Monday marked six years since George Floyd was killed at 38th and Chicago, a date that landed on the same day of the week as May 25, 2020 and, for the first time, on the exact date of his death. Floyd was 38 when former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin became part of the case that turned his last minutes into a global symbol of grief, protest and demands for change.
George Floyd Square was the center of that remembrance. Selwyn Jones walked the site with FOX 9 on Sunday and talked about the weight the anniversary still carries. Angela Harrelson also spoke about what Monday would mean for her, saying it would take her back to where she was that day, who she was talking to and what was happening around her. Both family members described a memory that has not faded with time.
Jones said he keeps coming back to the same moment because of what it revealed to the world, saying he always returns to the nine minutes and 29 seconds that “impacted the whole world.” He also said there had been “not enough change,” though he added that people should keep fighting and showing unity as long as these events keep happening. Harrelson said the day has become a marker she cannot escape, and that the country will know it has arrived only “when we don’t have to say the words Black Lives Matter.”
The anniversary came as the city was about to begin construction on a new flexible open-street design at George Floyd Square. The plan adds a new layer to a place that has remained a focal point for reflection, activism and remembrance since Floyd’s death. Family members and community leaders have been working to keep his legacy, and the movement that followed, from being forgotten while Minneapolis continues to wrestle with policing, racial justice and healing.
That balance is also where the friction sits. Harrelson said she wanted a pedestrian plaza and wanted the memorial kept as sacred as possible without being over-commercialized, even as she acknowledged the need not to shut out business opportunities completely. The square is changing, but the family’s message is that the meaning of the place cannot be allowed to change with it. For them, the next phase is not just about street design. It is about whether the city can build around memory without diminishing it.
Six years on, Floyd’s name still carries the same force because the facts of his death have not stopped mattering. The square will soon look different. The question left behind is whether Minneapolis can preserve what happened there while finally making room for the future.
