Still seeking justice for George Floyd

It’s 19 degrees below zero, and I’m standing with Marcia Howard in the parking lot of a former gas station across the street from the corner store where George Floyd was killed. Howard is a high school English teacher who lives about a block away.

“I meant to come early to start the fire,” she says, “but the moment I stepped outside, I had an asthma attack. I had to go back in and let my lungs warm up.” She glances at the fire pit, which sits in the middle of a circle of benches between the old gas pumps. “It’s too cold to stay out here without a fire. Let’s go to the coffee shop.”

We walk across the icy parking lot to Bichota, the coffee shop. Joining a few others who have gathered, Howard begins the neighborhood protesters’ morning meeting. They have been meeting twice a day since May 2020, when Floyd was murdered by a police officer and their Minneapolis neighborhood became the center of a global resistance movement.