By Micha Green
AFRO D.C. Editor
mgreen@afro.com
In musings with my mother, current Episcopal Diocese of Washington Canon to the Ordinary (Bishop) and former Canon for Multicultural Affairs and Justice the Rev. Paula Clark, this reporter called George Floyd a “martyr.” Clark, a self-proclaimed word purist, initially countered this idea of Floyd’s martyrdom. Floyd was, after all, just a man who had recently beat the novel coronavirus, when he was a considered a suspect, pinned by Minneapolis police and ultimately killed by the knee and excessive forced used by then-officer Derek Chauvin, who is now awaiting trial for second-degree murder.
“I wouldn’t consider him a martyr. I would consider him a man who had the right to do what all of us do, live our lives, and then he was murdered. Martyrs are usually killed and give their lives for a cause, and he was murdered,” Clark said. “However, I do believe his death would not have been in vain, because it certainly started a movement, that I believe, we would not have seen in this generation.”
George Floyd’s death started the new, passionate wave of the Black Lives Matter movement. (Courtesy Photo)
‘An unintentional martyr, perhaps,’ this reporter questioned.
“I do believe he’s an unintentional martyr,” Canon Clark replied. “Because his life was taken in such an unjust way, and was viewed by so many, that he became a symbol for overall injustice that many have experienced over the years.”
Activist and artist and international relations specialist Mahadi Lawal described Floyd as an “unnecessary martyr.”
“George Floyd was an unnecessary martyr, but his death has sparked a beautiful movement. He will be remembered forever and his name will be spoken long after our death,” Lawal said.
Unlike Floyd, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Medgar Evers were on frontlines- they knew their lives were in danger and, in a way, prepared to die in their fights for justice.
“Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord,” King said closing the famous “Mountaintop,” speech he delivered the day before he was assassinated.
However, Floyd didn’t have his “Mountaintop” moment; he murmured, “I can’t breathe,” as his final words before his death that stirred a nation and the world beyond.
Floyd’s final words were scary similar to another unintentional martyr in the fight for justice, Eric Garner, who died after a New York City police officer put him in a chokehold and he too yelled, “I can’t breathe.”
These unintentional martyrs’ words have been used as a recognizable phrase in the weeks of worldwide demonstrations against systemic racism and in the name of Black Lives.
However emphasis must be placed on the word unintentional- Floyd and Garner didn’t know that “I can’t breathe,” would be the phrase of a revolution.
Like Emmett Till, Floyd’s (and in retrospect Garner’s) highly publicized death and discrimination was what the world needed as a wake-up call in the fight for justice. Till’s death was arguably the tragedy that cemented the start of the Civil Right’s Movement in the mid 1950s. Days after Till was killed Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus, which ultimately began the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the catalyst of the Civil Rights Movement.
“Movements don’t necessarily need a martyr, but certainly our ability to see blatant injustice has a way of moving hearts like nothing else,” Clark said.
In the injustice of his death, Floyd’s six-year-old daughter, Gianna, saw how her father’s passing was the beginning of a revolution. Sitting on the shoulders of former NBA star and close friend of Floyd’s, Stephen Jackson Jr., Gianna exclaimed proudly: “Daddy changed the world,” in a video posted to Instagram.
George Floyd was an unintentional martyr in this fight for justice. Without a clear leader, the U.S. needed a face for the movement and a catchphrase to rally the troops- “I can’t breathe.”
