Murder of George Floyd

On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, was killed in Minneapolis when a police officer knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes during an arrest over a suspected counterfeit twenty-dollar bill. Bystander video, in which Floyd repeatedly said "I can't breathe," spread within hours and sparked an outpouring of grief and anger that quickly moved from the streets of Minneapolis to the entire country.

The protests that followed became the largest in American history by some estimates, drawing many millions of participants across thousands of cities and towns over the summer of 2020. They unfolded during the COVID-19 pandemic and crossed lines of race, age, and geography in a way earlier waves of protest had not. Most demonstrations were peaceful, though some areas saw property destruction and clashes that became a focus of political dispute.

The case moved through the courts unusually fast. The officer, Derek Chauvin, was convicted of murder and manslaughter in April 2021 — a rare conviction of a police officer for an on-duty killing — and later pleaded guilty to a separate federal civil-rights charge. Three other officers were also convicted.

Floyd's death pushed the Black Lives Matter movement to the center of national life and forced a broad reckoning over policing, racial inequality, and historical memory, prompting everything from police-reform debates to the removal of Confederate monuments. The depth and durability of the changes it produced remain contested, but the moment reshaped American public conversation about race.