Family, friends, respected civil rights activists and politicians gathered on a small university campus in Minneapolis on Thursday to pay their respects to the late George Floyd, whose violent death has pushed people around the world to protest racism and police brutality.
Held at North Central University, Floyd’s memorial service was attended by his friends and family, celebrities, state and city officials, and civil rights activists.
Civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton gave the eulogy, in which he compared racism and structural inequality to black Americans having a “knee on our neck.”
Mourners stood for 8 minutes and 46 seconds of silence, to mark the amount of time former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck before he died.
The service in Minneapolis will be followed by memorial gatherings in North Carolina and Texas, where Floyd was born and raised, respectively.
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