May 25, 2020Reputable sourceWell documented
The Murder of George Floyd and the 2020 Protests
On the timeline · around May 25, 2020 ·
What happened
On May 25, 2020, a Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, killed George Floyd, a Black man, by kneeling on his neck for over nine minutes as he pleaded 'I can't breathe' — captured on a bystander's video. His death set off the largest wave of protests in U.S. history, with an estimated 15 to 26 million people demonstrating against racism and police brutality.
Why it matters
The protests brought the Black Lives Matter movement and a national reckoning over racial injustice to the center of American life, sparked reforms and fierce backlash, and reverberated around the world.
Sources
Related timelines
- The Civil Rights Movement → — A new chapter in the racial-justice struggle