch the World’
Hosted by Michael Barbaro and Caitlin Dickerson, produced by Clare Toeniskoetter, Michael Simon Johnson, Adizah Eghan, Daniel Guillemette, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Bianca Giaever and Stella Tan, and edited by Lisa Tobin and Liz O. Baylen
Today we remember George Perry Floyd Jr.
archived recording (jonathan veal)
My name is Jonathan Veal. I have known George Floyd since the sixth grade at James D. Ryan Middle School in the community of Third Ward, which is located in Houston, Texas. The first day I saw him, I was in the cafeteria, and he came in. And I was just blown away by his height. He was 6’2“, and I was just in awe, just like wow, that’s a tall guy. And he was just tall and skinny. This guy is in the sixth grade? And that was the beginning of our relationship. I remember it was the last day of school in our junior year, and there was this place just north of our school, maybe three blocks, that we called The Hill. And we would just kind of go there just to hang out. And for some reason, the conversation shifted to OK, we’re about to graduate. It was like we’re no longer going to be teenagers anymore. So I know I talked about just wanting to get married, and George talked about college. And all of a sudden he made this statement. He says, man, I want to be big. I want to touch the world.
[music]
Most of us had not seen the world outside of, you know, Third Ward or the Houston community so it was just like, oh. Wow. OK.
archived recording 1
He was just a fun person to be around. There was never a dull moment. Never a dull moment.
archived recording 2
Me and Big George used to go to school all the time. And he’d get out and listen to music and talk about, you know, about the music world, and how he want to do this and do that, and just be successful.
archived recording 3
We were young, just kids. We trying to figure this thing out, you know? It’s when you’re in your 20s, your early 20s and you’re trying to figure out — you’re trying to see what direction you’re going to go in, just waking up and just trying to figure it out.
archived recording
I met Floyd seven to 10 years ago while I was trying to plant a church, Resurrection Houston’s Ministry, in the middle of Third Ward Houston, Texas, in the Cuney Homes Housing Project. And say I go to a neighborhood, I can knock on 50 doors. 50 people may come out. Floyd comes out the door, 100 people come out. Everybody knows him. He’s connected. Man, just to see his impact was amazing, his road to redemption. And then how God used him in this season and in this moment.
[music]
archived recording 1
Soon as he come in the door, he asks you, are you good? You all right? Always. And he would say — he always said things twice sometimes. He always called me Al-Al, and he called Teresa T-T. He just — that’s just him. Every time we cooked him a meal, gave him a plate, he’d come down rubbing his tummy and just go, “thank you, thank you, thank you.” You know what I mean? And he always said this for the whole time that Teresa and me and him lived here together. He always would tell us, “I want y’all to know I appreciate you.” He always would tell us that.
archived recording (jonathan veal)
After I learned that this was my friend, just a flood of emotions came about. I didn’t sleep the next couple of nights just thinking about what happened. And then that’s when it became global. And then I was like, wow, it’s literally happening. He’s touching the world. He’s touching the world. I was just like, wow.
caitlin dickerson
From The New York Times, I’m Caitlin Dickerson. This is “The Daily.” Today: George Floyd’s funeral. My colleague Manny Fernandez was in Houston. It’s Wednesday, June 10.
[phone ringing]
manny fernandez
Hi, guys.
caitlin dickerson
Hey, Manny. It’s Caitlin.
manny fernandez
How you doing?
caitlin dickerson
I’m OK. How are you and where are you?
manny fernandez
I am in the parking lot of the Fountain of Praise Church in Southwest Houston, where George Floyd’s funeral was just held.
caitlin dickerson
And what was today about?
manny fernandez
So today was about two different things — and you saw this during the service itself, and then I got this sense from talking to people outside. On the one hand, there was a lot of people who wanted to talk about George Floyd as a symbol of a movement, and George Floyd’s death not being in vain. And yet on the other hand, a lot of people were trying to say, hold on, wait, let’s talk about him as a man. And let’s kind of talk about the jokes he used to crack, and the pranks he used to pull, and what he was like in the projects of Houston where he’s from. And so I think that there was that two-sided story that you kind of heard today. Let’s remember the man who’s become this symbol, and let’s also just remember the man himself.
