History Repeats Itself: Miami’s McDuffie Race Riot & George Floyd

Fed Up Movement Mural portrait of George Floyd by Eme Street Art in Mauerpark (Berlin, Germany)

The murder of blacks at the hands of police is cyclical in nature. The recent murder of forty-six-year-old George Floyd on May 25, 2020 will forever go down in history (it also was Memorial Day). In our modern eyes, we see it as a turning point, but if you look back at history, we (black people) have been here before. The decision we face now, is which direction we will go. The death of George Floyd is painful for many black families who collectively remember generations of violence against blacks - police dogs, water hoses, racist chants, and hooded hoodlums burning crosses. Imagine this, a family that grew up in the 1950's witnessed the assassination of one of the most prolific black leaders - founders of the NAACP, Harry and Harriette Moore in 1955, Malcolm X in 1965, Martin Luther King Jr. and Fred Hampton in 1968, and many friends, brothers, sisters, and friends. 
Fast forward more than 50 years, and despite the changing faces of government and rhetoric of politicians, policies still haven't changed! George Floyd was heartlessly killed by the Minneapolis police department and the police force tried to cover it up, as many agencies due their indiscretions. If history tells us anything, we have to be hyper vigilant to make sure justice is served. Let's look back in time, in 1979, a 33-year-old black man by the name Arthur McDuffie was driving a motorcycle on a suspended license. He gave the police chase, but ended up surrendering. When the police got a hold of him they literally crushed his skull like an egg. McDuffie died after being in a coma. The officers falsified records and said that the injuries occurred as the result of an accident caused by McDuffie's speeding. It was later found that the officers ran over the motorcycle to assist in the fabrication of their story. To make matters worse the officers were acquitted after finding considerable evidence against them. After the verdict, the city of Liberty City, Miami (a once prominent black city in the 1940s and 50s, but blighted by welfare and poverty in the 1970s and 80s) rioted and burned what it could to the ground. The injustice continues. 

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Fed Up Movement "Duffy" at Coastal States Life Insurance Co. FEB 1979