1. George Floyd's dying words, "I can't breathe", became a rallying slogan.
41 Facts About George Floyd
1. 2.
George Floyd served four years in prison after accepting a plea bargain for a 2007 aggravated robbery in a home invasion.
3.
When George Floyd was two, after his parents separated, his mother moved with the children to Houston, Texas.
4.
George Floyd was called Perry as a child and Big George Floyd; being over six feet tall in middle school, he saw sports as a vehicle for improving his life.
5.
George Floyd attended Ryan Middle School and graduated from Yates High School in 1993.
6.
George Floyd was on the football team as a tight end, and in 1992, his team went to the Texas state championships.
7.
The first of his siblings to go to college, George Floyd attended South Florida Community College for two years on a football scholarship and played on the basketball team.
8.
George Floyd became a friend of future National Basketball Association player Stephen Jackson, who was referred to as his twin because of their strong resemblance to one another, after being introduced in the mid-1990s.
9.
George Floyd returned to Houston from college in Kingsville, Texas, in 1995 where he became an automotive customizer and played club basketball.
10.
Between 1997 and 2005, George Floyd served eight jail terms on various charges, including drug possession, theft, and trespass.
11.
In one of these cases, George Floyd was convicted of possessing half a gram of crack cocaine in 2004 based on the sole testimony of police officer Gerald Goines.
12.
In October 2021, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended George Floyd be posthumously pardoned for this conviction but withdrew the recommendation in December 2021, citing "procedural errors and lack of compliance with board rules", while announcing that it would reconsider these recommendations.
13.
In 2007, George Floyd faced charges for aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon; according to investigators, he entered an apartment by impersonating a water department worker and barged in with five other men, held a pistol to a woman's stomach, and searched for items to steal.
14.
George Floyd was arrested three months later during a traffic stop, and victims of the robbery identified him from a photo array.
15.
In 2009, George Floyd was sentenced to five years in prison as part of a plea deal and was paroled in January 2013.
16.
George Floyd delivered meals to senior citizens and volunteered with other projects, such as the Angel By Nature Foundation, a charity founded by rapper Trae tha Truth.
17.
Later, George Floyd became involved with a ministry that brought men from the Third Ward to Minnesota in a church-work program with drug rehabilitation and job placement services.
18.
In 2014, George Floyd moved to Minneapolis to rebuild his life and find work.
19.
George Floyd expressed the need for a job and took up security work at Harbor Light Center, a Salvation Army homeless shelter.
20.
George Floyd lost that job and took several other ones.
21.
George Floyd hoped to earn a commercial driver's license to operate trucks.
22.
George Floyd passed the required drug test, and program administrators felt that his criminal past did not pose a problem.
23.
George Floyd later moved to St Louis Park and lived with former colleagues.
24.
George Floyd continued to battle drug addiction and went through periods of use and sobriety.
25.
An influential member of his community, George Floyd was respected for his ability to relate with others in his environment based on a shared experience of hardships and setbacks, having served time in prison and living in a poverty-stricken project in Houston.
26.
George Floyd expressed his disdain for violence taking place in the community, advising his neighbors to put down their weapons and remember that they were loved by him and God.
27.
In May 2019, George Floyd was detained by Minneapolis police when an unlicensed car in which he was a passenger was pulled over in a traffic stop.
28.
George Floyd told police he did not sell the pills and that they were related to his own addiction.
29.
In 2019, George Floyd worked in security at the El Nuevo Rodeo club, where police officer Derek Chauvin worked off-duty as a security guard.
30.
In 2020, George Floyd was working part-time as a security guard at the Conga Latin Bistro Club and began another job as a delivery driver.
31.
On May 25,2020, police were called by a Cup Foods grocery store employee, who suspected that George Floyd had used a counterfeit $20 bill.
32.
George Floyd was sitting in a car with two other passengers.
33.
George Floyd was found guilty on all three murder and manslaughter charges on April 20,2021.
34.
On June 4,2020, a memorial service for George Floyd took place in Minneapolis.
35.
George Floyd was buried next to his mother in Pearland, Texas.
36.
Colleges and universities that created scholarships in George Floyd's name included North Central University, which hosted a memorial service for George Floyd, Alabama State, Oakwood University, Missouri State University, Southeast Missouri State, Ohio University, Buffalo State College, and Copper Mountain College.
37.
In 2020, social-media-based artists and activists posted tributes to George Floyd; one of the more popular tributes was a digital illustration created by Shirien Damra, which had more than 3.4 million likes on Instagram.
38.
Beyond the creation of the mural, George Floyd's murder has brought attention to the presence of institutional racism within the United Kingdom.
39.
The human rights advocacy group demanded that the police officers involved in the murder of George Floyd be held accountable.
40.
In May 2022, a biography of Floyd titled His Name Is George Floyd was published, written by Washington Post journalists Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa.
41.
George Floyd was the oldest of five siblings and had five children, including two daughters and an adult son.