caitlin dickerson
And this is a familiar dynamic for you, right? I mean, you’ve covered funerals for other people who’ve died at the hands of police, and you’ve seen this dynamic before.
manny fernandez
Yeah, absolutely. It reminded me of 2014 with Michael Brown’s funeral, when people gather around, and they say, give us a little bit of space in this social justice movement that’s popping up around this person’s death. Give us a few hours in a day to talk about them and their flaws, right? And to sort of talk about them as a full human before their life becomes more myth than reality. And I think that the people here at the funeral tried to sort of hold onto that space as long as they can before the train has left the station.
caitlin dickerson
And you heard some of that today, but you’ve also been reporting for the last few weeks on George Floyd, who he was. So what have you learned about his life?
manny fernandez
I spent a lot of time at the place where he’s from. And he’s from a place called the Bricks. And the Bricks are a nickname for the Cuney Homes Public Housing Project in Houston. And he grew up in the Cuney Homes in the ‘80s, in the ‘90s and the early 2000s. And it’s a hard world. But by all accounts, he’s a pretty happy kid. George’s mother was sort of a matron of the Cuney Homes. She was raising her kids. She was raising George. And at the same time, she started raising her own grandchildren for a time, and she started raising some of the neighbor’s children. And she fed them, they spent the night at her apartment. And that’s who Miss Cissy was. That’s who George Floyd’s mother was, a mother to a lot of Cuney Homes.
caitlin dickerson
So what happens once George moves into high school and then adulthood?
manny fernandez
So George Floyd goes to high school just down the street from Cuney Homes. He goes to Jack Yates High School. He’s a big kid. Eventually he grows to 6’6“, and he kind of immediately becomes a star basketball player and a star football player. He helps take the football team to state shampionships in 1992, and he is so good that he gets a basketball scholarship to go to college in South Florida. And he goes there, and he plays a little bit of basketball. It doesn’t work out. He transfers back to Texas. He goes to the Kingsville campus of Texas A&M University, and he goes there for a couple years. Meanwhile, he’s going back and forth to Houston, back and forth to the Third Ward. And as he’s doing that, he meets this legendary producer named DJ Screw —
archived recording (dj screw)
[MUSIC]:
— who eventually becomes sort of a legend in Houston rap circles.
(SINGING) Hey. Hey!
manny fernandez
And there was a time in the early ‘90s when DJ Screw made a bunch of mix tapes.
archived recording (dj screw)
(RAPPING) Welcome, y’all to the fabulous Carolina West. I own this [EXPLETIVE].
manny fernandez
And DJ Screw is rapping on these tapes, but he also invites other rappers to come in. And a lot of these rappers are just kids from the neighborhood —
archived recording (george floyd)
(RAPPING) Man, it’s going down. Know what I’m saying?
manny fernandez
— while George Floyd is one of those guys rapping on DJ Screw’s mixtape.
archived recording (george floyd)
(RAPPING) Know what I’m saying? Big Floyd representing [INAUDIBLE].
manny fernandez
And he calls himself Big Floyd.
