The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Hundreds pay respects to Floyd in N.C.
Many gather in his place of birth to mourn, protest.
RAEFORD, N.C. — George Floyd’s casket rolled slowly into Hoke County, gospel music flowing from the mourners’ cars behind.
As the hearse stopped at the church door, hundreds crowded around, phones held high, some sobbing. And as pallbearers rolled the slain man inside, shouts arose. “Black power! George Floyd!”
Mourners stood beneath umbrellas in a line 500 people long, waiting to view the casket 20 at a time. Some were sweating hard enough that their masks slid wet offff their faces.
They had started arriving before dawn, eager to join the global outcry over police violence as the world’s eyes trained on a rural North Carolina community just outside Fort Bragg.
Though mainly from Houston, Floyd was born in Fayetteville 22 miles east of the church. Much of his large family still calls North Carolina home, including his sister Bridgett Floyd, a Hoke resident. Gov. Roy Cooper ordered North Carolina fl flags fl flown at half-staffff Saturday in his honor.
Floyd lay inside an open gold casket, wearing a tan blazer. Flowers and portraits surrounded him as hundreds fifiled quickly past, some of them wailing.
The memorial marked the second service for Floyd, 46, who died in Minneapolis on May 25, after a police offifficer placed his knee on his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds.
“It reminded me of the ’60s,” Barbara Clark said while waiting in line to pay her respects. Her daughter lives in Hoke County. “It reminded me of when I was in California for the riots in ’92. Always f lf lashing back to the same thing. Black men getting murdered.”
The RL Douglas Cape Fear Conference Center, between a nail salon and a Circle K, lacked the grandeur of a bigcity church.
But mourners came in their Sunday best, conscious of their moment in world events.
“Hoke County is my home,” said Ellen McLaurin. “I’m just so honored to be a part of it. So I couldn’t stayathome. I fififi figured I could get up there and just give fifive hours.”
People set up chairs along the busy highway as police dogs scanned the conference-center parking lot. Vendors set up across the highway, giving out Black Lives Matter buttons and selling Floyd shirts that read, “I can’t breathe.”
Gregg Packer took an overnight train from Long Island in New York, arriving in Fayetteville at 3 a.m.
“I felt like I needed to come down here to support the protests and the family of George Floyd,” he said, placing anemphasis on the slain man’s name. “I hope thatwe can all get along with each other, thatwe can start treating each other the way we all should.”
Some locals found meaning in a global event arriving at their door, feeling compelled to represent their corner of the world.
“With Fayetteville being a small town, it’s a military town but it’s still small, and Raeford is even smaller,” said Gracie Howard. “All eyes being on this community, it’s opened up a lot of eyes to racial injustice. This has been going on too long. And George, he changed the world.”
Just past 7 a.m., pastor Willie Monroe pulled his car to the side of the road, got out carrying a pillow and explained to sheriffff’s deputies that he needed to get to the church.
Walking with a slight limp, he made his way across the large empty parking lot to where media trucks had assembled.
“This is the pillow that my wife makes for families, instead of flflowers or a card,” he said. “Something they can have forever.”
He showed off the pillow, quilted with portraits of Floyd and a poem written by his daughter, Kim Burns.
“I’m trying to get this to Bridgett, his sister,” he said, handing the gift to a TV reporter. “Tell her if anybody else inthe family wants one, they can have it free of charge. We won’t be at the memorial because of the crowds.” Then he walked away.
U.S. 401 closed periodically in both directions as troopers let drivers enter and exit the parking lot.
Around 11 a.m., about 100 motorcycles assembled outside the church revving their engines. As the riders roared past, mourners chanted Floyd’s name with, “No justice, no peace.”
Many of Floyd’s relatives have described him as a “gentle giant” — well over 6 feet tall. A former football player in Houston high schools, he worked in night club security until he lost his job in the coronavirus pandemic.
Family said friends knew him better by Big George, Big Floyd or Perry— his middle name.
“My brother was murdered by the Minnesota policeman,” Bridgett Floyd wrote on GoFundMe.com.
“I am his baby sister Bridgett Floyd, and I love my brother with all myheart. He has a loving family he has leftbehind. Floyd would give you the shirt off his back, and anybody that knowhim knows that!”