Synopsis
His Name Is George Floyd: One Man's Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice is a 2022 biography about murder victim George Floyd written by Washington Post journalists Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa. The book uses the life of George Floyd and his murder by police officer Derek Chauvin as a lens through which to examine racism in the United States. It draws from interviews with Floyd's friends and family and members of his local community. Floyd's ancestors are discussed—they worked as tenant farmers during the Reconstruction era. Aspects of Floyd's life such as his parenting, drug addiction and convictions are covered. Race-related commentary about education housing segregation, incarceration, police brutality and terrorism in the United States is connected to the life of Floyd.
Reception
His Name is George Floyd was awarded the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction with the following citation: "An intimate, riveting portrait of an ordinary man whose fatal encounter with police officers in 2020 sparked an international movement for social change, but whose humanity and complicated personal story were unknown.
The book was also a finalist for the 2022 National Book Award in Nonfiction, the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Biography. Several organizations named it one of the top books of 2022.
Information retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_Name_Is_George_Floyd
Who was George Floyd before he died?
Known to family and friends as “Perry,” Floyd was three years old when he moved to Texas from North Carolina with his mother and siblings. The family settled in Houston’s historically Black Third Ward, moving into a housing project that was segregated by government design and dilapidated due to government neglect. Coming of age in one of the most impoverished sections of the city, Floyd quickly came to know the cruel reality of growing up Black and poor. He often had to eat banana-and-mayonnaise sandwiches and wash his clothes in the bathroom sink.
Robert Samuels
Samuels is a national political enterprise reporter for The Washington Post who focuses on the intersection of politics, policy, and people. He previously wrote stories about life in the District for the Post’s social issues team. Samuels joined the Post in 2011 after spending nearly five years working at the Miami Herald.
Toluse Olorunnipa
Olurunnipa is the White House Bureau Chief of The Washington Post. He joined The Post in 2019 and has covered the last three presidents. He previously worked at Bloomberg and the Miami Herald, where he reported on politics and policy from Washington and Florida.