archived recording (george floyd)
(RAPPING) — going down like a [EXPLETIVE], know what I’m saying? Watch me crawl low on my [EXPLETIVE] spiders. Welcome to the ghetto. It’s Third Ward, Texas. Boys shopping blades on they [EXPLETIVE] mixes. Boys in —
manny fernandez
And then meanwhile, he’s still in college. He’s going to Texas A&M Kingsville. And it doesn’t work out. He pulls out of Texas A&M, he never gets his degree and he goes back to Cuney Homes. And that’s when his life sort of takes another turn. And it’s in 1997 that he gets his first run-in with law enforcement. And so for about a decade of his life, from the age of 23 in 1997, to when he was 34 in 2008, he had a string of arrests in Houston. Some of the arrests were felonies. Some of them were misdemeanors. He was arrested for drugs and for robbery, and a few other charges. His most serious case comes in 2008. He’s arrested for his role in a home invasion robbery, according to court documents. And so he pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon. He’s sentenced to five years in state prison. He only serves four years, and he’s released in 2013. And after he’s released from prison, he really starts to turn his life around. He becomes more religious. George Floyd has a daughter who’s born around that time after he gets out of prison. And it turns out what we learned at the funeral is that he actually had five children and two grandchildren. And he starts reconnecting with his kids. He starts speaking out about and against gun violence. And he becomes almost this unofficial community leader back in the Cuney Homes, back in Third Ward, and he has a lot of respect out there. And then eventually, he gets plugged into this program that will eventually take him to Minneapolis.
We’ve been criticized for not writing about and publicizing more of the details of his criminal history. I think some people have this world view where if you’re an ex-con, then you’re an ex-con, and that’s all you’ll ever be in your life. And the people in the Cuney Homes, a lot of them have run-ins with law enforcement. But, you know, your life moves on after that, and people change. And so I think it’s sort of a balance to try to write about the totality of somebody’s life, the good and the bad, and try to do that in a way that honors the memory of a person whose reason for being in the news has to do with him being a victim of a crime and not the perpetrator of one.
caitlin dickerson
So tell me about George Floyd’s final years and his final chapter.
manny fernandez
He has a pretty quiet life in Minneapolis. He’s living with roommates. He’s working as a security guard at a nightclub. He has a girlfriend. He’s still very religious, reading the Bible. And he has this sort of quiet life. He called it his new chapter in Minneapolis. The people who knew him here in Houston say they thought he was pretty happy out there.
[music]
caitlin dickerson
We’ll be right back.
So that’s George Floyd the person. And like you said, there’s also George Floyd the symbol and the beginning of a movement. So how did those two ideas of him play out during his funeral today?
manny fernandez
Yeah.
archived recording
Amen. Amen.
manny fernandez
So the funeral is at a church in Houston called the Fountain of Praise. And the media wasn’t allowed inside. And so I spent most of the day outside talking to people.
archived recording
Pastor Wright, we want to bring greetings to everyone who is within the sanctuary walls as well as those who are watching via stream or some platform today.
manny fernandez
But it was live streamed.
archived recording
[ORGAN PLAYING] In the tradition of the African-American church, this will be a home-going celebration. Come on. I want to say it again. This will be a home-going celebration of brother George Floyd tonight.
manny fernandez
And here you had a number of elected officials, including many of the African-American political leaders in Houston and in Texas.
archived recording (sylvester turner)
Let me just speak, briefly say — let me — on behalf of the city of Houston —
manny fernandez
Mayor Turner of Houston spoke.
archived recording (sylvester turner)
But as I speak right now, the city attorney is drafting an executive order.
manny fernandez
And said that —
archived recording (sylvester turner)
We will ban chokeholds and strangleholds.
manny fernandez
— he wants to ban chokeholds in the Houston Police Department.
archived recording (al green)
And I have a resolution that will be presented to the family.
manny fernandez
You had Congressman Al Green come up.
archived recording (al green)
This resolution is going to say to those who look through the vista of time that at this time, there lived one among us who was a child of God who was taken untimely. But we’re going to make sure that those who have look through time, that they will know that he made a difference within his time, because he changed not only this country, not only the United States, he changed the world. George Floyd changed the world.
manny fernandez
And also —
archived recording (joe biden)
Hello, everyone. On this day of prayer where we try to understand God’s plan and our pain —
manny fernandez
— Joe Biden made a video message.
archived recording (joe biden)
Now is the time for racial justice. That’s the answer we must give to our children when they ask, why? Because when there is justice for George Floyd, we will truly be on our way to racial justice in America.
manny fernandez
And they all sort of talked about and told the family that his death would not be in vain.
archived recording (joe biden)
God bless you all. God bless you all. [APPLAUSE]
archived recording
I want to ask the members of the family who are going to come up and speak at this time, if you would please make your way to the stage.
