By Jacob Kuiper
Staff Writer
Angela Harrelson, activist and aunt of George Floyd, recently visited the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy to speak about her nephew, her road to activism after his death, and her new book “Lift Your Voice: How My Nephew George Floyd’s Murder Changed the World.”
She spoke as part of the University of Michigan’s “Masterclass in Activism” event; a partnership between its Center for Racial Justice and its education initiative “Democracy and Debate,” which seeks to educate the UM community on topics like democracy and voting as well as encourages healthy dialogue. Celeste M. Watkins-Hayes, interim dean of the Ford School and founding director of the Center for Racial Justice introduced Harrelson and moderated the event.
Watkins-Hayes began the event with the simple question of “Who was Perry?” (Perry is a family nickname for Floyd). Harrelson was grateful for the opportunity to be able to humanize Floyd, “I’m glad you asked that because after his murder…his name became more like a hashtag to some people, because that’s what they knew, but to me he was family.”
Harrelson also shared his aspirational career goals and big dreams as a child, “when he was in the second grade he wanted to be supreme court judge. He wanted to be an NFL player. He wanted to be an NBA player. He had all these dreams.” She went on to bemoan that many challenges got in the way of Floyd’s success after he and his mother moved to Houston, “but my sister lived in a really, really tough neighborhood…the projects, you know, drugs…[the] environment wasn’t healthy…Perry often struggled with helping my sister with his younger nieces…and trying to go to school.” She explained candidly that drugs were a problem for Floyd, “he end[ed] up getting in a lot of trouble…doing drug[s]…he ended up doing time…trying to make quick money….”
Despite some low moments, Floyd was committed to sobriety, bettering himself, and making an impact on his community. Harrelson explained, “after he got out…he made a promise to [his mother] that he would do better…he changes [his] life around when he got out [of prison]…[he] reached out to the pastors to help him do outreach work…to help the young Black challenged teens.”
Harrelson went on to explain that Floyd’s road to recovery led him to seek treatment in Minneapolis, where she was living at the time. The close proximity and her work as a nurse focusing on substance abuse led the two to become close. But the new challenge was put up before him when his mother died. She initially helped him with his grieving but he took his mother’s death hard, “I don’t think that he ever got over her…they were each other’s heartbeat.” Harrelson went on to explain that it was especially difficult for Floyd because he wanted his mother to see him get better, “[it] was important for him…[that] his mother [could] see this change.”
Harrelson and Floyd lost touch. She found out about his death from a local reporter seeking more information from Floyd’s family. She originally hung up believing it wasn’t true, but her fears were realized when she got word from her family, “The police killed him, Angela. The police killed Perry” one of her siblings messaged her.
This moment of a white man with his knee to the neck of a Black man resounds deeply with Harrelson and Watkins-Hayes as a metaphor for the historical treatment of Black Americans. The discussion continued with Harrelson explaining her family’s history with slavery, poverty, and the share-cropping system. “[You have a] long history of having somebody on your family’s neck,” Watkins-Hayes said.
But Harrelson didn’t let that history stop her. The image of Floyd in his final moments is what continues to drive her, “Perry…was lying on the ground. Handcuffed…behind his back. And he was saying ‘I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe.’ And that message was for me, that if he can muster those words and find the courage to say ‘I can’t breathe…’with the knee on his neck…then surely [God] can give [me] the strength to be a voice for him.” She paused for a moment with tears in her eyes before continuing, “that’s what gave me the courage to step out.”
Harrelson said that Floyd’s death left an undeniable impact on how Americans view racism, “For so long it was a sleeping giant for brown and Black people. He was a great awakening for white America…it created a conversation that…I’ve never seen about race relations.”
Harrelson continued by emphasizing the importance of speaking out when something wrong is happening. She expressed her gratitude towards Darnella Frazier, a 17-year-old girl who videotaped the killing on her phone, “The police safety officer [wrote] that George Floyd died of medical causes…That was gonna be the narrative….[But] you had the world watching because of [her].”
But despite some obvious animosity towards her nephew’s killers, Harrelson also emphasized not letting hate consume you and letting love guide you. “Do I hate Mr. Chauvin? No, I don’t hate that man…. I’m better than that, We all are better than that….I hope that he himself can find a place of healing on his journey. I really do….Because he is a human being.”
The discussion ended with a number of student questions and a conversation on a famous question asked by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: “Where do we go from here?” Harrelson implored the audience to use Floyd’s “unfortunate gift.” She went on to explain, “He left a gift for each and every one of you to use your voice to speak out when you see injustice.”
As the title of her book goes, “Lift Your Voice.”
Cutline: Harrelson’s book, “Lift Your Voice: How My Nephew George Floyd’s Murder Changed the World”, follows her quest to spread awareness about Floyd’s death and racism in America.
