Floyd laid to rest amid public grief
Dressed all in white and wearing facemasks, George Floyd’s family huddled together in uncontained grief before the blue-lined casket where his giant body lay in a Texas church yesterday.
The congregation included members of Congress, Houston’s mayor, the city’s police chief, Hollywood stars and sportsmen.
For them and the global audience watching, the funeral at the Fountain of Praise church in Houston was a historic moment, an opportunity to remember the man whose death in police custody last month ignited worldwide protests for racial justice. But for those close to Floyd, 46, it was far more personal and painful.
‘‘I know the deep hole in your hearts when you bury a piece of your soul,’’ Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential presumptive nominee, told the dead man’s family and friends in a video message.
‘‘As I’ve said to you privately, we know you will never feel the same again,’’ said the former vicepresident, whose life has been shaped by the deaths of his first wife and two children.
Floyd died on May 25 after a white police officer in Minneapolis knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes, during which he said on 16 occasions that he could not breathe.
The family’s search for justice had moved ‘‘millions to act peacefully and purposefully’’, and created an opportunity to finally root out the ‘‘systemic abuse that still plagues American life, Biden said.
Addressing Floyd’s six-year-old daughter, he added: ‘‘When there is justice for George Floyd we will truly be on our way to racial justice in America. And then, as you said, Gianna, your Daddy will have changed the world.’’
Biden met the family in Houston, where Floyd grew up and won a sports scholarship to university.
The protests that have followed his death have altered the battleground for November’s election. President Donald Trump was not involved with the service.
Earlier, about 6000 people attended a mourning in Houston, queuing for hours to pay their respects to Floyd, whose body lay in a gold-coloured casket.
There were memorial services in Minneapolis, where he had put his life back in order after almost a decade of arrests and incarcerations on drug-related offences in Texas, and in Raeford, North Carolina, where he was born.
After the service Floyd was taken to Houston Memorial Gardens cemetery, where he was laid to rest beside his mother, who he cried out for in his last moments. – The Times, London
‘‘We know you will never feel the same again.’’
Joe Biden, to George Floyd’s family