manny fernandez
And then after the first half of the funeral is sort of taken up by politicians —
archived recording (kathleen mcgee)
Welcome, everyone. I am George Floyd’s aunt. And I just want to thank everybody, and I would like to thank the whole world, what it has done for my family today.
manny fernandez
— the family sort of takes over.
archived recording (kathleen mcgee)
But I just want to make this statement. The world knows George Floyd. I know Perry Jr. He was a pesky little rascal. [LAUGHS]
But we all loved him.
manny fernandez
And they sort of physically take over, and they’re up there as a group.
archived recording (terrence floyd)
(CRYING) I just want to say that I’m going to miss my brother a whole lot. And — [APPLAUSE]
I love him. I just want to say to him, I love you. And I thank God for giving me my own personal Superman. God bless you all.
manny fernandez
And they start talking about their brother and their uncle.
archived recording (brooke williams)
Hello. My name is Brooke Williams, George Floyd’s niece. And I can breathe. As long as I’m breathing, justice will be served for Perry. First off, I want to thank all of you for coming out to support George Perry Floyd. My uncle was a father, brother, uncle and a cousin to many. Spiritually grounded, an activist, he always moved people with his words.
manny fernandez
And it becomes very powerful to hear them talk in a very intimate way about their relatives.
archived recording (brooke williams)
My most favorite memory when my uncle was when he paid me to scratch his head. After long days of work, we arrived at home. We even created a song about it called “Scratch my head, scratch my head, yeah!” [LAUGHS]
But after that, I knew he was a comedian. He always told me, baby girl, you’re going to go so far with that beautiful smile and brains of yours.”=
archived recording (cyril white)
Well then fast forward to 1998, I started a college exhibition tour team touring around the country going to play different colleges and exhibition games. And Big Floyd, that was my first power forward. I would be calling around, trying to get contracts with the different schools, and the coaches would ask me, who’s your big man? And I would say, George Floyd. They’d say, oh, you got Big Floyd. OK, well your team must be pretty good. And so then we would go off and play.
manny fernandez
And it was those little moments and those little anecdotes that really, I think, helped people get a sense of who George was.
archived recording (philonese floyd)
Everybody know who Big Floyd is now. Third Ward, Cuney Homes —
manny fernandez
As the family spoke —
archived recording (brady bob)
From the Cuney Home to Jack Yates High —
manny fernandez
— you really heard —
archived recording (cyril white)
— from Third Ward and the Cuney Homes to come and join me.
manny fernandez
— this sort of Third Ward pride come up.
archived recording
— in Third Ward Cuney Home, Texas.
manny fernandez
Very historic, black-elected officials live there. It’s home to the only black-owned banking institution in Texas. Beyonce is from the Third Ward. It’s just a place of a lot of black pride and a lot of black history. At the same time, it’s also a place of a lot of struggle and a lot of poverty. And there’s a real strong sense that George Floyd is from this place that is a hard-fought and very proud place.
archived recording
[ORGAN PLAYING]
At the direction of Senior Pastor, Pastor Remus Wright —
manny fernandez
And then —
archived recording
— my privilege and my honor today —
manny fernandez
— you have the final eulogy —
archived recording
— a man who needs no introduction but deserves one.
manny fernandez
— delivered by the Reverend Al Sharpton.
archived recording
Al Sharpton. [APPLAUSE]
manny fernandez
And he appears. He’s standing there in a black and white preacher’s robe.
archived recording (al sharpton)
I hear people talk about what happened to George Floyd like there was something less than a crime. This was not just a tragedy, it was a crime.
manny fernandez
And to me, there was this one moment early on. He’s standing up there and then he puts his glasses on, and he starts reading from this list.
archived recording (al sharpton)
— I give him recognition. I must also recognize several families are here.
manny fernandez
As if he’s going to thank some of the different people. And he starts talking about some of the people who are there, and he says —
archived recording (al sharpton)
The mother of Trayvon Martin, will you stand?
