Growing memorial is ‘like a Mecca’
Community gathers to pay respects to Floyd
MINNEAPOLIS – There is a vibe where Chicago Avenue meets 38th Street that keeps drawing crowds. Day and night, the furious and the curious walk into the intersection in south Minneapolis.
It is where George Floyd was killed May 25, a black man calling to a mother who has been gone for two years while a white police officer kept a knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Floyd’s death, captured on a video that spread worldwide, was followed by protests around the nation and criminal charges against four officers.
This site, where Floyd cried, “I can’t breathe” – some of his last words that have been repeated all over the USA – serves as the hub of remembrance.
Floyd was 46. His name, picture and memory are everywhere, in colorful flowers arranged in circles and colorful language chalked on the street.
The people who come here say the draw extends beyond what can be seen.
Devon Whittier, 27, an engineer who earned his degree at the University of Minnesota, flew into town from his Dallas home Tuesday afternoon and was at the corner of 38th and Chicago by that evening. He had to experience it for himself, Whittier said, and cried when he got his first glimpse.
“This is a place that will always be home for me. So I had to feel what my community’s feeling,” said Whittier, 27. “What is not shown on the national scale is this sense of community that I feel and see right now. There’s no agitation. There’s no scare. There’s no sight of any sort of law enforcement or military presence. There’s music. There’s food. There’s people smiling and also paying their respects.”
Thursday, Reps. Ilhan Omar, DMinn.;
Val Demings, D-Fla.; and Maxine Waters, D-Calif.; and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison gathered outside Cup Foods, near where Floyd was killed. They stopped to pray and talk with people gathered outside the store.
Outside Cup Foods, people filled up half a block and crowded around speakers that broadcast George Floyd’s memorial, which was being held at North Central University. When attendees of the service clapped, on the street outside Cup Foods, they clapped, too. When a soloist at the service sang “Amazing Grace” outside Cup Foods they, too, sang.
The atmosphere was festive, with smoking grills, leashed dogs and children of all ages.
Briana Matrious came from Pine City, Minnesota, to visit the memorial. She wrote on the pavement, “400 years of soul wounds coming to the surface.”
“We were struggling,” Matrious said. “What do we do with that grief? What do we do with that sadness? What do we do with that hurt that is so deep?”
Mary Devine, of North Minneapolis, brought her grandchildren, aged six and two, to see the memorial at Cup Foods before it’s taken down.
“I think it’s part of history, part of black people’s history,” she said.
The crowd morphs from parents bringing their children to young adults strolling in groups to older Minnesotans showing up alone. Some carry flowers. Most pose for pictures. At night, the candles come out.
The police stay away. There has been a 10 p.m. curfew in place in Minneapolis for days. It is not enforced at 38th and Chicago. There’s no need.
“It’s like a Mecca. It’s like going to Vatican City. You’ve got to make that pilgrimage to see where the roots were laid for something that is so important to everybody here,” said Josiah McFadden, 23, a recent University of Minnesota graduate. “It’s like an espresso shot for justice. That’s how I see it. Invigorating. Maddening. Saddening. It’s a rush of emotions that I’ve never experienced before.”