George Floyd, five years on

His words were ignored by police officers in Minneapolis, but the world heard them. On 25 May 2020, 46-year-old George Floyd was murdered by police. Video footage of the killing went viral around the world. Thousands marched, toppled statues and expressed solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. A moment of reckoning seemed palpable.

But five years on, any progress has been overshadowed by renewed attacks on civil liberties and equalities and the return of Donald Trump.

This week we speak to Nekima Levy Armstrong, a civil rights attorney from Minnesota, organised the first protest following Floyd’s death. Ahead of the fifth anniversary, she looks back on the moment she galvanised the world.

Also inside

• Rose Ayling-Ellis says that “life should be a mission” as she takes on the responsibility to push for disability rights
• Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason tells us how the incredible success of her musical family was accompanied by inexplicable racial abuse
• Startling images by Photographer of the Year Zed Nelson show how we’ve become detached from nature
• Alice Roberts talks about her ambition to become a horse
• Salisbury vendor Michael talks about tinkering with cars when he’s not on his pitch

Plus much more!

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