--- title: George Floyd’s Death and the History of Race in Minneapolis description: Understanding how things got so tense in Minneapolis requires understanding the history of the city's racial geography, scholars explain. canonical: https://time.com/5844030/george-floyd-minneapolis-history/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-05-28T21:14:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-14T09:05:04.473Z article:section: History og:title: George Floyd’s Death and the History of Race in Minneapolis og:description: The very intersection where George Floyd was arrested is a historically contested area og:url: https://time.com/5844030/george-floyd-minneapolis-history/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt663123fe4b4e2f88/698a0e9816d884a40fc3835a/george-floyd-memorial.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2400 og:image:height: 1350 og:image:alt: Police abuse protest in wake of George Floyd death in Minneapolis, USA - 27 May 2020 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: George Floyd’s Death and the History of Race in Minneapolis twitter:description: The very intersection where George Floyd was arrested is a historically contested area twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt663123fe4b4e2f88/698a0e9816d884a40fc3835a/george-floyd-memorial.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 video:duration: 01:29 video:published: 2020-05-27 section: politics topics: George Floyd, Minneapolis, police accountability, criminal charges, Hennepin County Attorney, justice, black community, arresting officer, public statement, local government genre: news statement, political address tones: urgent, resolute, somber, firm emotions: anger (medium), frustration (high), resolve (high), grief (medium) sentiment: negative audience: news viewers, Minneapolis residents, policy followers, civil rights advocates, general public people: George Floyd, Mike Freeman, Mayor of Minneapolis organizations: Hennepin County Attorney's Office, Minneapolis Police content_suitability: death [00:09-00:28]; crime [00:17-01:29]; politics [00:28-01:29]; tragedy [00:00-00:58] transcript_source: automatic transcription transcript_reviewed: not applicable ---  # George Floyd’s Death and the Long History of Racism in Minneapolis > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-sub-2026q3/newsletters?i=0a26ea18-544c-427b-b717-96a00176a5c2&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) * TIME Subscriptions: [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-sub-2026q3/subscribe?i=0a26ea18-544c-427b-b717-96a00176a5c2&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Minneapolis Mayor Says Police Officer Who Kneeled on George Floyd Before His Death Should Be Charged [Watch (HLS stream): Minneapolis Mayor Says Police Officer Who Kneeled on George Floyd Before His Death Should Be Charged](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/1huSF3oA.m3u8) (1:29)  _Published 2020-05-27. The mayor of Minneapolis called Wednesday for criminal charges to be filed against the white police officer seen on video kneeling on the neck of a handcuffed black man during an arrest, even after the man said he couldn’t breathe and stopped moving._ Description, summary, key points, chapters, key quotes, questions and transcript, where present, were produced automatically from the video or its captions and were not reviewed. ## Summary A speaker identified in the transcript as the mayor describes the question he has wrestled with over the past 36 hours: why the man who killed George Floyd is not in jail. He says he has no good answer and calls on Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman to act on the evidence and charge the arresting officer. He says leaders must call the situation what it is and that justice is owed to Floyd, his family, the black community and the city. He declines to discuss classifications of murder or specific charges, but says the officer who had his knee on Floyd's neck should be charged. ## Key points - The speaker has wrestled over the last 36 hours with one fundamental question: why the man who killed George Floyd is not in jail. (00:00) - The speaker says that if he or an ordinary person had done it, they would be behind bars right now. (00:17) - The speaker says he cannot come up with a good answer to why the officer has not been jailed. (00:25) - He calls on Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman to act on the evidence and charge the arresting officer. (00:28) - He says leaders cannot turn a blind eye and must see the situation for what it is and call it what it is. (00:28) - He says George Floyd, his family, the black community and the city all deserve justice. (00:28) - He does not want to get into classifications of murder or the specifics of any one charge for any one individual. (00:58) - Based on what he saw, he says with certainty that the officer who had his knee on George Floyd's neck should be charged. (01:10) ## Chapters - [00:00 to 00:28] The question of why no arrest. The speaker frames the central question of why the man who killed George Floyd is not in jail and says he has no good answer. - [00:28 to 00:58] Call to charge the arresting officer. He calls on Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman to act on the evidence and says justice is owed to Floyd, his family, the black community and the city. - [00:58 to 01:29] Officer with knee on neck should be charged. He declines to debate specific charges