“Stop!” the police shouted, positioned behind their car doors, weapons drawn. “Or we will shoot!”
Zellie Thomas, the founder of the Black Lives Matter chapter in Paterson, froze. And then he ran.
He was in Minneapolis, protesting the death of George Floyd in the days after his May 25, 2020 murder by police officer Derek Chauvin, who put his knee on Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes as Floyd cried out: “I can’t breathe!”
Thomas had been protesting, marching, shouting for hours — walking for miles, and raising money to help support young people who set up impromptu fire brigades to put out small fires that sprouted up during the protests.
He and a group of five or six friends were exhausted, and walking back to their hotel. They saw the police cars, two or three blocks ahead of them.
Zellie Thomas with Black Lives Matter Paterson speaks during a rally at the Fort Lee Community Center, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024, to demand justice for Victoria Lee, a Fort Lee resident fatally shot by police while experiencing a mental health crisis in July.
“We heard them yelling at us,” he said. “We heard them yelling as we kept walking in the street, because we were not marching anymore.”
But they couldn’t make out what they were saying. Until they could.
“In the moment that it clicked that was what they were saying,” Thomas said. “They had the spotlight turned and shined at us. You can actually see the police officers with their car doors open, and them positioned behind it, pointing their weapons at us.”
Thomas escaped. The police did not pursue him.
Tensions were high in Minneapolis — as in many places across the U.S. — after that day. But once Thomas returned to New Jersey, he saw the protests become a “beautiful movement” where participants became leaders, rather than organizers like himself and others from BLM Paterson.
“So, people in the crowd chanted, ‘I am the leader of Black Lives Matter,” Thomas, 39, said. “To have hundreds, maybe even a thousand people chanting ‘I am the leader of Black Lives Matter’ was powerful. Not just Black community members, but those community members, it was a wide range of community members, all saying that I am a part of this movement.”
The murder of Floyd followed several high-profile deaths of African Americans in the months prior: Georgia resident Ahmaud Arbery in February and Breonna Taylor in March.
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But it was Floyd’s death that sparked protests nationwide and across the world — many led by the Black Lives Matter movement — against the use of excessive force by police and law enforcement’s lack of accountability when it comes to police brutality.
Chauvin was sentenced to 21 years on federal charges and 22½ years on state charges, serving both sentences concurrently in a Texas federal prison.
For a time, these protests brought about change. New guidelines in New Jersey were enacted on policing. Corporations nationwide implemented policies in the workplace addressing DEI, which stands for diversity, equity, and inclusion.
But five years have passed, and much of that progress has been either erased or in the process of being erased. The activism following Floyd’s murder was sincere, but some question whether the challenge to make long-lasting changes failed.
People react after the verdict in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, found guilty of the death of George Floyd, in front of Hennepin County Government Center, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., April 20, 2021.
President Donald Trump has gone after DEI by issuing an executive order on the day of his inauguration that ended “illegal DEI and ‘diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility’ (DEIA) mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities in the Federal Government.” Some corporations were already scaling back their diversity programs, and others followed Trump’s lead. Boycotts followed, and more are planned.
Rumors have circulated that Trump will pardon Chauvin from his federal conviction ahead of the anniversary of Floyd’s death. However, Trump in March denied he would consider a pardon. Even if Trump decided to do that, Chauvin would still have to serve his sentence on state charges.
Despite these setbacks, protestors from 2020 recall a time of unity and education, with diverse groups of people coming together to try to make change. They say it helped many people understand the Black experience — that feeling of so many times thinking: “not another one.”
The sense of community was palpable. Five years later, the glue of its bonds remains.
‘Not again!’ Reactions when George Floyd died echoed each other
When Jason Williams heard the news about Floyd’s death after his confrontation with police following his arrest over a counterfeit $20 bill, his heart dropped.
“Because for me it was like, ‘Not again, NOT AGAIN’,” Williams, a professor of social justice studies at Montclair State University, recalled. “It was during a period where the political climate was already sour. There were other issues going on in the backdrop that were very racially intense. So, it was a period where a lot of us felt demoralized. We didn’t think that justice would be served. Yet again, we were forced to pay witness to yet another ceremonial Black death at the hands of the state.”
For those outside the African American community, however, the footage may have been the first time they experienced firsthand the murder of an African American, said Preston Thompson, 61, the pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church on Fourth Street in Englewood. For those in the Black and brown communities, he said, it is a common occurrence.
