Funeral services held for Minneapolis police murder victim George Floyd in Houston as the Reverend Al Sharpton delivers the fury eulogy, the mayor of Houston and two members of Congress also among the speakers....By editor Kathy Wray Coleman of Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest
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| The casket of Minneapolis police murder victim George Floyd before funeral services on Tuesday in his hometown of Houston, Texas. Photo by Getty Images |
By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor-in-chief. A former biology teacher, Coleman is a legal, political and investigative reporter who trained at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio for 17 years.
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| George Floyd |
CLEVELANDURBANNEWS.COM, HOUSTON, Texas-Funeral services were held for Minneapolis police murder victim George Floyd Tuesday in his hometown of Houston, Texas as Black dignitaries, clergy, community activists, friends and community members in general paid their respects to Floyd and his family, a nationally televised home-going celebration that follows two weeks of protests and rioting across the country since a White Minnesota cop viciously took the unarmed Black man's life and sparked a nationwide Civil Rights movement and a discussion on institutional racism and police brutality.
It was the third event honoring Floyd, the first a memorial in Minneapolis where the tragic incident occurred, and where Floyd, a 46-year-old father of two, lived
Some 500 people were at the private funeral services at the Fountain of Praise Church in Houston Tuesday, practically all of them wearing masks.
It was difficult to find a White person in the audience, the singing and music appropriately chosen as the atmosphere was that of southern Black funeral with Blacks dressed to the nines and Black leaders, politicians and preachers who spoke showcasing their oratorical talents.
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| Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner speaking Tuesday at the funeral of George Floyd in Houston, Texas |
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| Texas Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee speaking Tuesday at the funeral of George Floyd in Houston, Texas |
U.S. Reps Al Green and Sheila Jackson Lee, both Texas Democrats, spoke early on, Green announcing that Congress had just introduced the Justice in Police Policing Act and Lee saying Blacks are sick and tired of being sick and tired of racism and police abuse.
Rep Lee, who has represented Texas's 18th congressional district since 1995, said that people around the world are up in arms in response to Floyd's death and centuries of racial prejudice, police brutality and the disenfranchisement of Black people in the country."
"There are people rising up who will never sit down until you get justice," said Congresswoman Lee.
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| The Rev. Al Sharpton delivered a fury eulogy Tuesday during funeral services in Houston, Texas for George Floyd |
Sharpton preached that Floyd, who will be buried next to his mother in Houston, was an ordinary person who sparked a worldwide movement.
"Floyd was an ordinary brother from Houston's housing projects who nobody thought much about, though he was loved by his family," said Sharpton, also a national Civil Rights figure who leads the New York- based National Action Network and an MSNBC talk show host.
Sharpton said that God has made Floyd and his unprecedented death "the cornerstone of a movement that's going to change the whole world."
Floyd's niece, Brooke Williams, spoke for the family along with an aunt, who is his late mother's sister, and Floyd's two younger bothers, both of them brought to tears.
Williams said her uncle's death should not be in vain and that protests must continue if necessary.
And she said that it is a myth to suggest that America can be made great again, because "America was never great."
The 'Make America Great Again' slogan is a popular campaign slogan of President Trump and his supporters, as is the theme 'Make America Great' that Trump used as a campaign slogan when he won the presidency in 2016 over Democrat Hillary Clinton, Clinton winning the popular vote but losing the electoral college.
The Republican president will face Joe Biden for a general election contest for president in November, Trump expressing his condolences to the Floyd family but not much more, Sharpton said during his eulogy.
The Democratic presidential nominee, Biden was not there by design, he said, the former vice president who served two terms served under Barack Obama, the nation's first Black president, expressing condolences before the funeral in a meeting with Floyd's family and Black leaders.
Biden said he did not want to show boat and that his attendance would have required security that would have taken away from the gathering
Arrested on a forgery charge over a counterfeit $20 bill, the murder by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin of Floyd has resurrected racial unrest and anger in the Black community relative to unarmed Blacks questionably killed by anxious White cops.
This includes Staten Island police murder victim Eric Garner, whom New York police choked to death in 2014, the same year Cleveland police gunned down 12-year-old Tamir Rice at a park and recreation center on the city's largely White west side, and the death of Sandra Bland, a 28-year-old community activist who was found hanged in a jail cell in Waller County, Texas in 2015.
Floyd died May 25 and after Chauvin, the arresting officer, held his knee on his neck until he killed him, and before a crowd of people as the Black man pleaded for his life, yelled for his dead mother, and cried out that he could not breathe.
Riots immediately broke out in Minneapolis, and thereafter in cities across the country, including Cleveland, Columbus, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Chicago, Oakland, Louisville, and Indianapolis, which had three fatalities.
Chauvin and the other three involved officers, all of them White, were immediately fired.
Chauvin has since been charged with second degree murder and manslaughter and the other three former officers have been charged with aiding and abetting, all four in jail in custody with bail ultimately set at $1 million for Chauvin.
A judge set a bond of 750,000 each for the other three former police officers, who, if convicted, face up to 40 years in prison.
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.
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