Family reflects on Floyd’s legacy at Houston funeral

HOUSTON — As they gathered to lay George Floyd to rest Tuesday, extended family from across the country said they hoped to continue the movement that started in the wake of his death.

“This is the biggest civil rights movement of our time,” said Floyd’s uncle, Selwyn Jones, among those who attended the last of three services honoring his nephew’s life. “We have to figure out a way to make a stand.”

By the time the “homegoing service” started at the Fountain of Praise Church on the southwest side of Houston, the sanctuary was nearly filled with more than a thousand people. It was an emotionally packed program that included tearful pleas for justice from the family, a video message from former Vice President Joe Biden and a eulogy by the Rev. Al Sharpton.

Among the crowd were relatives of other black victims in high-profile cases in which extreme use of force by police or others was alleged, including family members of Ahmaud Arbery, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Botham Jean and Trayvon Martin.

Also in the sanctuary were actors

Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx, a Texas native; pro football player J.J. Watt; Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and Police Chief Art Acevedo; and various members of Congress and of Floyd’s family, including his five children. His youngest, 6-year-old Gianna Floyd, brought a pink plush unicorn.

“No child should have to ask questions that too many black children have had to ask for generations,” Biden said in a video address to Gianna and her family that played in the church sanctuary, adding, “We cannot leave this moment thinking we can once again turn away from racism ... from systemic abuse that still plagues American life.”

Floyd’s brother later led the crowd in a chant of Floyd’s name, a rallying cry for protesters, whose pictures were featured in the funeral program.

“We’re going to keep this fight on,” Rodney Floyd said.

Floyd’s niece, Brooke Williams, insisted that “justice will be served” for her uncle, despite what she described as a system that is “corrupt and broken.”

“Someone said, ‘Make America great again.’ But when has America been great?” she said. “This is not just murder, but a hate crime. America, it is time for a change.”