It’s been one year since George Floyd’s murder. How did it change you?

George Floyd became a household name when a video of his nearly 10-minute daylight killing — on a crowded Minneapolis street, under the knee of a police officer — swept the globe and sparked a racial reckoning. With much of the world locked inside amid a pandemic, people ventured outside to gather in cities and tiny towns for weeks to protest police brutality and insist more collectively than ever that, “Black Lives Matter.”

Former Officer Chauvin became the first white Minnesotan officer convicted of murdering a Black person. Three other officers accused of failing to intervene are awaiting trial. On the one-year anniversary of Floyd’s death, the Chronicle asked a cross-section of people how the killing of the long-time Houstonian changed their lives and their city.

Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez

“Watching that video, time and time again, was simply heartbreaking. It’s hard to imagine how anyone watching that would not be changed. I believe Houstonians are goodhearted people who are open to change and willing to change in the face of undeniable injustice.”

James M. Douglas, president, Houston NAACP; interim dean, Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University

“I was not changed by the death of George Floyd. I have lived with race in America my entire life and I truly understand this country’ s refusal to accept Black Americans as full citizens with full constitutional rights.”

Monica Coronado, 21, Lone Star college student

“I see a lot more awareness about police brutality, which is good. I went to a high school full of minorities so I kind of grew up seeing it, but I know a lot of people that weren’t very aware to it or they kind of looked the other way. I see those people pay more attention now.”

Nabila Mansoor, executive director, Emgage Texas, a political empowerment organization for Muslim Americans

“Once you understand the role race has to play in everyday life it’s hard to unsee that. George Floyd’s Houston connection is strong and his murder resonated with us on an intimate level.”

Nabila Mansour holds up her “sculpture” during an icebreaker at Houston Congregation for Reform Judaism’s 9th annual Jewish-Muslim Christmas Eve event on Monday, Dec. 24, 2018.Elizabeth Conley/Staff photographer

Douglas Griffith, president, Houston Police Officers Union

“Houston has always been one of these places that it’s very — kind of a laid back atmosphere. People don’t get riled up too easily. I like to say it’s our southern hospitality down here. There have been some changes, but as far as life in general, I think we don’t have the issues here like they have up north.”

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner

“As Houston’s mayor and as a Black man, George Floyd’s senseless and horrific death reminded me that the fight against racism and our struggle for civil rights and justice is far from over in this country. People worldwide will always connect Houston to the name of its native son, George Floyd. Thousands of Houstonians sent a clear message when people of all cultures, faiths, and backgrounds came together to march peacefully in George Floyd’s memory.”

Mayor Sylvester Turner, left, and Xavier Roberson carry a memorial pillar, featuring photos of William Stokes and George Floyd, during the opening of the Say Their Names Memorial in Emancipation Park on Monday, Sept. 28, 2020 in Houston.

Brett Coomer/Staff photographer

Shirley Ledee, 54, waiting for her son outside Harris County probation office“I wouldn’t say just George Floyd. It’s all the deaths that shouldn’t have taken place. I have three sons…when they would go somewhere I would pray from the time they left until the time they got back: ‘God, get my babies back home safely.’ I don’t have faith in the system because the system is so messed up.”

Daniel Reyes, 44, civil servant for federal government, Air Force Veteran“Just when I thought my opinion of people couldn’t get any lower, the people who are opposed to the BLM movement lowered it even more.It wasn’t just the hate, but also the indifference to their fellow man….most of it coming from the “All Lives Matter,” pro-life, Christian values folks.”

Pastor Henry Price II, First Missionary Baptist Church of Houston

“We all grew up together in the Cuney Homes…and to be just decimated on national TV like that, that’s what changed Houston as far as the Blacks, not only the Blacks, we have a lot of whites also that it shook their world.”

Justin Gibbons, 39, uniformed worker collecting litter downtown, new to Houston

“I’m going to be honest with you, it didn’t affect me at all because I’m not into the Black Lives movement. I try not to follow everybody else’s trend. The way I look at it, the police killing thing has been happening so long in the world, honestly they’re the biggest gang in the world. Because they all stick together, police officers.”

Miah Mary Arnold, 48, author and founder of Grackle & Grackle writing workshops in the Heights“His death helped change the idea that protesting police violence against Black people is a radical act; more white people I know, throughout the country, notice the deaths more, and see how it is a terrible given that Black people are attacked with more violence and force… Our 10-year-old learned to speak up about it when he was disturbed it wasn’t being discussed in his school.”

Alex “Donkeeboy” Roman Jr., artist behind Floyd mural outside Scott Food Mart near Yates High School

“It will forever be a moment that changed American history, in my mind. I think it brought an already amazingly diverse but close community together even more, showing our resiliency and our love for all fellow Houstonians.”

Vaughn Dickerson, Floyd’s high school friend and teammate who runs 88 CHUMP, a nonprofit with three other of Floyd’s childhood friends “It changed me by inspiring me to get more involved, more active in my community because I understood my voice can and needs to be heard and it’s respected in our community…Right after his death, we all came together and agreed were weren’t doing anything…  I’ve been mentoring troubled teens and youth in our Third Ward community.”

