In preparation for the next installment of Behold for Juneteenth, spotlighting mental health in Black L.A., we spoke to a WalkGood yoga class about how they've sought healing.
The 2020 murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer set off a movement of student-led protests and calls for change. Nearly three years later, many of these young Minnesotans are still working to shape the state’s future.
Students in Minnesota and across the country are set to stage walkouts Tuesday in protest against gun violence. It comes in the wake of last week's mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Texas.
In their own words: Minnesotans on how George Floyd s life and death impacted them
Minnesotans describe how George Floyd s life and death impacted them.
By Reid Forgrave, Zoë Jackson May 24, 2021 9:27pm
These quotes have been edited for length.
Josie Johnson 90, Minneapolis, longtime civil rights activist
“I have silently said to George Floyd, ‘George, I am sorry that you had to experience the method of your death. But what you have done, my son, is you’ve shown the world how our Black men are treated . You sacrificed your life to show the world.’ We’ve always known as a people the treatment the police department has modeled in their belief about us, but it’s always been a secret.”
We re still in the storm : Minnesota students struggle with mental health
In a recent University of Minnesota survey, sixth through 12th graders across the state said getting help with mental health was one of the biggest challenges they were facing.
Written By:
Elizabeth Shockman / MPR News | 6:11 am, May 21, 2021 ×
Students gather on bleachers as a therapist leads them through group exercises for mental health during a student-organized school walkout at Tartan High School in April in Oakdale, Minn. Elizabeth Shockman / MPR News file photo
MINNEAPOLIS Sixteen-year-old Kyree Wilson, an 11th-grader at North Community High School in Minneapolis, has been learning remotely since the pandemic closed her school last March. Being stuck in a room, only able to access her teachers and lessons on a computer with hit-and-miss internet has been hard.