MINNEAPOLIS — Outside the small university chapel, crowds gathered and chanted: “What’s his name? George Floyd!”
Inside, his youngest brother, Rodney Floyd, stepped to a white lectern above a black-and-gold casket.
He had a request for the mourners: “Can y’all please say his name?”
And they answered: “George Floyd.”
The private memorial in downtown Minneapolis was reserved for relatives and friends and the civil rights activists, politicians and celebrities the family had invited.
In the 10 days since George Floyd died with a Minneapolis police officer kneeling on his neck and onlookers recording on their smartphones, his name has become a rallying cry in a nationwide movement against racism and police violence.
“He was powerful man,” Philonise Floyd, another brother, said of his 6-foot-7-inch sibling. “He had a way with words” that motivated people.
“All these people came to see my brother,” he said. “Everybody wants justice. We want justice for George. He’s going to get it.”
Glenn and Freda Mulbah traveled from a Minneapolis suburb to stand outside the chapel with their five children, ages 18 months to 16 years. Austin, their eldest, said they decided to come because “it’s making history.”
“I just want to feel safer in my society, and to be there for my little siblings and watch them grow up,” he said. “Hopefully, with everybody out here like this, it will change.”
He added: “It would take a miracle, though.”
Shafi, a 21-year-old born in Kenya who’s lived her whole life on Minneapolis’ south side, said even though she couldn’t be inside the chapel, she wanted to be there for Floyd — “out protesting for him.”
“It’s a silence right now,” she said. “A silence that represents the chance for change in the future.”
The guests inside the chapel included the civil rights leaders Martin Luther King III, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton, Minnesota Democrats Rep. Ilhan Omar and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, actor Kevin Hart and former NBA player Stephen Jackson, Floyd’s childhood friend.
Relatives shared stories of Floyd’s love of food and basketball and their hard upbringing in Houston’s Third Ward, a black neighborhood south of downtown.
“We didn’t have much,” said Rodney Floyd, “but we had a house full of love.”
