Originally published 2020-06-05.
"Daddy changed the world." Those four words, spoken by George Floyd's six-year-old daughter Gianna in early June 2020, became one of the most shared moments of that summer. The video, posted by former NBA player Stephen Jackson and amplified by Bernice King, the youngest daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., gave a child's voice to a movement that had spread far beyond Minneapolis.
Here is where the clip came from, what Gianna's mother and Bernice King said, and why King's comment about her own father prompted questions.
The video of Gianna on Stephen Jackson's shoulders
The clip shows Gianna sitting on the shoulders of Stephen Jackson, a retired NBA forward who had been a close friend of Floyd and whom she calls her uncle. Smiling, she says that her father changed the world. Jackson posted the full video on his Instagram account on 2 June 2020, according to theGrio.
The next day Bernice A. King, chief executive of The King Center in Atlanta, shared it on Twitter, quoting Gianna's words. From there it was viewed millions of times and appeared on murals, signs and T-shirts at protests around the world.
Jackson had been a close friend of Floyd for many years. In the weeks after the death he became one of the family's most visible supporters, speaking at rallies and promising to keep Floyd's memory alive for Gianna.
Gianna's mother: "He will never see her grow up"
On 2 June, Gianna's mother, Roxie Washington, spoke at a press conference in Minneapolis with her daughter beside her. She said she wanted justice for Floyd because he was a good man, and described what her daughter had lost: "He will never see her grow up, graduate. He will never walk her down the aisle."
Her words were a reminder that behind the marches and political arguments was a small child who would grow up without her father. Several public figures later offered help with Gianna's education, and a fund was set up for her future.
Bernice King and the death of her father
Bernice King explained why the moment hit her so hard. She was five years old when Martin Luther King Jr. was shot on 4 April 1968 at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. Sharing Gianna's video, she wrote: "I was five years old when my father was killed by law enforcement. I know that pain."
The phrase "killed by law enforcement" caught attention, because it does not match the official account. James Earl Ray, an escaped prisoner, pleaded guilty to the murder in March 1969 and was sentenced to 99 years. He recanted within days and spent the rest of his life seeking a trial. He died in prison in 1998.
The King family has long believed Ray was a scapegoat. In 1997 Dexter King met Ray and supported his call for a new trial. In 1999 the family brought a civil case, King v. Jowers, in Memphis, and a jury found that a local businessman, Loyd Jowers, and others, including government agencies, took part in a conspiracy. The trial was uncontested in key respects and the family asked for only $100 in damages. In 2000 the US Department of Justice reviewed the allegations and found no reliable evidence to support them, as summarised on Wikipedia's page on the assassination.
So King's statement reflects her family's sincere and long-held view rather than an established finding. What is beyond dispute is that the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover targeted Martin Luther King Jr. for years through surveillance and smear efforts. In 1964 the bureau even mailed him an anonymous letter that appeared to urge him to take his own life, as The New York Times Magazine later documented. That history helps explain why distrust of authorities runs deep in the family and well beyond it.
What changed after George Floyd's death
When the video went viral, protests were taking place in hundreds of US cities, the largest unrest since the wave of riots after King's assassination in 1968. All four officers involved in Floyd's arrest had been charged by early June.
On 2 June 2020, the Minneapolis school board voted to end its contract with the Minneapolis Police Department for school resource officers. Board members said the police department's values did not match the district's, and other school districts in the US later made similar decisions.
On 20 April 2021, a jury found former officer Derek Chauvin guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, according to Al Jazeera. He was sentenced to 22.5 years. The other three officers were later convicted in federal court of violating Floyd's civil rights and also faced state charges.
Did Gianna's father change the world?
In many ways the answer is yes. Floyd's death led to a national reckoning over policing in the US, police reform laws in several states, corporate and sporting pledges on racial justice, and protests from London to Sydney. Some of those promises faded, and debates over reform continue, but the moment left a lasting mark.
Gianna's own life has stayed largely private, as her family has wished. She has appeared at memorials and anniversaries, and in 2021 she was present when President Joe Biden met the Floyd family at the White House on the first anniversary of her father's death.
For Gianna, the change was personal and permanent. Her words still resonate because they hold both things at once: pride in a father whose name became a rallying cry, and the simple loss of a dad.
Sources: theGrio, 3 June 2020; 9News: Roxie Washington press conference; Wikipedia: Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.; The New York Times Magazine, 2014; Al Jazeera, 20 April 2021. Video: Stephen Jackson via MailOnline.
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