‘A long day’: Sacramento pastor with Twin Cities roots joins in George Floyd’s goodbye
It had been a long day for Tecoy Porter Sr. The Sacramento pastor returned to his hometown of Minneapolis this week, a city shattered by police violence and the fiery protest that followed, to say goodbye to George Floyd.
Porter, senior pastor of Genesis Church on Meadowview Road , was among the ministers who helped coordinate the Thursday memorial service for the Houston man who had found a fresh start in the Twin Cities — now the epicenter of worldwide outrage and shared grief after his death at the hands of police.
Before the memorial, Porter drove to 38th Street and Chicago Avenue — the street corner where Floyd died now a sacred space in that city — following along the same south Minneapolis route his school bus drove as a child.
“It was a long day,” Porter said Thursday night by phone from Minneapolis. Porter returned to Sacramento on Friday and will participate in a rally here this weekend sponsored by the NAACP, the National Action Network and others, before boarding another flight for Floyd’s burial in Houston.
“The grief was magnified by the way he was murdered. ... The grief was a strong part of the atmosphere,” Porter said of the memorial service. “But there was also hope. It was that it was a global event that made it very unique.”
Balancing the global and the personal, acknowledging the painful symbolism of Floyd’s death and its raw reality, remembering the man and honoring a grieving family tragically thrown into the spotlight was the challenge.
“Funerals are hard, period. In the homegoing services in the black church, we try to say he is absent from the body but present with the Lord. We keep the family first in the planning,” Porter said. “In the end, we understand what we’re here for. We’re here to honor this man’s life. They did not ask for any of this. These are ordinary, hard working people — an average black family making their way in the world. (Floyd) was just a guy. His death thrust this whole family into the spotlight. They are a normal black family who did not ask for this spotlight.”
The world was watching Minneapolis on Thursday as it had from the day nearly two weeks ago that a police officer, hand in his pocket, knelt nearly nine minutes into Floyd’s neck as the dying man called out “I can’t breathe.” Nationwide protest of police brutality erupted there and across the country in its wake.
State and national political leaders including members of the Congressional Black Caucus, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, celebrities and faith leaders joined Floyd’s grieving family and a shaken community in mourning. The Revs. Jesse Jackson and Martin Luther King III, and other civil rights leaders, were also in attendance. Overflow crowds spilled out into the street. Organizers had to get the state’s permission to accommodate mourners for the invitation-only service. Ushers checked guests’ temperatures at the doors, Porter said, because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
During that drive in south Minneapolis, Porter said he felt double the heartbreak: “I had the chance to visit the site where George Floyd was killed, down the same streets on my bus route. The city’s on lockdown and it’s heartbreaking. Minneapolis-St. Paul has to go through a massive, long-term comeback. It’s a double-pandemic and my heart breaks for it.”
The immediate goals now, redirecting energies toward healing, rebuilding and lasting change.
But, Porter said: “People are tired. They’re weary to the bone. They’re trying to protect their neighborhoods, trying to get food out; help calm fears but stay true to justice,” he said. “Bodies are tired, spirits are weary.”
And, as Minneapolis said goodbye to George Floyd, some news: The three Minneapolis police officers with veteran cop Derek Chauvin on the now-infamous traffic stop were also charged on suspicion of murder in Floyd’s death.
“That’s a small win, but we’re not satisfied,” Porter said. “(The officers) being charged played a role in what we saw today. At least there were charges, but we still are pushing forward.”
.JPG)