Ex-NBA player Royce White organised a massive peaceful protest down Minneapolis interstate on Friday afternoon in response to the killing of George Floyd.
White sent out a text to his friends in the sports world to organize a small peaceful protest in Minneapolis. He was only expecting a few hundred people at most.
Floyd died in police custody this week and a video of his arrest - which has gone viral on social media showing a 44-year-old white officer, Derek Chauvin, subdued Floyd by placing his knee on his neck for a prolonged period until Floyd was rendered motionlessness.
The officer who knelt on Floyd's neck, as Floyd pleaded "I can't breathe", has since been arrested and is facing murder and manslaughter charges.
Protests have erupted in Minnesota and other cities across the United States over the deadly arrest of George Floyd, with demonstrators taking to the streets to register their displeasure
And now former NBA player and Minneapolis native Royce White is just the latest sports figure to speak out after he led a protest that started at U.S. Bank Stadium, the home of the Minnesota Vikings.
White was only expecting a few hundred people at most but the numbers increased to thousand by the time they hit the streets and took over Interstate 35W.
According to reports, the Washington Post, the protest started with around 200 people but grew into thousands.
“This just shows by word of mouth how much we can come together,” White told the massive crowd of people kneeling and standing on the interstate bridge through a megaphone.
“We sent out a text message about 24 hours ago. We didn’t want a Facebook event. We didn’t want people to try and come do something that’s dangerous and violent. The word of mouth worked.
“We have successfully proved that we can protest in peace, despite all the stories that they’ve shown on the news lately."