manny fernandez
— “The mother of Trayvon Martin, will you stand?”
archived recording (al sharpton)
The mother —
manny fernandez
“The mother of Eric Garner, will you stand?”
archived recording (al sharpton)
The mother of Eric Garner, will you stand?
manny fernandez
And he runs through this long list. It’s like a roll call.
archived recording (al sharpton)
The sister of Botham Jean, will you stand?
manny fernandez
And people are cheering.
archived recording (al sharpton)
The family of Pamela Turner right here in Houston, will you stand?
manny fernandez
They are standing, the crowd is standing.
archived recording (al sharpton)
The father of Michael Brown from Ferguson, Missouri, will you stand?
caitlin dickerson
Wow. They’re all there.
manny fernandez
Yeah.
archived recording (al sharpton)
The father of Ahmaud Arbery, will you stand?
manny fernandez
And to have all of them there at this funeral, they know the pain of this more than anyone. And they have the right to be angrier than everyone else. And yet, here they are grieving with George Floyd’s family. And you realize that George Floyd is part of this family of victims that should not be a family.
archived recording (al sharpton)
All of these families came to stand with this family, because they know better than anyone else the pain they will suffer from the loss that they have gone through.
manny fernandez
So there was one moment when I think Sharpton pulled together these two strands of the man and the symbol of George Floyd.
archived recording (al sharpton)
God always uses unlikely people to do his will.
manny fernandez
And that was a moment when Sharpton was alluding to George Floyd’s arrest history.
archived recording (al sharpton)
If George Floyd had been an Ivy League school graduate and one of these ones with a long title, we would have been accused of reacting to his prominence. If he’d been a multimillionaire, they would have said that we were reacting to his wealth. If he had been a famous athlete, as he was on the trajectory to be, we would have said we were reacting to his fame. But God took an ordinary brother —
manny fernandez
And he was sort of talking about him as an ordinary —
archived recording (al sharpton)
— from the Third Ward —
manny fernandez
— imperfect person —
archived recording (al sharpton)
— from the housing projects —
manny fernandez
— from the Third Ward projects.
archived recording (al sharpton)
— that nobody thought much about but those that knew him and loved him. He took the rejected stone.
manny fernandez
And it was a very powerful moment where he called George Floyd a rejected stone, making a reference to scripture.
archived recording (al sharpton)
God took the rejected stone and made him the cornerstone of a movement that’s going to change the whole wide world. [APPLAUSE]
manny fernandez
And how those officers may have thought that nobody cared about a guy like that.
archived recording (al sharpton)
Oh, if you would have had any idea that all of us would react, you’d have took your knee off his neck.
manny fernandez
And obviously the world knows now that the world did care about somebody like that, and how he died and how he was treated.
archived recording (al sharpton)
If you had any idea that preachers white and black was going to line up in a pandemic when we were told to stay inside, and we’d come out and march in the streets at the risk of our health, you’d have took your knee off his neck. Because you thought his neck didn’t mean nothing. But God made his neck to connect his head to his body, and you had no right to put your knee on that neck.
manny fernandez
I think in the past, I think there has been this desire to only pay attention to sort of perfect victims, only to give attention to cases in which the person had this sort of holy life. And any brush with the law, no matter how many years ago, somehow was thought to taint how people viewed whatever police killing was in the news. And I think that shifted a little bit. And I see the difference in George Floyd.
archived recording (al sharpton)
Your family’s going to miss you, George. But your nation is going to remember your name.
manny fernandez
And Sharpton ended his remarks by touching on this idea that George Floyd was imperfect, and he still deserves the movement that was happening.
archived recording (al sharpton)
So we’re going to lay you to your mama now. You called for mama. We’re going to lay your body next to hers. But I know mama’s already embraced you, George. You fought a good fight. You kept the faith. You finished your course. Go on and get your rest now. Go on and see mama now. We’re going to fight on. We’re going to fight on. We’re going to fight on. We’re going to fight on. [ORGAN MUSIC]
archived recording (george floyd)
I’m going to speak to y’all real quick. I just want to say, man, that I got my shortcomings and my flaws, and I ain’t better than nobody else. But man, the shootings that’s going on man, I don’t care what hood you’re from man, where you’re at, man, I love you and God loves you, man. Put them guns down, man. That ain’t what it is. You know, we grow up this, man. And y’all hold y’all head up, man. You got parents out here selling plates, man, trying to bury their kids, man. Think about it, man. Love y’all.
