George Floyd, the Black man whose death has inspired a worldwide reckoning over racial injustice will be buried in Houston Tuesday, carried home in a horse-drawn carriage.
HOUSTON -- The Black man whose death has inspired a worldwide reckoning over racial injustice will be buried in Houston Tuesday, carried home in a horse-drawn carriage.
Under a blazing Texas sun, mourners wearing T-shirts with Floyd's picture or the words "I Can't Breathe" -- one of the other things he cried out repeatedly while pinned down by the police officer -- waited for hours to pay their respects. Floyd's body, dressed in a brown suit, lay in an open gold-colored casket.
"I've been stopped by police. I understand the situation. I can only imagine," said said Osarobo, who works as an engineer in the oil and gas industry. "What if it was me? What if it was my brother? What if it was my sister? What if it was my son?"Floyd's death sparked international protests and drew new attention to the treatment of African Americans in the U.S. by police and the criminal justice system.
Meanwhile, former Vice-President Joe Biden met with Floyd's family Monday, according to a photo posted on Twitter by the Rev. Al Sharpton. Biden will provide a video message for Floyd's funeral service. Previous memorials have taken place in Minneapolis and Raeford, North Carolina, near where Floyd was born.
For 14 nights, hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets in protest of police brutality and racial inequality. Cities imposed curfews as several protests last week were marred by spasms of arson, assaults and smash-and-grab raids on businesses. More than 10,000 people have been arrested around the country, according to reports tracked by The Associated Press.