Hologram of George Floyd kicked off in Richmond at Robert E. Lee statue
RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) - The family of George Floyd gathered Tuesday night to join with those calling for change and equality.
A hologram of Floyd was projected next to the Lee monument before a crowd of hundreds gathering and cheering. It’s part of a national tour sponsored by Change.org.
Floyd’s brothers are still mourning and never imagined his death would spark change across the world. They stopped in Richmond to salute that progress and to call for it to carry on.
“I never thought I’d see my brother on a hologram. I always thought we’d grow old-ish and die together in a natural death. It’s just, it’s just hard,” PJ Floyd said.
Floyd’s brothers PJ and Rodney are still grieving, two months after his death.
“His death, just, oh my God. Whew,” Rodney said struggling to finish his thought. The words are hard to come by, especially as they get a look at a hologram paying tribute to the man killed in police custody, created at the behest of Change.org and the George Floyd Foundation.
“This knee on his neck for eight minutes and 45 seconds, it should not have had to take that to say that we are citizens too and we that we want to be protected and served like everybody else, not policed and brutalized,” Civil Rights Attorney Benjamin Crump said.
A huge crowd rallied with a boost from Floyd's family who thanked them for fighting and encouraged them to keep at it.
“What do you want George Floyd’s legacy to be?” NBC12 asked PJ Floyd.
“I want him not to die in vain. I want his legacy to be the type to be remembered forever because I want him to be that stepping stone to stop racism,” he responded.
He says that's what his brother would have wanted. As the hologram prepares to travel the country, it was imperative they say, that it debuted in Richmond.
“All men are created equally, that they’re endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights that among them are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. America, we know you can quote it. The question the George Floyd Foundation is asking is ‘do you believe it?’ That’s why it’s important for us to be here in Richmond, VA today,” Crump said.
The hologram will travel along the same route as the Freedom Riders, who traveled America's segregated South in 1961.
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