Will this past week in Minneapolis change America forever?

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This article was published 23/04/2021 (1355 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MINNEAPOLIS—On Tuesday afternoon, outside the courthouse in downtown Minneapolis where later that day a jury would convict former police officer Derek Chauvin of murder, I met Trahern Pollard, the founder of an organization called We Push for Peace. He works in north Minneapolis to curb violence among youth, running employment and training programs and helping with mental health assessments.

Pollard said the past year has been a difficult one for Black people in Minneapolis. “A lot of people are dealing with a lot of trauma, a lot of anger, a lot of frustration, so it has been extremely challenging.” The protest movement that evolved after George Floyd’s death here and across the country, opening the wider public’s eyes to the plight faced by Black Americans, had been encouraging, he said. Waiting on the Chauvin trial jury to announce a decision, he said: “A lot, a lot is at stake.”

A lot was at stake for Minneapolis. In the wake of the shooting death this month of Daunte Wright by a police officer during a traffic stop, the city had seen more tear gas and bottle throwing in renewed clashes between protesters and police, and had closed off much of the city in anticipation of civil unrest.

And a lot was at stake for the entire U.S., where the cause of Floyd’s death in May 2020 had galvanized the largest mass movement in American history, coming to symbolize the ongoing injustice of the country’s enduring struggle with racism, and of police brutality against Black Americans.

“We’ll wait for the verdict,” Pollard said, “And see how much change there’s been.”

Hours later in the same spot, I stood among hundreds of people waiting expectantly to measure the change. I’ve seldom experienced a moment where the sense of standing at a crossroads of history was more palpable: as the judge prepared to read the verdict, the crowd silently watched the proceedings on smartphones, waiting to see which of two paths their country might take — one leading to more rage and fighting, the other pointing towards accountability, progress, perhaps justice.

“It was a monumental day in American history when that verdict came in,” Alvin Tillery, Director of the Center for the Study of Diversity in Democracy at Northwestern University, said on Friday in a video conference with reporters.

“It’s huge, right? I mean, we just have not convicted very many police officers for killing any civilian in our country, let alone for killing a person of colour or a Black man,” Tillery said. “That’s a huge victory for the movement for reform.”

And yet the significance of the milestone was tempered by the knowledge that accountability in one case doesn’t mean a just society has arrived. That was especially obvious with the mourning over Wright’s death still ongoing.

As she waited for the verdict, Amber Young, the mother of a 23-year-old son, said he’d been pepper-sprayed by police days earlier while protesting Wright’s killing. “In the past five, six years, we saw five police shootings of unarmed citizens.” A guilty verdict, she said, “gives us a little hope. But there’s still a lot of work to do. They need an overhaul of the police department.”

The next time I saw Pollard, he was helping to manage the crowd at Wright’s funeral a few minutes’ drive away — an event that stopped traffic in Minneapolis, and drew hundreds of people, including the governor, members of Congress and civil rights leaders. There, Wright’s life was remembered fondly and his death decried. Floyd’s murder, and the verdict in his trial, were invoked often. The Floyd verdict was held up as a symbol of progress, Wright’s death a symbol of the work still ahead.

“We’re closer to racial equity in America than we’ve ever been, but yet we’re very, very far away,” Tillery said.

While street protests, occasional vandalism and clashes with police have dominated the headlines and driven debate about Black Lives Matter, Tillery said his research into the protest movement shows that much of its effort and its effect have been far more conventionally political — focused on electoral politics and things like voting rights. For instance, a study he and his colleagues did into the Georgia Senate elections in 2020 showed that knowing a candidate supported Black Lives Matter motivated more white, Democratic-leaning voters to support them than other political framing did. Among African Americans, Tillery’s research shows, there is a belief the movement is effective at protecting voting rights.

Those things may turn out to matter when determining the eventual significance of this week. President Joe Biden greeted the Floyd verdict with celebration, and used it as an occasion to launch a federal investigation into racism in policing in Minneapolis, to promise further racial justice measures and to call on Congress to launch police reform.

At Wright’s funeral, Rev. Al Sharpton, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, and Congresswoman Ilhan Omar all separately called for the swift passage of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. That bill would increase use of body cameras, ban chokeholds, make lynching a crime, allow for greater monitoring of police by the federal Justice Department, ban no-knock warrants, reduce police immunity from civil suits and introduce a host of other measures. It was passed by the House of Representatives last summer, but has been held up in the Senate by Republicans who favour a less dramatic version that notably preserves police officer immunity from civil liability. However, in the wake of recent events, the sole Black Republican senator, Tim Scott, who serves as point person in these negotiations, says he thinks a compromise may be near.

I heard from community leaders in Minneapolis this week who wanted a meeting with Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris to talk about ramping up reform of police and racial justice. “We need to hold them accountable for what they’ve promised. They wouldn’t be there if it wasn’t for us.”

Tillery says activists need to keep the pressure on, but he also thinks that in the case of the Biden administration it is working. “I’m going to say, in my role as a presidential historian, President Biden’s rhetoric on these issues has been a different order. We’ve never had a president use the construct of racial equity in the way that President Biden has. He’s able to put legislative heft behind it.” Tillery noted, however, that presidential power to reform things like policing is limited.

But that Biden — famously a man who acts as a weather vane for centrist public opinion within his own party — has staked out such a historically significant position for racial justice may be a sign that the political climate has shifted substantially in ways that might lead state and federal legislators to follow.

Tillery says his research shows that support for Black Lives Matter — even for their goal of “defunding” the police to put money into other community programs — is both substantial and growing as younger voters become a larger share of the electorate. In upcoming elections, “I think that these issues are going to play a huge role. I think that it’s all going to be up to the Democratic Party,” he said. “President Biden has certainly figured this out. And I think that they need to follow his lead on these things, honestly.”

At George Floyd Square — the street where Floyd died — the celebrations on Tuesday night were joyous (including fireworks and dancing in the street), but they were also marked by determination for the fights ahead. “If we fight,” people chanted, “we can win.”

Floyd’s brother Terrence told the crowd that their persistence was the key to progress. “Without y’all, this wouldn’t have happened. Without the activists, without the protesters, they wouldn’t have paid attention to nothing that was going on.”

After a year that many called a reckoning over racism for the U.S., this hugely significant week in Minneapolis represents more a milestone than a conclusion. To activists, change is evident, while the ongoing challenge is equally clear. Americans are paying attention now, as Terrence Floyd said. Lawmakers are paying attention too. The activists and protesters plan to keep it that way.

Edward Keenan is the Star’s Washington Bureau chief. He covers U.S. politics and current affairs. Reach him via email: ekeenan@thestar.ca