[music]
caitlin dickerson
We’ll be right back.
Here’s what else you need to know today. On Tuesday morning, President Trump endorsed a conspiracy theory that a 75-year-old man — who police were filmed pushing to the ground during a protest in Buffalo last week — had been using his cell phone to knock out law enforcement radios on behalf of the Antifa movement. In a tweet, the president offered no evidence of the theory but named a right wing news organization, One America News Network, in his tweet.
archived recording
Did you have a reaction to the president’s tweet early —
archived recording (mark meadows)
I learned a long time ago not to comment on tweets, and I’m not going to break that —
archived recording
But they are official statements.
caitlin dickerson
Later in the day, Republican lawmakers and administration officials, including the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, dodged questions from reporters. The man who was injured in the incident, Martin Gugino, is still recovering in the hospital from a serious head injury. Meanwhile, a police officer in New York City was arrested and charged with assault on Tuesday after shoving a young woman to the ground, giving her a concussion, another scene that was filmed on a cell phone. And —
archived recording
This is wrong! This is America! Please, God, help us! I mean it! This is a crisis in our world to make us not exercise our right to vote!
caitlin dickerson
Five states held their primary elections on Tuesday, including Georgia, where a new voting system put into place in 2018 after claims of voter suppression experienced catastrophic meltdowns. State-ordered voting machines were said to be missing or malfunctioning, causing voters to wait in line for hours at polling places across the state. Some gave up and left before casting a vote. The problems were made worse by the coronavirus pandemic, which left fewer poll workers available than usual and added to wait times, because machines had to be disinfected. Predominantly black areas of Georgia experienced some of the worst obstacles to voting, raising concerns that the problems would further disenfranchise black voters.
[music]
That’s it for “The Daily.” I’m Caitlin Dickerson. See you tomorrow.
George Floyd, left, with Jonathan Veal and Milton Carney at a high school dance in 1992.
Now a time stamp in the prolonged history of violence against black people, Mr. Floyd’s killing has inspired people of every race to march in the streets and kneel, chanting “black lives matter” in hundreds of cities and small towns.
But Mr. Floyd, 46, was more than the nearly nine-minute graphic video of his death. He was more than the 16 utterances, captured in the recording, of some version of “I can’t breathe.”
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He was an outsize man who dreamed equally big, unswayed by the setbacks of his life.
Growing up in one of Houston’s poorest neighborhoods, he enjoyed a star turn as a basketball and football player, with three catches for 18 yards in a state championship game his junior year.
He was the first of his siblings to go to college, and he did so on an athletic scholarship. But he returned to Texas after a couple of years, and lost nearly a decade to arrests and incarcerations on mostly drug-related offenses. By the time he left his hometown for good a few years ago, moving 1,200 miles to Minneapolis for work, he was ready for a fresh start.
When he traveled to Houston in 2018 for his mother’s funeral — they died two years, one week apart — he told his family that Minneapolis had begun to feel like home. He had his mother’s name tattooed on his belly, a fact that was noted in his autopsy.
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The presence of black cowboys and cowgirls at protests is a reclaiming of the traditional role of mounted riders in demonstrations in urban communities.
Life in the Bricks
Mr. Floyd was born in Fayetteville, N.C., to George Perry and Larcenia Floyd. But he was really from a Houston neighborhood called the Bricks.
After his parents split up, his mother moved him and his siblings to Texas, where he grew up in the red brick world of Cuney Homes, a low-slung 564-unit public housing complex in Houston’s Third Ward that was named for Norris Wright Cuney, one of the most politically powerful black men in the state in the late 1800s.
