Good afternoon. You may be seated. My name is robin wilkerson, and i amrs the cochancellor of norh central university. To all the friends and the family of george floyd, and all of augustine guests here today, i want to welcome you on behalf of the university, on behalf of dr. Scott hagan, president , on behalf of the board of regents, on behalf of the faculty. We are so grateful that you were here with us today. And we are honored that youve come to mourn the loss and celebrate the life of mr. George floyd. On behalf of everyone here, i want to personally express our deepest condolences for this tragic loss. Now, to open this service, the celebration of his life, will have aeb scripture reading from reverend jerry mcafee, pastor of new salem missionary baptist church, followed by an opening prayer from dr. Scott hagen, president of North Central university, and a solo by mrs. Porter. On behalf of the pastors and preachers from minneapolis and st. Paul, the bloods on the south side, the disciples and vice lords on the north side, psalm 27. The lord is my life and my salvation, whom shall i fear . The lord is the strength of my life, whom shall i be afraid . When the wicked even mine enemies and my foe came upon me to eat at my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Who should my heart shall not fear. This will i be confident, one thing if i desire of the lord, that i will seek after and i may dwell in the house of the lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the lord and to inquire in his temple for in the time of trouble, he shall hibernate in his pavilion and the secret of his tabernacle as he hides me, he shall set me up upon a rock. [applause] once again on behalf of North Central university, i want to welcome the floyd family to our campus. This is truly an undeserved honor for our university. I have been praying all week that his sacred space would become a table appealing for the floyd family and for the city of minneapolis and for the world that is grieving beyond these walls. In just a moment i want to offer a brief prayer, but before i offer that brief prayer i just want to announce as president of the school, the institution of the george floyd memorialeo scholarship. [applause] even before announcing this scholarship yesterday, unsolicited, over 52,000 was handed o to me to contribute toward the educational promise of aspiring young black american leaders. [applause] but heres what you really want to say. Far beyond North Central university i amre now challengig every University President in the United States e of america o establish your own george floyd Memorial Scholarship fund. [applause] so people across this nation can give to the college of their choice. It is time to invest like never before in in a new generation f young black americans who are poised and ready to take leadership on oure nation, so University President s, lets step up together. I want to invite you now to pray with me, if you will. Lord, your word inn proverbs 31 is dynamically clear. It says to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves. Ensure justice for those in crushed. Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless, and see that they get justice. Lord, we are asking today for you to take this table appealing here in minneapolis today and multiplyle this healing all over this nation. As part of that now never fading voice crying out on behalf of those who have been and you are now being crushed in body and spirit. At this table appealing today, lord, we ask that you touch the floyd family with supernatural comfort and grace, that they may be granted a few moments of respite as their beloved father and brother and son is remembered in a way that honors his life and his personal faith in jesus christ. At this table appealing were asking you, lord, to show us the way. Our city and nation are becoming rightfully despond it with neighbors set against neighbor. Help us to repent, not just seek to restore. As a nation, cities, as universities, and a as religious communities, heal, make new and help us lord, we build our national family. And finally, lord, at this table appealing today, we are asking you to search our hearts pastors, rabbis, priests, imams, business leaders, politicians and educators, help us reconcile our failed witness and lead us forward c as caring neighbors ad diligent gatekeepers of mutuality and mercy. Guide this generation to change the National Narrative on race and power, and change all of our hearts into the match your heart. We ask all of these things in the name above all names, jesus christ. Ar amen. [applause] amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me i once was lost but now am found, was blind, but now i see twas grace that taught my heart to fear and grace, my fears relieved how precious did that grace appear the hour i first believed praise god, praise god, praise god, praise god oh, praise god, praise god, praise god a note. Praise god praise god come on and praise god praise god praise god praise god praise god praise god praise god praise god praise god praise god praise god praise god praise god praise god praise god praise god praise god praise god praise god praise god praise god praise god praise god praise god praise god praise god praise god praise god praise god praise god hallelujah hallelujah thank you. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, yes, yes. