Darnella Frazier, teen who recorded George Floyd’s murder, receives Pulitzer Prize citation
Darnella Frazier, the Minnesota teen who made the unflinching recording of George Floyd’s murder, has won a special citation from the committee behind the coveted Pulitzer Prize.
Frazier was cited “for courageously recording the murder of George Floyd, a video that spurred protests against police brutality, around the world, highlighting the crucial role of citizens in journalists’ quest for truth and justice,” the organization said Friday.
“Congratulations to #DarnellaFrazier,” the committee said in a Twitter post touting the honor.
Frazier was only 17 when she boldly held her ground on a Minneapolis street corner and recorded Floyd’s May 25, 2020 murder at the hands of former police officer Derek Chauvin.
“Although this wasn’t the first time, I’ve seen a Black man get killed at the hands of the police, this is the first time I witnessed it happen in front of me,” Frazier recalled in a Facebook post on the one-year anniversary of Floyd’s death.
“I didn’t know this man from a can of paint, but I knew his life mattered. I knew that he was in pain. I knew that he was another Black man in danger with no power,” she said.
Frazier said she was walking with her 9-year-old cousin to the corner store, unprepared for what she was about to witness, when she noticed Chauvin and three other officers restraining Floyd facedown on the street.
The harrowing 10-minute video, recorded with her cellphone, went viral on Facebook. The scene she documented “ripped the blinders off for the whole world to see” America’s ongoing “systemic racism,” President Biden said in a White House speech marking Chauvin’s April 20 conviction on all charges, including second-degree murder.
Frazier testified at Chauvin’s trial, recounting how the daylight slaying made her think of her own family members.
“I have a Black father,” she said, becoming emotional. “I have a Black brother, I have Black friends. And I look at that and I look at how that could have been one of them.”
She said witnessing and chronicling Floyd’s murder haunted her.
“It’s been nights I stayed up apologizing and apologizing to George Floyd for not doing more and not physically interacting and not saving his life,” she said before clarifying she considered Chauvin the one to blame.
“It’s not what I should have done. It’s what he should have done,” she said.
“It changed me. It changed how I viewed life. It made me realize how dangerous it is to be Black in America,” she said in her Facebook post last month.
“I am 18 now and I still hold the weight and trauma of what I witnessed a year ago. It’s a little easier now, but I’m not who I used to be. A part of my childhood was taken from me,” she wrote. “My video didn’t save George Floyd, but it put his murderer away and off the streets.”
The Star Tribune of Minneapolis won the breaking news reporting prize for its coverage of Floyd’s murder and its aftermath. The Associated Press and New York Times each won two Pulitzers on Friday. Among other winners of journalism’s top honor. BuzzFeed News won its first Pulitzer, for international reporting, and Runner’s World was honored for a story on Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man who was chased down and shot to death while jogging in Georgia.