but states with certainty that the officer who kneeled on Floyd's neck should be charged. ## Key quotes - [00:09] Mayor of Minneapolis: "Why is the man who killed George Floyd not in jail?" - [00:17] Mayor of Minneapolis: "If you had done it or I had done it, we would be behind bars right now." - [00:28] Mayor of Minneapolis: "We cannot turn a blind eye. It is on us as leaders to see this for what it is and call it what it is." - [00:28] Mayor of Minneapolis: "George Floyd deserves justice. His family deserves justice. The black community deserves justice." - [01:10] Mayor of Minneapolis: "what I can say with certainty based on what I saw is that the" ## Questions this video answers - Why does the speaker say the officer should be in jail? [00:09] - Who is being asked to charge the arresting officer? [00:28] - Who does the speaker say deserves justice? [00:28] - Does the speaker want to discuss specific murder classifications or charges? [00:58] - Which officer does the speaker say should be charged? [01:10] - How does the speaker compare the officer's situation to that of an ordinary person? [00:17] ## Content suitability - death [00:09-00:28]: Speaker refers to the man who killed George Floyd and describes Floyd's death. - crime [00:17-01:29]: Discussion of criminal charges against a police officer over a killing. - politics [00:28-01:29]: Local political leader calls on a county prosecutor to bring charges. - tragedy [00:00-00:58]: References the death of George Floyd and justice for his family and community.  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer May 28, 2020 9:14 PM UTC The mayor of Minneapolis called Wednesday for criminal charges to be filed against the white police officer seen on video kneeling on the neck of a handcuffed black man during an arrest, even after the man said he couldn’t breathe and stopped moving.  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer May 28, 2020 9:14 PM UTC The May 25 death of [George Floyd](https://time.com/5843070/george-floyd-minneapolis-protest-police-death/), 46, marks one more chapter in a long history for America — and for Minneapolis, which has been the site of protests in the days following Floyd’s death. After Floyd, who was black, died in police custody, [bystander video](https://www.facebook.com/darnellareallprettymarie/videos/1425398217661280/) revealed that a white police officer knelt on his neck at a Minneapolis intersection. The video did not match initial police-department [statements](https://www.insidempd.com/2020/05/26/man-dies-after-medical-incident-during-police-interaction/) about what happened, and resulted in [the firing](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/26/us/minneapolis-police-man-died.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article) of four police officers involved in the arrest. That the episode happened against the backdrop of a global pandemic has only heightened longstanding racial tensions. Not only is the virus [disproportionately affecting African Americans](https://time.com/5842744/reopening-washington-dc-african-americans-coronavirus/), but the policed enforcement of social distancing in cities nationwide has also disproportionately [affected](https://www.propublica.org/article/in-some-of-ohios-most-populous-areas-black-people-were-at-least-4-times-as-likely-to-be-charged-with-stay-at-home-violations-as-whites) African Americans. Floyd’s death also “falls within a larger pattern” of clashes between police officers and residents in black communities that “goes way back to the period of [Reconstruction](https://time.com/collection-post/5724568/stony-the-road/), when a lot of police departments were created to surveil black communities and control and corral large black populations,” says Keith A. Mayes, a professor of African American & African Studies at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. But while the problem is national, [Minneapolis](https://www.startribune.com/how-did-minnesota-become-one-of-the-most-racially-inequitable-states/547537761/) has its own particular history with the issue. [Several such encounters there](https://time.com/4401794/philando-castile-shooting-traffic-stops/) helped fuel the Black Lives Matter movement. In 2019, Minneapolis was [ranked](https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2019/11/06/twin-cities-ranked-as-4th-worst-place-for-black-americans/) the fourth worst metro area in the United States for black Americans, and the city is highly [segregated](https://www.minnpost.com/politics-policy/2015/03/why-are-twin-cities-so-segregated-new-report-blames-housing-policies-and-edu/). Accusations of [police racism](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/27/us/minneapolis-police.html) have also been a consistent issue for the city. Understanding how things got so tense in Minneapolis requires understanding the history of the city’s racial geography, says Kirsten Delegard, a historian and director of [Mapping Prejudice, ](https://www.mappingprejudice.org/index.html)a University of Minnesota project that has plotted the locations of racial covenants, legal clauses inserted into property deeds that reserved that land for the exclusive use by white people. “Minneapolis wasn’t particularly segregated when racial covenants were first introduced in 1910; they were preemptively put into place before black people lived in Minneapolis in large numbers,” Delegard says. “You have 2,700 African Americans living in the city in 1910 