It was their last opportunity to say goodbye to him: thousands of residents of Houston, including “Third Ward”, the neighborhood where he grew up, braved the sun and heat on Monday to pay tribute to George Floyd, in sadness and meditation.
“Thank you all for coming to see my brother”, said Philonise Floyd in the afternoon to the crowd. “It hurts a lot to be here, it’s hard and painful”, he added, sobbing.
A long tail had started to form in the morning in front of the Fountain of Praise church, in the south of the Texas metropolis, where the tribute ceremony was held 46-year-old black man whose death on May 25 under the knee of a white police officer, sparked anger and anti-racism protests.
Some in the crowd were wearing George Floyd t-shirts or crossed out ” I can not breathe “, which he said during his agony; others raised their fists when they arrived in front of the coffin where his remains lay.
Pandemic forces, wearing a mask was compulsory in the church and visitors, whose temperature had been taken, had only a few seconds to meditate before the coffin before leaving their place.
Joseph Qualls attended the same high school as George Floyd in the “Third Ward”. For him, his death is all the more painful than he admired. “He was the first person I knew in my neighborhood to get a university scholarship”, explains this 38-year-old hairdresser.
Kelvin Sherrod, 41, insisted on coming with his wife and two boys, ages 8 and 9. The whole family wears a black t-shirt with the inscription “I can’t breathe”.
The death of George Floyd affected his children, he says. “They told me ‘what happened, what did they do to the gentleman?’ “.
So it was “Important to me to be here with them”said the Houston resident. “This is a special moment in history and they will remember that they were part of it”.
” There is a problem “
In the midst of this mourning, Kelvin Sherrod said he was nevertheless happy that so many people had come. “It brings us together, as a country, no matter your skin color”.
Candice, who also came to pay homage to George Floyd before his funeral on Tuesday, is also pleased to see “The country united” in a protest movement. “It is time for a change and we must overcome oppression, police violence and racism”, she says.
In the crowd, mostly black, white Americans want to send a message of solidarity and unity.
Sarah Frazzell, 33, came with five of her friends and bouquets of flowers to “Support the family of George Floyd and the black community”. The size of the crowd “Shows America that there is a problem”, she says.
The death of George Floyd is the latest in a long series in recent years of Black men, mostly unarmed, killed by police. Like Eric Garner, who was suffocated by a white agent in New York in 2014. “They started again, they took another life”, denounced his mother, Gwen Carr, invited by the Floyd family for the funeral.
“This is why justice must be done to us”, she added, stating that the “Bad apples” were to be removed from the ranks of the American police.
Kelvin Sherrod believes that the attitude of the police towards the black minority must completely change. “We don’t know who we can trust”he says. “If the good police don’t face the bad, then you can’t trust anyone”.
Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo, who has come to meet George Floyd’s family, admits that there are “A lot of work to do” to end mutual distrust.
Far from the crowd, sitting in a camping chair, umbrella in hand to protect himself from the sun, Zachary Daniels doubted a rapid change in mentality. “The question is whether it will continue, or whether we will come back here to pay homage to another black life”, he wonders.
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