Pastor Preston Thompson Jr. in Ebenezer Baptist Church, Englewood, N.J., May 13, 2025.
“This is the type of trauma that we face every day,” Thompson said. “It was traumatizing to know that someone can, with a badge, feel that they can kneel on a neck for almost nine minutes, ignore your cries that you can’t breathe, and dehumanize you to the extent that they end your life.”
At first, T’Anna Kimbrough, 34, a Morristown native who founded BLM Morristown in 2016, had the same reaction.
“I was like, ‘Wow, another one’,” Kimbrough said. “Then, I think it resonated in me, and that’s when I got angry when I found out the facts, when I watched the videos, when I heard people talking about it.”
It pushed her to organize several protests in the summer of 2020 throughout Morris County, including a “funeral procession” in Morristown of cars that displayed signs calling out Floyd’s murder.
George Floyd protests were diverse and educational, bringing ‘unity’ and a ‘sense of community’
Protests were everywhere, of course. One formed in Wayne on June 6, 2020, almost two weeks after Floyd’s death. About a thousand marchers, mainly young folks, had gathered in front of the municipal building before marching down Valley Road, calling for more diversity in a town that was 86% white and chanting, “White silence is violence.”
Williams joined that protest. He recalled it, like others in North Jersey, to be “multiracial and multicultural.” He also appreciated how other educators brought their students to protests.
“Typically, with these types of protests and events, you don’t see a very diverse array of folks en masse come into those protests,” Williams said. “It was a real moment of hope and optimism.”
Jason Williams is a professor at Montclair State University who took part in protests in North Jersey after the death of George Floyd.
Marisa Budnick, 27, helped organize the June 6 protest in Wayne.
“I think it was an important protest to do in Wayne specifically, and the folks that organized it, that I helped with, we all agreed because Wayne is a pretty conservative town overall,” Budnick said. “To have a protest, to make a statement like that is a big deal for that town. It was cool to see a town like Wayne show up for a cause like this.”
Budnick said that as a white person, she felt it her “moral obligation to stand in solidarity with Black people, with folks of color and with marginalized groups in general.”
“It was my first time getting involved, showing up in person, and getting together with the community,” Budnick said. “I think it’s just important to stand with people and show up and show out because that’s all we have at the end of the day, which is our community.”
More than 1,000 people marched through the streets of Englewood carrying signs on the first Saturday of June 2020, making their way toward City Hall.
Thompson took to the streets in Englewood, calling for people to “understand the experience of Black and brown people in this country.” He found “unity,” he said, and a “sense of community.”
Natacha Pannell and her mother Thelma Pannell Dantzler with the photos of her brother, Phillip Pannell, killed by police thirty years ago in Teaneck as part of a protest that marched through in Englewood, NJ on June 6, 2020 to condemn the killing of George Floyd and seeking justice and changes to policing throughout the country.
“A lot of the marches that we had … they were actually enjoyable. People were enjoying the camaraderie. There was a sense of community and a focus of purpose, particularly after George Floyd was murdered,” Thompson said. “Some realized, probably for the first time, just how difficult it has been in certain communities of color.”
A’Dreana Williams, a longtime social justice activist and president of the Black Diaspora Club at McNair Academic High School in Jersey City, where she was a senior at the time, found that organizing a protest at City Hall deepened her relationship with Jersey City and its residents. Thousands had gathered.
She called out to the crowd, “Are you ready?” and read off the names of Black people killed by police, including those in Jersey City.
“We were ready for change,” she said. “The energy was palpable.”
T’Anna Kimbrough is the founder of Black Lives Matter Morristown and helped organize protests in Morris County during the summer of 2020.
The other side of protesting
Not all of the energy around protesting was positive, however. Kimbrough experienced anxiety and depression. Thomas felt frustration.
“A lot of us don’t talk about the trauma that also comes with it,” said Kimbrough. “We are people, we’re human, and we’re dealing with all these emotions, but we have to put our emotions to the side because we’re showing up for over a hundred people. Every protest, every rally, every teach-in. We’re showing up for everyone else, but we forget to show up for ourselves.”
Thomas recalled taking issue with some Paterson police officers taking a knee during protests. They had been silent about past police killings in the city, such as Jameek Lowery in 2019 in front of the Paterson police headquarters.