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Going to have the opportunity to hear in just a moment from loved ones, friends, and family of george floyd, but before that i would like to welcome to the podium benjamin for his remarks. [applause] reporter i am attorney brennan ben crawford along with that attorney tony romanyou cc i, as we are seeking justice, seeking justice for the family of george floyd along with a lot of other great attorneys working in the background who i will mention before we bring up the ones who knew george floyd all of his life. I want to thank lawyers like deb and jacob, chris oneill, darrell parks, jasmine rand and carol laxton because you made the whole team of lawyers working because it will take a united effort fighting in the courtroom and outside the courtroom to get justice for george floyd. I will tell you all that because of the coronavirus pandemic, we have to stay on a strict schedule and we have to do this social distancing but i want to put it on the record that it was not the coronavirus pandemic that killed george floyd. I want to make it clear on the record, pack it in with that other pandemic we are far too familiar with in america, the pandemic of racism and discrimination that killed george floyd. Before we make a plea to justice we think it appropriate that you hear from the people who really knew george the adolescent, new george the man. And from whence george came. So i would ask that his brother polonius floyd, his brother rodney floyd, his cousin sherita tate, his nephew brandon williams, please come to the stage and i will ask attorney Tony Romanucci to come and stand as united, they tell the world why we should celebrate the life of george floyd. Please come up, family. [applause] how are you doing . My name is polonius floyd, brother of george floyd. We come up together. We didnt have much. Our mom did what she could. We would sleep in the same beds, play video games together, go outside and play catch with a football and i used to say to myself you cant throw, you cant throw at all. The ball never came to me. I was catching with one hand, two hands and he said i can throw but i wanted you to get the ball. The balls dont need to come to you, you need to get the ball. But you know, my brother, we did a lot of things together from talking with my mom, dancing with my mom, cooking with our mom, brothers and sisters, so much, we made banana mayonnaise sandwiches together. It was a family thing. Every day we know when we come in the house our mom was going to have a huge plate of food separate from each other and whose plate it was, i am and 10, 11, the plate with 60, the chicken is mine, you know what i mean . It is huge. From the head and in the house with my brother, it was like expiring to other people because my mom used to take in other kids and most were georges friend. They wanted to stay with her. They loved her. My brother was okay with it so to me they were grown men because they kicked me out of the room. They have three men like 16, 17, sleeping in the same bed waking up going to the they wouldnt leave each other. I remember the day before school, we would all go in. And in bathroom sink, watching them, right after that, we would take, would take the underwear over there and me and his friends and all that you like. The next day if you put it on the hot water heater, so from that, we learn a lot of stuff but it is crazy because we would we didnt have a dryer so the fastest way to dry your clothes was to put in the oven and let it dry faster like that. I love my brother, we had so many memories to gather. I remember him waking me up saying can you iron my clothes. I look at him and his size and say you are right. You see people how they cling to him, he was like a general, every day he walks outside, just like we came in, wanted to greet him and have fun with him. The guy that was doing drugs, smokers and Homeless People you couldnt tell because when you spoke to george they felt they were the president because that is how you felt. He had a way with words and would always make you ready to jump and go all the time. Everybody loved george. We didnt call him george. We called him parry. If you called him harry you knew him direct. George was the name, everybody called him big george, big floyd, he had so many different names but i am going to go ahead just crazy. All these people came to see my brother and that is amazing to me that he touched so many peoples hearts. You come where we are from, people are crying right now, thats how much he loved them. I am standing strong. We want justice for george. He is going to get it. Good afternoon, everyone. I want to echo the things that he talked about it we come from a long line, and if i can fast forward a little bit my aunt lived in houston and would always talk about being there. My mother decided to move to the houston area, 8081 so we came to houston and we were excited to have somebody close to us but the only time we would see each other was during the holidays or when people would visit my grandmother. We didnt have a lot but we always had each other and we were taught that we always bring other people into the fold. No one should ever go home without having a meal. My aunt was someone in the community she ended up having 30 or 40 kids that would come over because they always knew they could get something to eat and not only food but they could be loved and feel like part of the fold was we were raised to embrace other people. You could see all these people no matter who they talk to, always felt they were special. And would enter into a room, everybody would feel they would embrace them. As i think about the thing is he was a great big giant and he would wrap his arms around you and everything would just go away, any problems or concerns would go away. I would highlight his children. Tyson and his 3yearold daughter, we all need prayer but if i am honest about it we are more concerned about his children and grandchildren. As we go along this marathon to make sure justice is served on georges behalf, pray for us and for their children. [applause] how are you doing. I am George Floyds youngest brother. Talking about childhood mirrors and i would like to start, we didnt have much growing up but all the great stuff we tried was ingenuity. What we had, i mean, i appreciate the love of everyone in here, so much love, we feel love in the city and thankfully everybody around the world, george floyd is receiving, he would love it and to see it, great unity and bring it to you but my brother big floyd as you know, cookingwise, him and other brothers grew up in our household. If i tell you, 6 or 7yearold kid, you were using me but happened to be a great guy, great gentlemen, great man and as a child without no father figure, he was big brother but this stuff, doing the