The family of the late George Floyd announced on Tuesday that it is offering $500,000 from the $27 million settlement with the city of Minneapolis to create the George Floyd Community Benevolence Fund to help businesses near the block where Floyd died one year ago.
Floyd, a black man, died in May last year during an arrest, in which former Minneapolis Police Department officer Derek Chauvin can be seen on camera kneeling on his neck for nearly nine minutes. A jury in April found Chauvin guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter.
Attorney for the Floyd family, Ben Crump, announced the plans for the fund on the one-year anniversary of Floyd’s death via Twitter, saying that the grants would be awarded to organizations and businesses that serve the community at 38th Street and Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis, the intersection where Floyd died.
“As we mark the one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s horrific death, the family feels deeply that something positive should come from the pain and injustice he suffered,” Crump said in a statement. “The George Floyd Community Benevolence Fund will be an instrumental, long-term partner to the Black-owned businesses in the neighborhood where he died, where we all have seen the continued negative impact of systemic racism.”
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The fund will provide grants at levels of $5,000, $10,000, and $25,000 to “established and eligible entities that have a local impact.” Some projects include renovating and expanding businesses, apprentice work or training programs, community arts and civil rights awareness programs, and other contributions that “would prove significant to the local community.”
Crump will serve on the board of the fund, along with family members Terrence Floyd, Bridgett Floyd, Philonise Floyd, and Roxie Washington.
The Floyd family will partake in several events this week to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the incident, which sparked mass protests in the streets of the nation last summer. Activists joined the Floyd family for a march in Minneapolis on Sunday, marking the first of many events honoring the anniversary of Floyd’s death.
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President Joe Biden is slated to have a private meeting with Floyd’s family on Tuesday. Biden previously encouraged lawmakers in Congress to finish the drafting for a bipartisan police reform bill by the anniversary of Floyd’s death, though it will likely take longer as Democratic Sen. Cory Booker has said he has “doubt” the bill will be finished by Tuesday.
