George Floyd statue debuts in Brooklyn on landmark Juneteenth holiday
As Juneteenth is celebrated as a national holiday for the first time in the U.S., George Floyd is receiving a special honor in New York.
A six-foot statue of Floyd was unveiled in Brooklyn in a Saturday ceremony, a project of the We Are Floyd non-profit dedicated to his memory.
The piece, titled simply "Floyd," was sculpted by artist Chris Carnabuci, with Floyd's brother Terrence on hand for the unveiling.
According to Fox 5 New York, the statue will remain at the site "for several weeks before being moved to Union Square in Manhattan."
This came just a day after the city of Newark unveiled its own statue in front of City Hall, the station notes.
"We offer this piece to him, the Floyd family, and all who will never forget and will continue to fight for justice," We Are Floyd said in an Instagram post.
The organization is headquartered in Brooklyn and says it is "dedicated to honoring the life of George Floyd through community leadership and service."
Floyd died in May 2020 at the hands of former police officer Derek Chauvin, who was ultimately convicted of murder in the case.
His death — which was caught on camera in a now-viral video — gripped America, sparking a summer of civil unrest as well as a nationwide conversation about systemic racism.
Chauvin, who was given a guilty verdict on April 20, is due to be sentenced on June 25.
June 19 marks the beginning of Juneteenth's status as a federal holiday, a change that was signed into law this weekend by President Joe Biden.
Juneteenth commemorates the day enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, learned they had been freed by the Emancipation Proclamation some 2/12 years earlier.
The holiday was not widely known among White Americans until recently, "although it has long (been) celebrated in the African American community," Smithsonian notes.
