WASHINGTON, DC — Today, the jury released a guilty verdict on all three charges in the trial of Derek Chauvin, delivering accountability to the ex-police officer who murdered George Floyd nearly a year ago in May. As a large coalition of social and racial justice organizers, Just Democracy collectively exhales today as accountability was served in this trial. We also look to tomorrow, when we will continue the fight for a more equitable democracy where Black and Brown people — Breonna Taylor, Daunte Wright, Adam Toledo and too many others — do not live and die under a system built to oppress them. 

Rev. Dr. Stephany Spaulding, Founder of Truth and Conciliation and member of the Just Democracy Coalition made the following statement:

“We’re thinking of George Floyd’s family today as they process the verdict, because no trial could bring their loved one back. We are also thinking of the too many Black and Brown families in our country who know their suffering first-hand. The guilty verdict offers accountability, but we need real justice — a democracy where George Floyd could live and thrive with dignity.

As we process the guilty verdict in the coming days and weeks, we must also process the failures of the deeply broken, rigged and racist system that led to this moment. We live in a democracy that has forced Black and Brown people to absorb the impact and pain of our broken institutions every single day. These inequities are ascribed in the Constitution and built into the centuries-old foundations of this country. 

We must now hold our elected leaders accountable to deliver an equitable democracy that works for Black and Brown people. We must be unrelenting in our work to repair and build better systems — ones designed to protect and grant equal rights to Black and Brown Americans, not take them away. We hope to honor the legacy of George Floyd by reconstructing our democracy, by giving equal representation to the majority Black and Brown people of D.C., and by eliminating the Jim Crow filibuster to ensure Congress can pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, the Washington D.C. Admission Act and numerous other bills that will protect Black and Brown lives, and help break this cycle of violence and trauma.”

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