Mr. Floyd’s mother — who was known as Cissy — was among the leaders of Cuney Homes and an active member of the resident council. She raised her own children and, at times, some of her grandchildren and some of her neighbors’ children, too.
As a child, Mr. Floyd was known in the Bricks as Perry, his middle name. As he grew, so, too, did his nicknames. He was Big Floyd, known as much for his big personality as his sense of humor.
Mr. Floyd’s height — he was more than six feet tall in middle school — created a kind of mystique.
“You can just imagine this tall kid as a freshman in high school walking the hallways. We were like, ‘Man, who is that guy?’ He was a jokester, always laughing and cracking jokes,” said Herbert Mouton, 45, who played on the Yates high school football team with Mr. Floyd. “We were talking the other day with classmates trying to think, ‘Had Floyd even ever had a fight before?’ And we couldn’t recall it.”
Mr. Mouton said that after the loss of a big game, Mr. Floyd would let the team sulk for a few minutes before telling a joke to lighten the mood. “He never wanted us to feel bad for too long,” he said.
7
Mr. Floyd in a classroom at Jack Yates High School in Houston. He was a celebrated football and basketball athlete.
Mr. Floyd saw sports as the path out of the Bricks. And so he leaned into his size and athletic prowess in a sports-obsessed state. As a tight end, Mr. Floyd helped power his football team to the state championship game in 1992.
In one exhilarating moment that was captured on video — and circulated after his death — Mr. Floyd soars above an opponent in the end zone to catch a touchdown pass.
After graduating from high school, Mr. Floyd left Texas on a basketball scholarship to South Florida Community College (now South Florida State College).
“I was looking for a power forward and he fit the bill. He was athletic and I liked the way he handled the ball,” said George Walker, who recruited Mr. Floyd. “He was a starter and scored 12 to 14 points and seven to eight rebounds.”
Mr. Floyd transferred two years later, in 1995, to Texas A&M University’s Kingsville campus, but he did not stay long. He returned home to Houston — and to the Third Ward — without a degree.
Known locally as the Tré, the Third Ward, south of downtown, is among the city’s historic black neighborhoods, and it has been featured in the music of one of the most famous people to grow up there, Beyoncé.
At times, life in the Bricks was unforgiving. Poverty, drugs, gangs and violence scarred many Third Ward families. Several of Mr. Floyd’s classmates did not live past their 20s.
Soon after returning, Mr. Floyd started rapping. He appeared as Big Floyd on mixtapes created by DJ Screw, a fixture in Houston’s hip-hop scene in the 1990s. His voice deep, his rhymes purposefully delivered at a slow-motion clip, Mr. Floyd rapped about “choppin’ blades” — driving cars with oversize rims — and his Third Ward pride.
For about a decade starting in his early 20s, Mr. Floyd had a string of arrests in Houston, according to court and police records. One of those arrests, for a $10 drug deal in 2004, cost him 10 months in a state jail.
Four years later, Mr. Floyd pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon and spent four years in prison. He was released in 2013 and returned home again — this time to begin the long, hard work of trying to turn his life around, using his missteps as a lesson for others.
Stephen Jackson, a retired professional basketball player from Port Arthur, Texas, met Mr. Floyd a year or two before Mr. Jackson joined the N.B.A. They had sports in common, Mr. Jackson said, but they also looked alike — enough to call each other “twin” as a term of endearment.
“I tell people all the time, the only difference between me and George Floyd, the only difference between me and my twin, the only difference between me and Georgie, is the fact that I had more opportunities,” he said, later adding, “If George would have had more opportunities, he might have been a pro athlete in two sports.”
Veronica DeBoest said Mr. Floyd’s mother, Larcenia Floyd, was one of the leaders of the Cuney Homes housing complex. Credit…Michael Starghill Jr. for The New York Times
After prison, Mr. Floyd became even more committed to his church. Inspired by a daughter, Gianna Floyd, born after he was released, Mr. Floyd spent a lot of time at Resurrection Houston, a church that holds many of its services on the basketball court in the middle of Cuney Homes. He would set up chairs and drag out to the center of the court the service’s main attraction — the baptism tub.
