By Anastasia Moloney, Thin Lei Win and Nellie Peyton
June 24 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Thursday marks one month since George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, died in police custody in the United States when a white police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
What tangible change has the protests sparked by Floyd’s death brought about?
From Brazil to Britain, here are examples of action taken in business, sport, culture, and policing to address racial inequality.
MONUMENTS AND PUBLIC SYMBOLS
– From Britain to Belgium and the United States, authorities face growing pressure to remove monuments connected to colonialism and statues of people who have profited from slavery.
– In the British city of Bristol, a statue of Edward Colston, who made a fortune in the 17th century trading West African slaves, was toppled by protestors and thrown into the city’s harbour.
The statue was later retrieved by authorities and moved into a museum, a move activists had long pushed for.
– A statue of Robert Milligan, an 18th century slave trader, was removed from its plinth in London outside a museum.
– In the United States, statues of Confederate leaders have been vandalized and torn down, including a statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis toppled in Richmond, Virginia, while a Confederate monument was also removed in Birmingham, Alabama.
– The U.S. Marine Corps has banned public displays of the Confederate flag at its facilities.
– Several universities and towns in the South have renamed buildings and roadways named after leaders of the Confederate movement.
– In Washington DC, the street leading up to the White House is now called Black Lives Matter Plaza.
– New York’s mayor Bill de Blasio has announced one main street in each of the city’s five boroughs will be renamed Black Lives Matter to honor and “represent the fundamental power” of the movement.
