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UWG Student-led Protest Against the Killing of George Floyd and for Black Lives photographs

 Collection
Identifier: LH-0131

Scope and Contents

The UWG Student-led Protest Against the Killing of George Floyd and for Black Lives photographs contains 70 images of this event held on June 1, 2020, in Carrollton, Georgia. The photographs show students gathering on the University of West Georgia campus in the Foggy Bottom Parking Lot (#4) and then walking to UWG's East Commons Amphitheater (Amp) for a student-led rally that included comments by the student leader and University Police Chief Ned Watson. Additional photographs show students marching from campus to Carrollton's Adamson Square and the city's Amphitheater. These photographs depict the participants, the rally and the march, and the signage that the students created for the protest.

Dates

  • 2020 June 1

Conditions Governing Access

Open to all users; no restrictions.

Biographical / Historical

The Protests Against the Killing of George Floyd and for Black Lives were an series of police brutality protests that began in Minneapolis on May 26, 2020. They were an international response to the killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African-American man, who was suffocated while in police custory, even as he cried out that he could not breathe. During the arrest, Derek Chauvin, a Minneapolis Police Department officer, knelt on Floyd's neck for nearly eight minutes as three other officers looked on and prevented passers-by from intervening. Chauvin and the other three officers involved were later arrested.

Local protests began in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area of Minnesota before quickly spreading nationwide and to over 2,000 cities and towns in over sixty countries in support of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. Polls in the Summer of 2020 estimated that between 15 million and 26 million people had participated at some point in the demonstrations in the United States, making the protests the largest in the nation's history.

While the majority of protests were peaceful, demonstrations in some cities escalated into riots, looting, and street skirmishes with police and counter-protesters. Some police responded to protests with instances of police violence.

The protests precipitated a cultural reckoning on racial injustice in the United States and led to numerous legislative proposals on federal, state, and municipal levels intended to combat police misconduct, systemic racism, qualified immunity, and police brutality in the United States. The protests, which also led to a wave of monument removals and name changes throughout the world, occurred during the global COVID-19 pandemic and amidst the 2020 United States presidential election season.

Extent

0.21 Linear feet (1 box)

Language

English

Overview

Seventy photographs of the June 1, 2020, student-led protest held on the University of West Georgia campus, in response to the death of George Floyd, a Minnesota man, while in police custody and other acts of racial injustice.

Arrangement

The photographs are separated by photographer and then arranged in the order that they were taken.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Catherine Hendricks and Deirdre Haywood-Rouse, June 2020

Rights Statement

Catherine M. Hendricks and Deidre Haywood Rouse retain all mutual release rights. Ms. Hendricks and Mrs. Rouse give UWG permission to distribute digital or print copies.

Title
Guide to the UWG Student-led Protest Against the Killing of George Floyd and for Black Lives Photographs
Status
Completed
Author
Catherine Hendricks
Date
2021 January 25
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the University of West Georgia Special Collections Repository

Contact:
Special Collections, Ingram Library
University of West Georgia
1601 Maple Street
Carrollton GA 30118-2000 United States