George Floyd Square facts for kids
| George Perry Floyd Square 38th and Chicago |
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Street sign, May 25, 2022
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| Former name(s) | George Perry Floyd Jr. Place |
|---|---|
| Part of | Powderhorn community |
| Namesake | George Floyd |
| Type | Commemorative street |
| Owner | City of Minneapolis |
| Length | Two city blocks |
| Addresses | Chicago Avenue |
| Location | Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States |
| Postal code | 55407 |
| Coordinates | 44°56′03″N 93°15′45″W / 44.9343°N 93.2624°W |
| From | East 37th Street (north) |
| Major junctions |
East 38th Street |
| To | East 39th Street (south) |
| Construction | |
| Inauguration | May 25, 2022 |
| Other | |
| Known for |
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| Website | minneapolismn.gov |
George Floyd Square, officially George Perry Floyd Square, is the commemorative street name for the section of Chicago Avenue in the U.S. city of Minneapolis from East 37th Street to East 39th Street. It is named after George Floyd, a Black man who was murdered there by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin on May 25, 2020. The streetway and memorial site is centered at the 38th and Chicago intersection.
Public outrage over Floyd's murder resulted in the largest mass protest movement in United States history, largely over issues of systemic racism and police brutality. Racial justice activists and some community members erected barricades and closed the 38th and Chicago street intersection to vehicular traffic for over a year during the George Floyd Square occupied protest in 2020 and 2021. Artists and demonstrators installed several exhibits, paintings, sculptures, and other works of art to memorialize Floyd and visualize racial justice themes.
The City of Minneapolis officially designated the streetway as George Perry Floyd Square in 2022. Long-term planning for an official, permanent memorial to Floyd at the site is underway.
Contents
Geography
Chicago Avenue is a major north–south thorough fare in Minneapolis. It was named Ames Street in an 1855 city plat map. Sometime in the late 1880s, the Minneapolis City Council changed the name of Ames Street to Chicago Avenue, but historians are unsure exactly when or why the street was renamed.
Chicago Avenue intersects East 38th Street in the city's Powderhorn community. The 38th and Chicago street intersection is a border for several city neighborhoods: Bancroft, Bryant, Central, and Powderhorn Park.
History
Autonomous zone
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Soon after Floyd's murder, people left memorials to him near the Cup Foods store. The street intersection soon transitioned to an occupation protest referred to as George Floyd Square as protesters erected barricades to block vehicular traffic and transformed the space with public art of Floyd and that of other racial justice themes. The physical occupation of the street intersection after Floyd's murder persisted for over a year. The city reopened the street intersection to vehicular traffic on June 20, 2021, but the protest movement that was rooted there persisted into 2022.
Street renaming
In September 2020, the city named the two-block section of Chicago Avenue from East 37th Street (northern end) to East 39th Street (southern end) as "George Perry Floyd Jr. Place". The city again renamed the street way as "George Perry Floyd Square", with an inauguration ceremony taking place on May 25, 2022, the second anniversary of Floyd's murder.
Permanent memorial planning
Minneapolis officials designated the broader East 38th Street corridor as one of seven city cultural districts in late 2020. As part of the cultural district's long-term design plan, officials sought to preserve public art installments at the 38th and Chicago intersection that emerged in the aftermath of George Floyd's murder. The City of Minneapolis stated in mid 2021 that it would work with the local community to establish a permanent memorial at the street intersection. In 2022, the City of Minneapolis began a process to "re-envision" the streets of 38th Street East and Chicago Avenue to permanently incorporate memorials to George Floyd and make transportation improvements.
George Floyd Global Memorial
George Floyd Global Memorial is a 501(c)3 organization in Minneapolis with a headquarters' office on the 3500 block of Chicago Avenue. The organization acts as a curator of the demonstrator-installed art exhibits at George Floyd Square. Its mission is to inventory, collect, and preserve the public art installations and the approximately 5,000 offerings that were left by visitors at the square.
Other notable features
Chicago Avenue Fine Arts Center
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The arts center was founded in 2007 by residents in the Central and Bryant neighborhoods with the goal to increase equity in public art. By 2020, the center was serving 800 artists per year.
Cup Foods
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On May 25, 2020, a 9-1-1 call from an employee at Cup Foods led to the fatal encounter between George Floyd and the Minneapolis police. The employee reported that Floyd had paid using a suspected counterfeit $20 bill. Derek Chauvin and three other police officers arrived in response, and they arrested and detained Floyd. During the arrest, Chauvin killed Floyd. Several bystanders attempted to intervene unsuccessfully. Cup Foods closed temporarily during the George Floyd protests in Minneapolis–Saint Paul and unrest in mid 2020, but re-opened in August 2020.
Visitors
George Floyd Square has hosted thousands of visitors from around the world. Caretakers for the memorial do not view the site as a tourist destination, but as a place for reflection about issues of racism and injustice. The site has been likened to other monuments of historic trauma, such as the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., and the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, where Martin Luther King Jr. was killed.
