A year since the murder of George Floyd. A year of protests and people demanding change. But was it enough? We look at the intersection where Floyd was killed — George Floyd Square — and what it represents about the push for racial justice.
Guests
Jeanelle Austin, lead caretaker at George Floyd Square. Founder of Racial Agency Initiative.
Suzette Hackney, national columnist and editorial board member for USA Today. (@suzyscribe)
Andrea Jenkins, Vice President of the Minneapolis City Council. She represents Ward 8, which includes the intersection of 38th and Chicago. (@annapoetic)
Also Featured
Leesa Kelly, founder of Memorialize the Movement. Her exhibit, “Justice for George: Message From the People,” was on view in Phelps Field Park, steps from where George Floyd was killed. (@MTM_MPLS)
From The Reading List
USA Today: “In Minneapolis, healing after Chauvin conviction, ‘I hope that the world is watching us’” — “MINNEAPOLIS – On the morning of May 26, Minneapolis police spokesman John Elder sent a news release to local media outlets that a forgery suspect believed to be in his 40s had died after a medical incident during a police interaction.”
Star Tribune: “THE CROSSROADS OF MINNEAPOLIS” — “Storied 38th Street and Chicago Avenue rests in the heart of south Minneapolis, where a middle-class Black community planted businesses, community centers, and one of the city’s oldest newspapers in the 1930s, and where resident families, once ravaged by the crack epidemic and war on drugs, continue to fight against the forces of gentrification and displacement.”
MPR: “‘Right now, it is the soul of this nation’: What’s next for George Floyd Square” — “As Tuesday’s verdict boomed through a Bluetooth speaker, hundreds of people at 38th Street and Chicago Avenue cheered and embraced one another. Though the decision was announced in a courtroom more than 3 miles away, the intersection has symbolized a movement that many credit for putting Derek Chauvin on trial there in the first place.”
USA Today: “The struggle to reopen George Floyd Square: ‘Injustice closed these streets; only justice should open them’” — “No justice, no streets. That’s the mantra of community members who claimed the neighborhood where George Floyd died as their own. Until there is justice for Floyd’s death, they say, the area where a former Minneapolis police officer kneeled on Floyd’s neck while he struggled to breathe and cried for his mother belongs to the people.”
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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