best he can and the mistakes he made, correcting them as a teenager growing up and learning from him, and he gave us a lot of great letters. And would stand up for his family, we want you to know he will stand up for any injustice. Can ice please say his name. George floyd. Thank you all. I am brandon williams, georges nephew, we share the same middle name for some reason. Coincidentally i ended up with george. Growing up i am a lot younger than him. My grandmother raised me, i grew up in the same house with them and my uncles, i gravitated to him and they kind of connected us and brought us close, it was harder than i thought it would be. I just remember all the memories. More than anything i want to say thank you to him just for being there and being a genuine person, loving and caring and someone i could count on. We didnt have much but coming up my grandmother tried her best, she picked it up for me, a lot of stuff like that and we appreciate that. I end of the funny story, the biggest lebron james fan. Dont know if you are familiar with nba but the cavaliers coming back on the Golden State Warriors and i remember the very first phone call, you sound like you won a championship. You know how i felt about lebron, i did in the championship and every time we would talk and i asked how are you doing . You are good . He said i feel i won a championship. It was an inside thing. Everybody coming together and staying out of the love and support for our family and more than anything with everybody grieving and hurting we won a championship, thank you. [applause] give this family another round of applause. Please show love. Show them love. [applause] thank you for bearing your hearts. If we learned one thing the floyd boys love to eat. And also they have a conversation with tyler perry and it is pretty profound and say we are the big extended black family that you portray on your movie screens because we all need one another and you can tell this family always needed george and so it is awfully difficult for them. The plea for justice is simply this. Martin luther king said he who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who himself is evil, protesting against it is really like cooperating with it. On that video what we saw was torture. Reverend, what we saw in that video was inhumane. Martin iii, what we saw in that video was evil. So, america, we proclaim as we memorialize george floyd, do not cooperate with evil. Protest against evil, join your people in the streets protesting against the evil, the inhumane, the torture that they witnessed on that video. We cannot cooperate with evil, we cannot cooperate with injustice, we cannot cooperate with torture. Because george floyd deserved better than that. We all deserve better than that. His family deserves better than that. His children deserve better than that. George wanted from life what any of us want. As Thomas Jefferson said in the declaration of independence, the inalienable right and out by our creator, life, liberty and the pursuit to be happy on this earth, that is what george is asking for like any and all of us but he was denied those rights and we will seek justice in his name. We will all united as a people who are gods children suggests this in his name but beyond specific justice in his case, the prosecution of the four individuals who deprived george of his life, we seek a broader more transformative justice. Reverend out a more just system of policing, a more just treatment of people of color. Chris, a more just criminal Justice System. In essence what we are endeavoring to do is what Thurgood Marshall says, make the constitutional, make the constitution real for all americans. You see Justice Marshall said the basis of the constitution is simply this, that a black baby born to a black mother, the most uneducated black mother, the most inarticulate black mother, the most impoverished black mother has the same exact rights as a white baby born to a white mother, the most educated white mother, the most articulate white mother, the most affluent white mother by virtue of that baby drying its first breath as an american, Justice Marshall said i know that is not the case in America Today but i challenge anybody to say that is not a goal worth fighting for, he said i challenge anybody to say that is not what makes america a beacon of hope and justice for all the world to marvel so when we fight for the George Floyds of the world but more importantly when we fight for the unknown George Floyds of the world, the tray von martins of the world, the terrences of the world, the Michael Browns of the world, when we fight for the philanderer castillos of the world, erica garners of the world, when we fight for the amount ivories of the world, the Rihanna Taylors of the world, the natosha buchanans of the world, when we fight for the Stephen Clarks of the world, when we fight for the least of these what we are really doing is have america live up, what we are doing is having america be the great beacon of hope and justice for all the world to marvel but most importantly, brothers and sisters, what we are doing is having in america be america for all americans. What we want is not two Justice Systems in america, one for black america and one for white america. What we endeavor to achieve is equal justice for the United States of america and george floyd is the moment that gives us the best opportunity i have seen in a long time, the idea this country was founded on. Thank you so much. This is the plea for justice. On behalf of the family, the children, we will get justice, we i will introduce you to a man who needs no introduction who will eulogize george floyd. Hes a man who has fought for so many families that too many hashtags to remember and he always answers the call even when the cameras arent around, even after the cameras are gone, erica garners family, Stephen Clarks family, any of these families the cameras of long gone, he continues to answer the bill when our people call. He is a leader that you see on tv commenting on our experiences but more importantly he is a leader who has lived our experiences