“We’d baptize people on the court and we’ve got this big old horse trough. And he’d drag that thing by himself onto that court,” said Patrick Ngwolo, a lawyer and pastor of Resurrection Houston, who described Mr. Floyd as a father figure for younger community residents.
Eventually, Mr. Floyd became involved in a Christian program with a history of taking men to Minnesota from the Third Ward and providing them with drug rehabilitation and job placement services.
“When you say, ‘I’m going to Minnesota,’ everybody knows you’re going to this church-work program out of Minnesota,” Mr. Ngwolo said, “and you’re getting out of this environment.”
His move would be a fresh start, Mr. Ngwolo said, his story one of redemption.
9
In a baby book for Gianna Floyd, the daughter of George Floyd, is a photo of the two of them together.Credit…Victor J. Blue for The New York Times
A Protector of People
In Minnesota, Mr. Floyd lived in a red clapboard duplex with two roommates on the eastern edge of St. Louis Park, a leafy, gentrifying Minneapolis suburb.
Beginning sometime in 2017, he worked as a security guard at the Salvation Army’s Harbor Light Center, a downtown homeless shelter and transitional housing facility. The staff members got to know Mr. Floyd as someone with a steady temperament, whose instinct to protect employees included walking them to their cars.
“It takes a special person to work in the shelter environment,” said Brian Molohon, executive director of development at the Salvation Army Northern Division. “Every day you are bombarded with heartache and brokenness.”
Even as Mr. Floyd settled into his position, he looked for other jobs. While working at the Salvation Army, he answered a job ad for a bouncer at Conga Latin Bistro, a restaurant and dance club.
Jovanni Thunstrom, the owner, said Mr. Floyd quickly became part of the work family. He came in early and left late. And though he tried, he never quite mastered salsa dancing.
“Right away I liked his attitude,” said Mr. Thunstrom, who was also Mr. Floyd’s landlord. “He would shake your hand with both hands. He would bend down to greet you.”
Mr. Floyd kept a Bible by his bed. Often, he read it aloud. And despite his height, Mr. Floyd would fold himself in the hallway to frequently pray with Theresa Scott, one of his roommates.
“He had this real cool way of talking. His voice reminded me of Ray Charles. He’d talk fast and he was so soft-spoken,” said Alvin Manago, 55, who met Mr. Floyd at a 2016 softball game. They bonded instantly and became roommates. “He had this low-pitched bass. You had to get used to his accent to understand him. He’d say, ‘Right-on, right-on, right-on.’”
Mr. Floyd spent the final weeks of his life recovering from the coronavirus, which he learned he had in early April. After he was better, he started spending more time with his girlfriend, and he had not seen his roommates in a few weeks, Mr. Manago said.
Like millions of people, his roommates in the city that was to be his fresh start watched the video that captured Mr. Floyd taking his last breaths. They heard him call out for his late mother — “Mama! Mama!”
On Tuesday morning, 15 days after that anguished cry, Mr. Floyd will be laid to rest beside her.
Thousands of protesters gathered near the White House on Saturday to protest the killing of Mr. Floyd. Credit…Erin Schaff/The New York Times
Manny Fernandez reported from Houston and Audra D. S. Burch from Hollywood, Fla. Contributing reporting were Marc Stein from Dallas, Erica L. Green from Washington, and Dionne Searcey and Matt Furber from Minneapolis. Susan Beachy contributed research.
Manny Fernandez is the Houston bureau chief, covering Texas and Oklahoma. He joined The Times as a Metro reporter in 2005, covering the Bronx and housing. He previously worked for The Washington Post and The San Francisco Chronicle. @mannyNYT
A version of this article appears in print on June 9, 2020, Section A, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Man of Outsize Dreams Stirred a Movement With Final Breaths.
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