People memorialize Floyd in quiet, forceful protests
Demonstrators show no sign of easing demands despite shift in tone
WASHINGTON— Stirred by the death of George Floyd, protesters vowed Friday to turn an extraordinary outpouring of grief into a sustained movement as demonstrations shifted to a calmer, but no less determined focus on addressing racial injustice.
The country’s most significant demonstrations in a half-century — rivalling those during the civil rights and Vietnam War eras — resumed for an 11th day countrywide with continued momentum as the mood largely shifted from explosive anger to more peaceful calls for change. Formal and impromptu memorials to Floyd stretched from Minneapolis to North Carolina, where family members will gather Saturday to mourn him, and beyond.
Josiah Roebuck, a university student who used social media to help gather 100 people to demonstrate Friday in an Atlanta suburb, is confident the momentum will last.
“Once you start, you’re going to see this every day,” said Roebuck, who has attended multiple protests. “I just want minorities to be represented properly.”
Protests across the country had initially been marred by the setting of fires and smashing of windows, but Friday marked the third day of more subdued demonstrations.
At a heartfelt tribute to Floyd in Minneapolis on Thursday, the Rev. Al Sharpton outlined plans for a commemorative march on Washington in August, vowing that the movement will “change the whole system of justice.”
Floyd’s body was being taken to North Carolina, the state where he was born 46 years ago, for a public viewing and private service for family Saturday. Then in Texas, where Floyd lived most of his life, services culminating in a private burial will take place Monday and Tuesday.
In Washington, city workers and volunteers painted “Black Lives Matter” in enormous yellow letters on the street leading to the White House on Friday in a sign of local leaders’ embrace of the protest movement. The mural stretched across 16th Street for two blocks, ending just before the church where President Donald Trump staged a photo-op earlier this week after federal officers forcibly cleared a peaceful demonstration to make way for the president and his entourage.
“The section of 16th Street in front of the White House is now officially ‘Black Lives Matter Plaza,’ ” Mayor Muriel Bowser said in a tweet shortly after the mural was completed.