Five years after George Floyd’s murder, racial justice push continues

Shareeduh McGee is fighting to keep the memory of her cousin George Floyd alive.

Millions took to streets across the world to protest the police killing of Floyd, a black Minneapolis man who gasped “I can't breathe,” shortly before dying after an officer knelt on his neck for several minutes in May 2020.

His plea became a rally cry for the protest movement, which demanded police accountability and racial justice. Companies pledged significant sums towards addressing systemic discrimination. Conversations about structural racism were thrust into the spotlight.

However, exactly five years after Floyd's murder, the US has seen a drastic reversal of support for racial equity efforts. Commitments made by corporate America and the government have been dialled back or eliminated. Diversity, equity and inclusion policies and programmes are in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump's administration. Some of the rollbacks predate his Oval Office return.

Floyd's murder “was an ultimate sacrifice, and I think if you don't create opportunities for people to learn from it, if we don't have changes that happen because of the huge loss, then it was in vain. His death was in vain”, McGee said at an event in Houston on Thursday commemorating Floyd's life. She said she's disappointed but not surprised by the rollbacks and the department of justice's decision to drop oversight spurred by Floyd and police killings of other black Americans.

Advocates said the nationwide push for racial justice has continued despite the lack of significant reform. But they acknowledge the road ahead is arduous, characterising it as an intense backlash to diversity efforts and civil rights.

"(George Floyd) was a realisation by many across the country that the open murder was something that was not only appalling but it brought full circle the question of the treatment of black people, particularly black males, in this country,” said National Association for the Advancement of Colored People president Derrick Johnson.

“But the other side of the story is there is an unfortunate fatigue in this country.”

Experts said times of backlash aren't new. Throughout American history, including after the civil rights movement, the country has experienced times of “racial fatigue” or resentment after progress was made towards securing rights for marginalised groups.

“To see the undoing of a beginning of a racial reckoning in less than five years, when it took 12 years and several national elections to get us to the Jim Crow period, the nadir of black politics after reconstruction, it moved really quickly this time,” said Nadia Brown, a Georgetown professor of government and chair of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program.

“Five years later, I think that sense of optimism is gone.”

A May 7 Pew Research Center survey found 72% of adults in 2025 said the focus on racial inequality did not lead to change that helped black Americans. It also found 67% of black Americans felt doubtful the nation would ever achieve racial equality.

“There's been growing scepticism in the past five years,” said Juliana Horowitz, co-author of the report and Pew Research's senior associate director of research.

“It's a very sizeable shift.”

DEBATE IN CORPORATE AMERICA

Americans remain split about the importance of companies making statements about politics and social issues, according to Pew's report, after a number of companies have either scrapped their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) plans altogether or continued to quietly support them.

Rev Al Sharpton, who delivered Floyd's funeral eulogy and marked the anniversary with Floyd's family in Houston on Sunday, is in the midst of planning a large August march on Wall Street.

“We can hold the private sector accountable because they cannot afford the withdrawal of our dollars,” said Sharpton, the founder of National Action Network who has met with a number of company CEOs to urge them to reverse their DEI rollbacks or maintain their policies.

Civil rights advocates have called for corporations to increase minority leadership representation and invest in underserved communities.

Kevin McGary, a conservative and founder of Texas-based nonprofit Every Black Life Matters, said after Floyd's murder, some companies were under pressure to make pledges to advance equity in hiring practices.

While civil rights advocates said DEI ensures qualified minority candidates have equal opportunities, McGary and other critics have characterised the efforts as not being merit-based, “everybody should be pushed to have an excellent standard”, he said.

MOVEMENT 'AT A CROSSROADS'

Some have questioned the impact of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests amid a lack of sweeping reforms. However, experts told Reuters the movement shifted the national conversation and the narrative.

It shifted “Americans' vision of black folks and to look at things through a systemic lens of understanding how race and racism operate in the US”, Brown said.

National Urban League president Marc Morial said under former president Joe Biden's administration, a number of officers were convicted and 12 civil rights abuse investigations of police departments were launched. However, Biden's administration did not secure any binding settlements before leaving office.

“The progress, which was material, but not the progress we would have wanted, is  threatened even further,” Morial said.

“We need mayors, city council members, state legislatures and local governmental officials to pick up the mantle of police reform.”

BLM Grassroots founder Melina Abdullah said the movement is “at a crossroads”, but said its strategy has moved towards state-level policy efforts,— including pushing for funding mental health responders and black trans rights, where the impact may be more acute.

“We're saying it's time to redouble our efforts,” Abdullah said.

The Movement for Black Lives (M4BL), a national network of more than 100 organisations, said their mission remains unchanged.

“Black people, we have always sort of been the canary in the coal mine, and we have always been at the forefront of trying to call out the oppressive systems,” said M4BL co-executive Amara Enyia.

“That didn't start in 2020 and it hasn't changed over the past five years.”

Reuters