Hundreds pay their respects to George Floyd, NC native, at his Hoke County memorial

George Floyd’s casket rolled slowly into Hoke County, gospel music flowing from the mourners’ cars behind.

As the hearse stopped at the church door, hundreds crowded around, phones held high, some sobbing. And as pallbearers rolled the slain man inside, shouts arose. “Black power! George Floyd!”

Mourners stood beneath umbrellas in a line 500 people long, waiting to view the casket 20 at a time. Some were sweating hard enough that their wet masks slid off their faces.

They had started arriving before dawn, determined to join the global outcry over police violence as the world’s eyes trained on a rural North Carolina community just outside Fort Bragg.

Though mainly from Houston, Floyd was born in Fayetteville a few miles east of the church. Much of his large family still calls North Carolina home, including his sister Bridgett Floyd, a Hoke resident. Gov. Roy Cooper ordered North Carolina flags flown at half-staff Saturday in his honor.

Floyd lay inside an open gold casket, wearing a tan blazer. Flowers and portraits surrounded him as hundreds of mourners filed quickly past, some of them wailing.

The memorial marked the second service for Floyd, 46, who died in Minneapolis on May 25, after a police officer placed his knee on his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. Four fired officers have been charged in his death, one with second-degree murder, the others with aiding and abetting second-degree murder, The Associated Press reported.

Floyd’s death, captured in a now-viral video, sparked nationwide peaceful protests as well as vandalism, looting and violent clashes with police using tear gas and rubber bullets — including in Raleigh, where some have called for Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin’s resignation.

“It reminded me of the ‘60s,” Barbara Clark said while waiting in line to pay her respects. Her daughter lives in Hoke County. “It reminded me of when I was in California for the riots in ‘92. Always flashing back to the same thing. Black men getting murdered.”

‘All eyes’ on Fayetteville, Raeford

The RL Douglas Cape Fear Conference Center, between a nail salon and a Circle K, lacks the grandeur of a big-city church.

But mourners came in their Sunday best, conscious of their moment in world events.

“Hoke County is my home,” said Ellen McLaurin. “I’m just so honored to be a part of it. So I couldn’t stay at home. I figured I could get up there and just give five hours.”

People set up chairs along the busy highway as police dogs scanned the conference-center parking lot. Vendors set up across the highway, giving out Black Lives Matter buttons and selling Floyd shirts that read, “I can’t breathe.”

Gregg Packer took an overnight train from Long Island in New York, arriving in Fayetteville at 3 a.m.

“I felt like I needed to come down here to support the protests and the family of George Floyd,” he said, emphasizing the slain man’s name. “I hope that we can all get along with each other, that we can start treating each other the way we all should.”

Some locals found meaning in a global event arriving at their door, feeling compelled to represent their corner of the world.

“With Fayetteville being a small town, it’s a military town but it’s still small, and Raeford is even smaller,” said Gracie Howard. “All eyes being on this community, it’s opened up a lot of eyes to racial injustice. This has been going on too long. And George, he changed the world.”

Just past 7 a.m., pastor Willie Monroe pulled his car to the side of the road, got out carrying a pillow and explained to sheriff’s deputies that he needed to get to the church.

Walking with a slight limp, he made his way across the large empty parking lot to where media trucks had assembled.

“This is the pillow that my wife makes for families, instead of flowers or a card,” he said. “Something they can have forever.”

He showed off the pillow, quilted with portraits of Floyd and a poem written by his daughter, Kim Burns.

“I’m trying to get this to Bridgett, his sister,” he said, handing the gift to a TV reporter. “Tell her if anybody else in the family wants one, they can have it free of charge. We won’t be at the memorial because of the crowds.” Then he walked away.

‘We are part of the problem’

Around 11 a.m., about 100 motorcycles assembled outside the church revving their engines. As the riders roared past, mourners chanted Floyd’s name with, “No justice, no peace.”

Later, as the viewing continued, Hoke County social services buses arrived with new mourners.

A half-dozen armed men in Black Panther uniforms and berets entered the viewing, one carrying a flag. They raised their fists in a Black Power salute.

Shortly before 2 p.m., the Hoke County Peacekeepers sang “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”

As the private, family service began, pallbearers moved Floyd’s casket from the foyer to the pulpit, where his large family sat.

For much of the spirited service, through the hymns and prayers and as mourners waved their hands and stood clapping, there were cries for change and calls for unity.

“If I deny all the wrong law enforcement is doing, I am denying the color of my skin,” Hoke County Sheriff Hubert Peterkin told the congregation. “I won’t do that. I am a black man first. Then a law enforcement officer.”

He addressed police everywhere and issued a challenge: “I want you to repeat six words,” he said. “It don’t mean nothing if you can’t say these six words: We are part of the problem.”

Two North Carolina congressmen followed him: Democratic U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield and Republican U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson.

Butterfield called Floyd’s death “police murder by any definition” while Hudson said the GOP must also seize a unique opportunity for change.

“I’m so angry, sheriff,” he said, addressing Peterkin. “I agree with you. But what are we going to do?”

Black families’ pain

But the mourners rose and cheered loudest for the eulogy, as the Rev. Christopher Stackhouse repeated, “Something was different that day. What was so different? His name was George Floyd. Perry Jr., they called him. A father. A brother. A son. A gentle giant. A banana and mayonnaise sandwich-eating man.”

Many of Floyd’s relatives have described him as a “gentle giant” for his size — well over 6 feet tall. A former football player in Houston high schools, he worked in nightclub security until he lost his job in the coronavirus pandemic, the AP has reported. In Minneapolis, family said friends knew him better by Big George, Big Floyd or Perry — his middle name.

Stackhouse described the pain black families feel describing deaths such as Floyd’s to their children, saying, “You never forget the death of innocence in their eyes.

“Are things getting better?” he asked. “If I’m having the same conversation with my son about black bodies being killed in the street that my father had with me, that his father had with him, are things getting better?”

But this time, he said, he saw all four Minneapolis officers get arrested, and he saw police officers take a knee before protesters, and he saw white and Hispanic faces among the black ones at protests.

“I looked and I saw God’s hand,” he said, “moving this way.”

This story was originally published June 6, 2020 at 9:15 AM with the headline "Hundreds pay their respects to George Floyd, NC native, at his Hoke County memorial."

Josh Shaffer

The News & Observer

919-829-4818

Josh Shaffer is a general assignment reporter on the watch for “talkers,” which are stories you might discuss around a water cooler. He has worked for The News & Observer since 2004 and writes a column about unusual people and places.