George Floyd’s brother encourages people to ‘stay woke’ as family mark a year since his death

‘Don’t just open your eyes, stretch, yawn and think that it’s over’

Terrence Floyd and other family members are set to meet president Biden. (Getty Images)

Terrence Floyd has encouraged people to “stay woke” a year after the murder of his brother at the hands of Minneapolis police office Derek Chauvin.

George Floyd died on 25 May after Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes following a police callout over the use of a suspected fake banknote.

A year on from his death, his family have organised events including a candlelit vigil, memorial march and rally - with his brother Terrence commenting at one such event that he wants people to keep raising awareness in the aftermath of the killing.

“This is just the beginning. The change has started. A lot of negatives were turned into positives in this year, but we have a long way to go,” said Terrence Floyd, speaking from the George Floyd rally in Brooklyn, New York, on Sunday.

“If you keep my brother’s name ringing, you’re going to keep everybody else’s name ringing. Breonna Taylor, Sean Bell, Ahmaud Arbery, you could go through the whole list. There’s a lot of them.”

Encouraging the crowd to “stay woke”, he added: “Don’t just open your eyes, stretch, yawn and think that it’s over.

“Now that your eyes are open and you know what my culture goes through, I want my culture to stay woke but I want the other cultures that’s supporting us to stay woke.”

Other speakers at the event included the Reverend Al Sharpton, who organised the gathering.

In Minnesota, George Floyd’s sister Bridgett Floyd spoke at the One Year, What’s Changed? rally, telling the crowd: “It has been very frustrating for me and my family for our lives to change in the blink of an eye - I still don't know why,” Reuters reported.

The family are set to meet with President Joe Biden at the White House on Tuesday - a year to the day since Mr Floyd was killed.