The death of George Floyd on May 25 2020 and the ensuing trial of Derek Chauvin for murder a
year later has rubbed raw the bloodiest stain on the United States' history and its world
reputation. The nine minutes and 29 seconds during which Chauvin's knee crushed the spark of
life out of Floyd was not unusual in the history of the United States. Before the U.S. Civil
War slaves were routinely beaten to death for disobeying orders or running away then often
lynched. In roughly two centuries Blacks have achieved nominal freedom. But as this book's
opening chapter and expert essays that follow indicate freedom has been conditional based on
inequity of wealth social and legal discrimination. None of this is new in the United States
what is new is the number of people rising up in protest a figure in the millions around the
world after Floyd's murder. This book supplies a readable scholarly account of recent issues
in race and racism in the United States that will be useful for general readers undergraduate
students and their professors. It will be useful in many fields including Black studies
other ethnic pursuits United States history law criminal justice intercultural
communication et al. The work contains a powerful historical narrative followed by several
important essays on subjects including George Floyd's murder the rise of the Black Lives
Matter movement and many other victims of systematic racism.
