By Press Association 2021
People cheer after a guilty verdict was announced at the trial of former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin for the death of George Floyd
Black Americans from Missouri to Florida to Minnesota cheered, marched, hugged, waved signs and sang jubilantly in the streets after former police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty over the death of George Floyd.
But they also tempered those celebrations with the knowledge Chauvin’s conviction was just a first, tiny step on the long road to address centuries of racist policing in a nation founded on slavery.
Many said they had prepared for a different result after watching countless deaths of people of colour at the hands of police go unpunished.
‘A pebble in the ocean’: Crowds react with joy, wariness to verdict in Floyd’s death
Updated 10:23 PM;
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London Williams stood in Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C., moments before the verdict was read in George Floyd’s murder trial Tuesday, wondering how he would cope if the white police officer who killed the Black man was acquitted.
“I feel very nervous. It’s already hard as it is as a Black man in today’s society,” said Williams, standing with a date in the space near the White House renamed after Floyd’s death last May. “If this doesn’t go right, I don’t know how safe I will feel.”
Associated Press
London Williams stood in Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C., moments before the verdict was read in George Floyd’s murder trial Tuesday, wondering how he would cope if the white police officer who killed the Black man was acquitted.
“I feel very nervous. It’s already hard as it is as a Black man in today’s society,” said Williams, standing with a date in the space near the White House renamed after Floyd’s death last May. “If this doesn’t go right, I don’t know how safe I will feel.”
Then, the verdict came for former Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin: guilty on all counts. Williams, 31, doubled over with emotion, covered his face and wept.
Houston’s Third Ward exalts in verdict but tempers expectations
Juan A. Lozano
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People gather inside a convenience store in the Houston neighborhood where George Floyd grew up, to listen to the verdict in the murder trial against former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin, Tuesday, April 20, 2021, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
HOUSTON – The streets of Houston’s Third Ward, a historically Black neighborhood where George Floyd grew up, echoed with screams filled with the word “justice” in the moments after white former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murder.
Associated Press
London Williams stood in Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C., moments before the verdict was read in George Floyd’s murder trial Tuesday, wondering how he would cope if the white police officer who killed the Black man was acquitted.
“I feel very nervous. It’s already hard as it is as a Black man in today’s society,” said Williams, standing with a date in the plaza near the White House renamed after Floyd’s death last May. “If this doesn’t go right, I don’t know how safe I will feel.”
Then, the verdict came for former Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin: guilty on all counts. Williams doubled over with emotion, covered his face and wept.