George Floyd’s family gathers in Virginia for unveiling of hologram that will tour southern states

Project organisers aim to ‘transform spaces that were formerly occupied by racist symbols of America’s dark Confederate past into a message of hope, solidarity and forward-thinking change’

A hologram of George Floyd transposed over a statue of Confederate general Robert E Lee was unveiled in Virginia on Tuesday.

The hologram, which was launched by Change.org and The George Floyd Foundation, featured various lights that formed to make a 3-D image of Mr Floyd, with his name written around him.

The event on Tuesday took place on the historic Monument Avenue in Richmond and was the first public unveiling of the George Floyd Hologram Memorial Project, according to the Associated Press.

Mr Floyd’s family were at the event, for the unveiling of what was the first of many holograms that will be projected in southern US states over the next week as part of the project.

A press release from the organisers said the project aims to “transform spaces that were formerly occupied by racist symbols of America’s dark Confederate past into a message of hope, solidarity and forward-thinking change.”

Mr Floyd, who was unarmed, died while in the custody of a then Minneapolis police officer on 25 May, and his death sparked protests in every state in the US in opposition to police brutality against African Americans.

Following the Black Lives Matter protests, a growing conversation has been had in the US about the place of symbols of the Confederacy.

Monuments to Confederate leaders have been taken down in states across the country, while the Confederate flag has been banned from Nascar events and removed from Marine Corps installations.

The hologram will be toured all week through southern states, including cities in North Carolina and Georgia, to mirror the route of the 1961 Freedom Riders, according to the The Richmond-Times Dispatch.

In 1961, civil rights activists rode buses into the segregated southern states, to challenge officials who were not enforcing the US Supreme Court’s decision that ruled segregated buses were unconstitutional.

At the event on Tuesday, Mr Floyd’s family wore shirts emblazoned with the words “I can’t breathe” in reference to him repeating the phrase more than 20 times while he was detained in late May.

Speaking to The Washington Post at the event in Richmond, Mr Floyd’s brother Rodney Floyd said the project got him “worked up in a good way”.

He added: “Honestly, it’s beautiful. And it resembles him. And the energy that was out there last night from the local people — we all were excited. I’m smiling right now thinking about it.”