A year ago, the murder of George Floyd caused outrage in Minneapolis – and kicked off a protest movement that spread across the world. How do the young Black people at the heart of the story live with his legacy?
A year after George Floyd was murdered, the movement instigated by his death has spread across the US and the world, but Black people in Minneapolis are still living with the emotional fallout from that day. Anushka Asthana speaks to Amudalat Ajasa, who was still a student when she heard the news and marched in protest against police brutality against Black people before becoming a Guardian contributor earlier this year. Amudalat looks back on how the crisis has changed her sense of her city and why she felt compelled to document the movement as it took shape.
They also discuss Amudalat’s interview with Chris Martin, the 19-year-old Black man who sold George Floyd a packet of cigarettes and then watched in disbelief as he died on the sidewalk outside. He told how he wrestled with a sense of guilt over his decision to report that the $20 bill Floyd used to pay might be fake, and reflected on how the guilty verdicts after he testified at Derek Chauvin’s trial helped him understand he bore no responsibility.