“Them taking a knee didn’t necessarily mean that they stood with us in solidarity because they haven’t spoken up about Jameek Lowery, they hadn’t spoken up about any other incident in the city,” Thomas said. “It was convenient for them to say what happened to George Floyd thousands of miles away was wrong, but where were they when something happened in front of the police department?”
Marisa Budnick, co-founder of Wayne for Change, speaks through a megaphone to people assembled in the parking lot of the township hall about her group’s position on affordable housing on Nov. 29, 2020.
Changes were made — but will they stay?
Activists looking back are proud of the “tremendous changes” in the criminal justice system, said Jason Williams.
“Changes have come down the pike, particularly from the [Attorney General], Williams said. “Stipulating when officers should use force, when they shouldn’t, and how officers should go about handling situations where a person is barricaded.”
In December 2020, then-New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal announced the revision of the state’s “Use of Force Policy,” which includes police being prohibited from using physical force except as a last resort.
In 2024, another revision to the policy was made, where tactical and crisis negotiation teams are required to identify and enter into agreements with qualified mental health professionals. This was done in the aftermath of police shootings of Fort Lee resident Victoria Lee.
Thompson said he wished more civilian review boards — independent bodies set up to review complaints against and the actions of police officers — would have materialized as a result of the protest.
“More police accountability, and that’s not just in Englewood, but across the board,” Thompson said.
Newark has had a civilian review board in effect since 2016. Teaneck has a Professional Standards Unit as part of the police department’s Internal Affairs that handles internal investigations of citizen complaints, but no board. A bill stalled for a couple of years in the New Jersey Legislature would create five-year pilot programs in four cities — Paterson, Jersey City, Newark, and Trenton.
Pulling back from diversity
Black people across the country continue to be shot and killed by police, said Kimbrough, and that makes her question whether the protests had an impact, other than motivating people to change.
“Locally, we can see changes in our schools, see how police change how they are policing,” Kimbrough said. “Even if it’s not being broadcast all over the news, that there is a bad incident with a Black man and the police. Even when that’s not happening, we have to continue so that the work never stops. We still have to continue to rally in your neighborhoods to see change.”
The pullback of diversity initiatives by companies and government bodies has disappointed A’Dreana Williams.
A’Dreana Williams was a high school senior at McNair Academic High School in 2020 when she, along with her classmates, organized a protest rally outside City Hall in Jersey City in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death.
“It was a time that people were like, ‘We need to address these inequities'”, Williams said. “When things started to die down in 2022, all the way to now, it’s just been slowly retracted and repealed.”
Corporations had promised to commit billions to bring about more diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace, especially in the corporate suite. Corporate giants like Walmart, Nike, and Target committed millions to support programs of organizations focused on social justice.
But since then, attacks from conservatives opposed to DEI, led by Donald Trump, while out of office, and then in his return as president, have spurred companies to pull back from their commitments.
That has spurred backlash from activists wanting companies to live up to their promises.
Target has been a particular target of two boycotts from African American activists upset at the retailer for going back on its pledge toward inclusion in hiring and business practices. They plan to hold protests outside Target stores on May 25.
If the companies had really been committed, said Portia Allen-Kyle, the interim executive director of Color of Change, the racial justice nonprofit, their diversity work would have been meaningful.
Instead, she said, it was an “HR strategy.”
“If implemented properly, it is always about doing business differently,” said Allen-Kyle, who is 37 and grew up in Teaneck. “Many of these companies could just, at a whim, get rid of DEI and other programs, is just telling on themselves that they never changed their core business models in the first place.”
She said the mobilization of activism and protest following Floyd’s murder was sincere, but the challenge to channel the energy from those actions into making long-lasting changes to the system to bring about justice and equality failed.
“Unfortunately, we have been caught flatfooted in many ways by not being prepared for the onslaught. I think a lot of attacks from the right, in particular, and from this administration, are a direct response to the progress of not just post-Floyd, but really the progress of the civil rights movement that we have seen over the past 50, 60 years,” Allen-Kyle said.
“Because that progress was so meaningful, because that progress and that entire infrastructure of opportunity and possibility was so meaningful, I think that’s what makes this moment so hurtful.”
Ricardo Kaulessar covers race, immigration, and culture for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: kaulessar@northjersey.com
Twitter/X: @ricardokaul
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: George Floyd anniversary: Activists look back five years later