Cindi Walker, 64, retired therapist, via Facebook“His death moved me to actively stand vigil and to make the effort to read & understand institution racism, which I had not previously actively studied. Basically get off my white ass & do more.”

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn

“The killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis was a brutal, senseless and avoidable tragedy, and one our country has witnessed countless times before. In many ways, his death was the match that ignited nationwide conversations about the racial injustices that have existed in our country for generations. These systemic problems have led to inequalities in everything from education, to health care, to housing, and while each of these must be addressed, the most important place to start is with police reforms.”

Jessica Hagen, 24, sitting on the sidewalk outside the inmate processing center downtown

“I noticed that a lot of people are more family oriented now that that happened and they seem to look out more for other people as well. My husband he’s changed a lot. He joined the Army. He’s very … patriotic. He wants to change the way people view cops and soldiers because they do a have a bad rep because of what’s going on.”

Derricka Sanders, 40, seated with Hagen

My opinion is… more violence is happening. The police are treating us even worse because one of their kind has been penalized for it.”

U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee

“People were truly hurt, they were truly brought to their knees at the death of George Floyd… It’s changed the nation and the world. In Houston and America, we saw people marching of all backgrounds, all races…it was a warm human experience that we don’t have to travel this journey alone.”

U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee addresses marchers on Tuesday, June 2, 2020 at City Hall in downtown Houston.Elizabeth Conley/Staff photographer

C. Kim Hyatt, 63, captain of seagoing supply ships, Galveston, via Facebook

“The death of George Floyd, and the subsequent rise of the BLM movement, stimulated my wife and I to come out in the streets, primarily in Galveston and Texas city, in support of the Black community and their struggles for justice. We hadn’t realized how truly divided our communities were until we came face to face with the existence of such a vibrant society that had been here all along.”

Judge Natalia Cornelio, Harris County District Court“His death reminded everyone why our justice system desperately needs to transform because lives are at stake.”

Rabbi Dan Gordon, Temple Beth Torah, reform congregation in Humble

“I was troubled that some of the demonstrations regarding George Floyd’s murder seemed to take on a tone of anti-police. In some ways, many Houstonians (including myself) have become more aware of how often people of color are treated unfairly.”

Jie Wu, director of research management at Rice University’s Kinder Institute, who publishes opinion research on urban inequality

“George Floyd’s death is a wake-up call…(helping immigrants learn) how to combat the racism and systematic discrimination prevalent in this country. I’m glad to see more Asian Americans working together to advocate for their rights.”

Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research director of research management Jie Wu, Monday, May 24, 2021, in Houston.Marie D. De Jesús/Staff photographer

Rodney Ellis, Harris County Commissioner, Precinct 1

“I think Houston and our entire nation has changed. More people than ever are realizing that we cannot have a truly equitable society without radically changing the way we think about public safety.”

Michael Fjetland, president, Armor Glass International, via Facebook

“Oddly, between COVID and Floyd’s death, my business had a record year. We provide security by ‘armoring the glass’ and because people were home and feared break-ins of their businesses and because of the riots we were fully booked all year.”

Alysia Gradney founder of the Gudz marketing agency

“It’s motivated me to be unapologetically Black and unapologetic about centering Black and Brown bodies in marketing campaigns. Before I was afraid to express myself in a corporate environment….I can center these Black, Brown, queer bodies in these marketing campaigns.”

Krishnaveni Gundu, cofounder and executive director, Texas Jail Project“George Floyd’s murder and the subsequent uprisings – rooted in grief and rage – reminded us how unstoppably beautiful and powerful open and communal mourning is… It contributed to the cycle of trauma exploitation, and reinforced the idea that public outcry only comes when a murder is caught on video.” 

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Reginald C. Adams, public artist who created a Floyd mural outside the Breakfast Klub in Midtown

George Floyd’s death helped me realize how fortunate I am to have a voice and platform, through public art, to express the hurt, frustration, anger, determination and resilience of a community that’s tired of being sick and tired of watching their people being brutalized and killed at the hands of law enforcement.

Cindy Wiederhold Fluitt, 67, retired U.S. postal worker in Katy via Facebook “It changed America. All bad in my humble opinion. Reverse racism is more rampant. Old white hated ladies have zero chance!!”

U.S. Rep. Al Green

“I am changed only in the sense that I am invigorated and have additional reasons to believe that — in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. — we shall overcome. Something Black people have been calling to the attention of the public longer than I’ve been alive had finally been realized by people who questioned the possibility that police violence of this magnitude actually happened.”

Jerald Moore, former St. Louis Rams and New Orleans Saints running back, played football with Floyd at Jack Yates and 88 Chump organizer“It puts a lot of things in perspective for me. It made me think your life can change in the blink of an instant. It made me think about my own mortality. I never thought anything involving the police would hit this close to home or could happen to me. It really made me realize when I’m driving my car that that could be me at any time.”

Amber Elliott, Rebecca Schuetz, Lisa Gray, Olivia Tallet and Jasper Scherer contributed.

gabrielle.banks@chron.com

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