and \[then\] 30,000 racial covenants blanketing the city to make sure all this land could never be occupied by people who aren’t white. After they had been in place for 30 years, the city became highly segregated and people who weren’t white were sorted into just a handful of very, very small neighborhoods.” Those small neighborhoods include one near the intersection of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis, where the officer knelt on Floyd and where subsequent [demonstrations](https://twitter.com/i/events/1265673438238330880) have taken place. The nearby area has historically been known as a hub for black middle-class life and working-class communities. Just west is the neighborhood’s commercial center, the Old South Side. It’s been home to African-American journalists, doctors and lawyers, as well as NAACP presidents, important black churches and some of Prince’s old stomping grounds. “Like every black neighborhood in the country, it’s also been subject to over-policing and very different kinds of police practices than the predominantly white neighborhood a couple of blocks away,” she says. “When you get to the edges of those neighborhoods, there tends to be more literal policing and more contention over who can be in public space and what people are doing.” The very intersection where the violent arrest took place is one such edge. At that corner, properties were governed by racial covenants. Delegard’s research shows these covenants were often put in place on the borders of black neighborhoods, in an effort to contain the population. “Even though 38th and Chicago right now is not seen as overtly white space, what these covenants show is that this intersection has always been a point of contention. ‘Whose space is this? Who gets to be here? Who doesn’t get to be here? And who’s going to enforce that?'” Delegard tells TIME. “Structural racism is really baked into the geography of this city and as a result it really permeates every institution in this city.”  An example of several defunct racially-restrictive deeds right by the intersection where the violent arrest of George Floyd took place on May 25\. The other red rectangles represent similar deeds dating from 1916 to 1919 on this map produced by Mapping Prejudice, a University of Minnesota initiative. Mapping Prejudice Fifty years after the racial covenants were put in place in Minneapolis in the early 20th century, that kind of racism was the subject of demonstrations nationwide, as the civil rights movement fought for [equal access to housing](https://time.com/5783945/housing-vouchers-discrimination/). Mayes says the protests following George Floyd’s death can be [compared](https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2020-05-28/fires-looting-rock-minneapolis-after-mans-death-1-dead) to the 1967 [uprising](https://www.mprnews.org/story/2017/07/19/minneapolis-plymouth-avenue-riots-anniversary) in northern Minneapolis [during “the long hot summer of 1967.”](https://www.britannica.com/story/the-riots-of-the-long-hot-summer) While there are several theories about how that clash started, the most common involves a conflict between police officers and a neighborhood resident. “I wish I could tell you there were differences between the 1960s and today, when it comes to police incidents, but it’s the same,” says Mayes. The Fair Housing Act of 1968 made racial covenants illegal, but other ways to maintain the neighborhood demographics emerged. Delegard cites [freeway 35W](http://www.pnn.org/History/Stories/35W.htm), which was built in the 1960s and runs between downtown and the southern suburbs, as a modern barrier between the Old South Side and whiter, wealthier areas. Then, in 1969, police detective and political newcomer [Charles Stenvig](https://www.startribune.com/charles-stenvig-three-term-mpls-mayor-dies/85040487/) was elected mayor on the platform of [“take the handcuffs off the police,”](https://www.startribune.com/charles-stenvig-three-term-mpls-mayor-dies/85040487/) becoming one of the first so-called “law and order” mayors in the country. The already powerful police department became even more powerful. And the effects of now-illegal racial covenants can still be seen today. “The places on the map where we found these racial restrictions are still the whitest parts of the city today,” says Delegard. “Our research shows that there was this preoccupation with making sure the city would stay all white. The racial composition of the neighborhoods we have today was created, deliberately constructed through time. These rigid racial boundaries were enforced through courts and the police for a century in Minneapolis, and it does lead to violent encounters.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5844030/george-floyd-minneapolis-history/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5844030/george-floyd-minneapolis-history/"},"headline":"George Floyd’s Death and the Long History of Racism in Minneapolis","datePublished":"2020-05-28T21:14:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-14T09:05:04.473Z","description":"The very intersection where George Floyd was arrested is a historically contested area","url":"https://time.com/5844030/george-floyd-minneapolis-history/","keywords":["Civil Rights"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt663123fe4b4e2f88/698a0e9816d884a40fc3835a/george-floyd-memorial.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. 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