This Sunday will mark five years since George Floyd, a Black man in Minneapolis, was murdered by a white former police officer, sparking protests across the country and in Charlotte.
The killing also led to an explosion of new or expanded diversity, equity, and inclusion programs at companies, schools and governments. Now, many of those initiatives are being scaled back or cut. Those involved in the movement on the ground voiced whether the shift overshadows Floyd’s legacy and how they view what happened and has changed over the last five years.
Inside the community center at the corner of Beatties Ford Road and Lasalle Street, Alesha Brown pointed out a few of the resources they provide.
“We have a computer, another computer. There’s a total of about 10 computers in here,” Brown said. "Then we have these huge refrigerators, these babies help us store a lot of the food we feed to our seniors in the corridor.”
Brown founded For the Struggle in 2019. The nonprofit serves meals to over 180 seniors twice a week, helps residents with housing repairs, and property tax problems in a community that faces being gentrified.
“We also have a youth program, where we work with kids who are already involved with the criminal system, and the purpose of that program is to pour into them to help reduce crime, in these predominantly Black areas,” Brown said.
After George Floyd’s murder, Beatties Ford Road was one of the places where people protested. Brown participated in the protests.
“An injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere. We should all stand against injustices. Everyone has a role to play,” Brown said. "When it comes to a police officer killing an innocent man like George Floyd, I’m not in that jurisdiction. So, I can’t do anything legally, so I’m going to get on the ground and I’m going to protest.”
Floyd's murder led to people in Charlotte blocking traffic, painting murals in uptown to highlight Black Lives Matter, and calling to defund the police. The killing also sparked local companies and institutions to race and expand or create DEI programs. Looking back on those actions, Brown says that it shouldn't have been the case.
"It shouldn’t have taken a man dying on camera in order for companies to be investing in communities. You should have been doing this in the first place,” Brown said. "Particularly in communities where these companies are present, and where they are benefiting financially.”
Two years ago, a U.S. Supreme Court decision ended race-based affirmative action in college admissions. That decision, along with political pressure and calls from the current presidential administration to end DEI programs, has led organizations to either scale back, cut, or reshape their DEI programs.
"With a lot of companies pulling back on their DEI efforts in light of the new administration, it does make me wonder whether or not their efforts were genuine or performative,” Brown said.
About a two-minute drive from the center is the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police station on Beatties Ford Road. Kristie Puckett protested there, with others. Puckett still has footage from that night. A night when a former city council member, Braxton Winston, was arrested. Winston was arrested and charged for failing to disperse upon command, as was Puckett.
Puckett, at the time, worked for the American Civil Liberties Union. She says she didn’t plan to attend the protest but came out to serve as a mediator. Puckett said the flood of DEI efforts wasn't truly centered on helping those most impacted.
“It was always about prioritization of their comfort. If I can give the appearance of being diverse, equitable, and inclusive, that makes me comfortable, ” Puckett said. "Because me being called a racist makes me uncomfortable. And if that means, if I have to say ‘Black Lives Matter’, I’ll do that. But the moment I can change, and do something different, I’m going to do that. And we saw that.”
Puckett now works for Forward Justice, a nonpartisan group that focuses on laws, policies and voting rights for formerly incarcerated people in the South. She says the rollback doesn't overshadow what happened after the murder of Floyd. But instead, it shows how meaningful they were.
“It shows how powerful those protests were that they had to spend the last five years creating a plan to roll back what we want. And if we focus on our power and not so much their power. Then we will have a response to this moment. And that’s what we should be collectively focusing on. What is our response to this push back, what is our response to the rollback? The ball is in our court.”
At a community center about 10 minutes from the police station, artists Abel Jackson and Marcus Kiser painted a new mural. Their old mural of a Black Lives Matter sign, created in uptown with other artists, faded after the city reopened that part of Tryon Street to cars.
Their new mural, which reflects a diverse and mostly Black community in a part of west Charlotte, depicts children smiling, tongue out, and with arms in the air. Jackson said the paintings aim to serve a few purposes.
“Encouraging kids, aspiring kids, to work hard, let them know they can be, do and have what they desire, but it’s going to take some hard work and perseverance,” Jackson said.
Jackson, who designed the letter C in the Black Lives Matter mural, said the uptown artwork served its purpose.
As for how to keep a movement going half a decade after the murder of Floyd, he said, “Some of the things that have to be done in our communities, we have to do it. And that’s just the bottom line,” Jackson said. "We just have to do what we have to do and figure out ways, which we have done in the past, figure out ways to make major things happen, and major change happen around us.”
