There will be a candlelight vigil at 5:30 PM in Lafayette Square to honor the memory of George Floyd and other “Black Men/Mascs who were murdered by the state,” according to a flyer for the event. Organized by DMV-based groups Total Liberation Collective and the Good Trouble Co-op, the vigil will run for roughly two hours and feature a number of speakers, including Palm Collective co-founder Kevin Cramer.
Today marks the one-year anniversary of Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis. The video of police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck for nearly ten minutes sparked protests around the country last summer, flooding the streets with groups advocating for racial justice, police reform, and police defunding. In Washington, crowds of thousands flocked to a fenced-off Lafayette Square to protest at the White House last June, only to be tear gassed en masse to clear a path for President Trump to have a photo-op at St. John’s Church.
President Biden is hosting Floyd’s family at the White House today to mark the anniversary as the George Floyd Reform in Policing Act is stuck in the Senate (Biden had intended for the legislation to be passed by the one-year mark of Floyd’s murder). A small group of protesters marched in downtown New York City earlier today to honor Floyd’s memory, and there have been marches and rallies in Minneapolis since the weekend leading up to the anniversary.
Jane is a Chicago transplant who now calls Cleveland Park her home. Before joining Washingtonian, she wrote for Smithsonian Magazine and the Chicago Sun-Times. She is a graduate of Northwestern University, where she studied journalism and opera.
