London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Sep 19, 2025

Thousands march in Floyd's hometown

Thousands march in Floyd's hometown

An estimated 60,000 people marched to City Hall in George Floyd's hometown of Houston, Texas, on Tuesday to protest his death in Minneapolis police custody last week that triggered nationwide protests.
Many of the marchers wore T-shirts with Floyd's picture on it as they chanted, "What's his name? George Floyd!" and "No justice, no peace!"

The mayor's office said 60,000 people gathered downtown to honor Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died after a white police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes in Minnesota on May 25. The officer, Derek Chauvin, now faces charges of third-degree murder and manslaughter.

Floyd grew up in Houston and lived most of his life Houston's historically black Third Ward neighborhood, about a mile south of the park where the march began. He moved to Minneapolis in recent years for work.

Before beginning the 2.5-mile march to City Hall, rapper Bun B asked the crowd to kneel for 30 seconds of silence in memory of Floyd.

"We gonna sweat today ... but we ain't gonna shed a drop of blood in Houston, Texas," he said, calling for a peaceful protest.

The crowd then marched to City Hall, where they heard from relatives of Floyd and others.

Floyd's funeral is scheduled to be held in Houston next Tuesday. A public viewing for Floyd will be held on Monday at the Fountain of Praise Church in Houston, USA Today reported.

Rappers Trae Tha Truth and Bun B, whose given names are Frazier Thompson III and Bernard Freeman, respectively, coordinated with Floyd's nephew Brandon Williams in organizing the march. Floyd and Thompson were longtime friends.

Trae the Truth told the crowd at City Hall, "We didn't have no idea if there was gonna be 10 people or 10,000."

The march wasn't an official city event, but Mayor Sylvester Turner and Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo participated.

"If any person doesn't understand the pain of the African American community, I ask them to come out here and look at the pain in their eyes and the tears they shed," Acevedo told a local TV reporter at the march. "And I am proud to admit I have shed tears with them."

Given the continued threat of the coronavirus, the mayor urged the public to wear face masks and do their best to social distance.

At City Hall, several of Floyd's family members, including his brothers, thanked the crowd and repeated pleas for a peaceful protest.

"They expecting you to act like a fool," one relative said. "We all we got. We all we need."

Relatives also asked the marchers to continue the fight for change.

"We know this is just beginning; this is going to be a marathon," Floyd's cousin said.

US Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, who represents portions of Houston where Floyd was raised, drew cheers when she said she will introduce "revolutionary legislation" Thursday with a bill in the name of George Floyd. The legislation will call for a sea change in police departments across the nation, she said.

"It is time for a revolution of change for the dignity of all of us, no matter what our color," Lee told the crowd.

The Reverend William Lawson, who has fought for civil rights for decades, spoke of his days of marching with Dr Martin Luther King and others.

"It's not just black people who are angry. It is the world that is angry," Lawson said. "You have been heard. ... Maybe nobody had heard you before. But with the death of this one simple Houston man, you have been heard."

He called for marchers to "make some noise" and to remember their pain and passion before November's election.

"The next thing you need to do is not march, it's to register to vote," said the 91-year-old founder of Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church in Houston. "We have a president and he needs to be removed from office."

Houston largely has been free of the violent protests in cities across the US, with some attributing that to the legacy of Floyd himself.

"The people who knew George the best help set the tone for Houston. They knew what he was about. He truly was a gentle giant, a sweet guy," said David Hill, a Houston community activist and pastor at Restoration Community Church, who knows the Floyd family.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
DeepSeek Claims R1 Model Trained for only $294,000, Sparking Global Debate Over China’s AI Capabilities
SoftBank Vision Fund to Cut Nearly Twenty Percent of Staff in Bold AI Strategy Shift
Intel’s Next-Gen Manufacturing Gets a Lifeline from Nvidia’s Strategic $5B Deal
Erika Kirk Elected CEO of Turning Point USA After Husband Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
Massive Strikes in France Pressure Macron and New PM on Austerity Proposals
Trump Seeks Supreme Court Permission to Remove Fed Governor Lisa Cook
Hillary Clinton’s Reckless Rhetoric Fuels Division After Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
NASDAQ Rises to Record as Intel Soars More Than 20%, Nvidia Gains 3%
Nvidia’s $5 Billion Bet on Intel Reshapes AI Hardware Landscape
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Trump’s Quip on Biden and Google Lawsuit Revives Debate Over Antitrust Legacy
Macron and his wife to provide 'scientific photographic evidence' that she is a real woman
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
×