George Floyd Square gardener reflects on 5 years of cultivating memorial
WCCO, STILL PHOTO, JAY WEBB, CNN, Still Photo/Jay Webb
By Reg Chapman
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MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (WCCO) — Sunday marks five years since the police murder of George Floyd sparked worldwide protests and a racial justice movement.
Members of Floyd’s family on Friday joined a crowd in a moment of silence, just steps from where he drew his last breath in south Minneapolis.
A man who tends the garden at the intersection where Floyd was murdered hopes something good can grow from painful memories.
“This is our response: beauty for ashes,” said Jay Webb.
Out of the ashes of the uprising after the murder of Floyd, this garden in the intersection of East 38th Street and Chicago Avenue stands.
“Sometimes you do things and it’s revealed to you later, you just got to step out on faith,” Webb said.
Webb decided a garden was needed.
“It’s for everyone that’s ever fallen to injustice,” said Webb.
And for five years he has tilled this land, not as a job, but a calling.
“My intention was that they will never, ever be able to pass here without remembering, ” said Webb. “Underneath this garden is written the words peace, love, charity, prosperity. That which is seen comes from that which is unseen.”
He has witnessed people come to this plot of soil from far and near. Webb believes the flowers, plants and signs empower them to do better.
“Our friend now, Dave Chappelle, we planted with and the purpose with planting for everyone who’s planted whether it’s from Czechoslovakia or South Africa or Uzbekistan is invite them and they would stand in the gap for all their countries, all their family, their ancestors and they would take in the authority, they would dig out this and then put a plant to replace that, that’s what the prayer was,” said Webb.
Digging out what is bad and replacing it with what is good. For five years, this has been Webb’s vision, and when asked what has changed, he said, “Belief, reverence, respect.”
Respect for the fallen and belief that we will move forward together, stronger than ever.
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