Updated at 7:27 p.m.
Some people bowed their heads. Others closed their eyes and faced the sun. Some kneeled or wept.
About 50 community members gathered in Burlington’s City Hall Park paused in silence midday Tuesday for nine minutes and 29 seconds, honoring George Floyd one year after he was murdered by Minneapolis police.
The pause represented the amount of time that Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, knelt on Floyd’s neck during the fatal arrest that would trigger a global movement. Around the world and in Vermont, Floyd’s death sparked mass outrage as many saw the death of a Black man at the hands of police emblematic of police violence that has persisted against people of color for centuries.
“George Floyd should be alive today. We know that,” CD Mattison, who organized the moment of silence, told the crowd of Burlingtonians in City Hall Park. “We know the truth in this country. To be Black and brown in this country, we are not safe. We do not have freedom of movement. We do not have agency for our own bodies.”
The event was one of several held or scheduled around the state on Tuesday, which included events in Brattleboro and Putney, student walkouts in Stowe and Morrisville, and virtual commemorations held by the Rutland Area and Windham County branches of the NAACP.
Gov. Phil Scott signed a proclamation designating May 25 as a Day of Remembrance and Action to honor Floyd. The proclamation is also being supported by the Legislature’s Social Equity Caucus.
“One year ago today, George Floyd, an African American man, was murdered by a police officer. His death under the knee of someone charged with protecting all citizens, and caught on video for all to see, was a terrible tragedy — one that sparked grief and outrage around the country,” Scott said in a statement.
Chauvin, who was later fired from the police force, was found guilty in April of Floyd’s murder and is due to be sentenced next month. Three other ex-officers who were at the scene of the arrest are set to stand trial on related charges in March 2022.
While Vermont’s leaders celebrated the verdict, many said the conviction did not deliver justice for Floyd and his family as racism persists in the state and the country.
In City Hall Park, Mattison said she organized the moment of silence so that the day didn’t pass like any other day.
“Being still even without the weight of three men on our bodies and a knee in our neck will be hard,” she told participants. But she said it would create a necessary moment for reflection.
State and local leaders in attendance included Lt. Gov Molly Gray; Sen. Kesha Ram, D-Chittenden; Mayor Miro Weinberger; and acting Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad.
Mattison said racism has penetrated every facet of American society, and Floyd’s death forced Vermonters to confront how they’re complicit in this system. She said she thinks the state has advanced racial justice this past year, citing the Covid-19 vaccination response that prioritized vaccine distribution in April to Black, Indigenous and people of color, who are disproportionately affected by the virus.
But there’s more work to be done, she said. Vermont needs more proactive support systems for marginalized groups, including access to housing and health care.
She said she was encouraged by the turnout at City Hall Park, despite paling in comparison to the protests, which drew thousands following Floyd’s death last year.
“As a person of color, I even struggled with being here myself,” Mattison said. “This is heavy.”
Mohamed Abdi, director of activist group The Black Perspective, said he thought Tuesday’s vigil in City Hall Park was a beautiful outpouring of support. But he questioned why it wasn’t as well attended as protests in the past.
“It is very upsetting that they’re not here to show respect to the person that actually initiated this whole thing,” Abdi said.
Floyd’s murder partly sparked last summer’s occupation of Battery Park, where activists including Abdi demanded that the Burlington Police Department fire three officers accused of excessive and violent use of force.
While one officer took a buyout, the two other officers remain on the force. They’re a reminder that Burlington still has work to do to achieve racial justice for its residents, Abdi said.
Activist Lee Morrigan also attended the moment of silence. Morrigan, who has been critical of an investigation into the disappearance of a Black man in Barre and is being charged with contempt for withholding information from police, said they were not involved with activism before Floyd’s murder.
“I think that really cracked my consciousness as a white person,” they said. “I think as a white person growing up in New England, you’re just really patted on the back about what a racial utopia this area is.”
Morrigan said they realized it’s not enough to not be racist toward BIPOC people. They have to actively challenge the systems that perpetuate racism.
As he sat in the park for nine minutes and 29 seconds, Weinberger said he thought about how many opportunities Chauvin had in that time period to change course and save Floyd’s life.
“The fact that that is possible within our systems of law enforcement just disturbed me all over again,” Weinberger said. “And renewed my sense that we have a lot of work to do.”
A couple hours later in Lamoille County, dozens of students walked out of Stowe High School shortly before 2 p.m. They formed a circle on a nearby field and knelt for nine minutes and 29 seconds of silence.
Madeleine Ziminsky, a junior, helped organize the walkout with the school’s racial equity group, REACH.
Being one of the few Black students in Stowe is isolating, Ziminsky said — others often don’t believe or ignore when students of color report racist incidents. Floyd’s death last year led her to speak out.
“It kickstarted me to jump out of my comfort zone into places that were a bit more scary,” Ziminsky said. “When you protest, you’re so vulnerable. And while that was scary, I really wanted to participate. So last year kind of pushed me into doing that.”
After students in Stowe returned to class, Ziminsky sped to Morrisville, where she had worked with another racial equity group at Peoples Academy High School to organize a walkout at 2:30.
About two dozen Peoples Academy students, joined by members of the community, marched down Upper Main Street to the town’s main intersection. For the next two hours, they stood on the four corners and held Black Lives Matter signs.
“I’m glad we’re finally being seen,” said Nevaeh Trombly, a tenth grader at Peoples Academy.
Last year’s protests made people more aware that racism is still an issue, Trombly said. But more work needs to be done. “When we hold protests and stuff like this, it makes people more aware that we still need to do things about this.”
In the southwestern part of the state, Mia Schultz, president of the Rutland Area NAACP, issued a video statement on the organization’s social media channels. For 9 minutes and 29 seconds, the video plays photos of Black men and women who have died across the country in the last year at the hands of police.
Schultz said the organization is also encouraging Vermonters to reach out to the state’s delegation to request that they support the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2020, which would increase accountability measures for law enforcement.
Schultz also said she encourages Vermonters to pay attention to reform efforts on the local level.
“I urge everyone to look in their local city and municipal government and see how they’re approaching it, because most of this appears to be very performative, where we write statements,” she said. “Statements are great — they set the tone. … I also think we need to really start evaluating the data and holding people accountable in our local municipal governments, including the police department.”
A Human Rights Commission report recently concluded that police in Bennington, where Schultz resides, discriminated against Kiah Morris, who is Black, and her family by failing to provide support when she was harassed by white supremacists.
In Brattleboro, where George Floyd’s death spurred a Community Safety Review Committee report on problems with local policing, St. Michael’s Episcopal Church offered a noontime Zoom moment of silence publicized by the Windham County branch of the NAACP.
The anniversary “demands that we stop what we’re doing and pay attention not only to this tragedy but to the ongoing tragedies that people of color continue to live with every day,” the Rev. Phillip Wilson told almost two dozen attendees.
“Maybe this can begin to create the healing of body, soul and nation,” he added. “But for this to happen, we must continue to pay attention. And that’s why we’re gathered here one year later.”
In Putney, several dozen people held signs on the town’s central green during a sunset vigil organized by local Rep. Michael Mrowicki.
“George Floyd has prompted a lot of good work and change,” Mrowicki said, “and I hope it will continue. We need to keep this energy going.”
VTDigger’s Mike Dougherty, Emma Cotton and Kevin O’Connor contributed to this report.
Read the story on VTDigger here: 1 year later, Vermonters mourn the murder of George Floyd.