Teenager Who Filmed George Floyd’s Murder Awarded Pulitzer Prize Citation

Darnella Frazier, the teenager who filmed the harrowing footage of George Floyd’s death, has been awarded a Pulitzer Prize citation for her actions. 

The video captured onlookers pleading with officers to let Floyd breathe, as well as cries from Floyd himself, but revealed how officers still failed to help him.

Frazier’s footage and courtroom testimony both played a key part in the conviction of Chauvin, and in honour of her actions the Pulitzer Prize Board announced this week the teenager had been awarded a 2021 Pulitzer Prize Special Citation.

Calls for Frazier to be recognised at the awards reportedly came from a number of people, including four-time former Pulitzer juror Roy Peter Clark, who said that while ‘the material and the creator fall outside the traditional boundaries’ of the prizes, Frazier’s video has a ‘social and ethical purpose, one that aligns with journalistic values.’

In a post acknowledging the one year anniversary of Floyd’s death, Frazier wrote that witnessing the events ‘changed how [she] viewed life’.

She wrote: 

It made me realize how dangerous it is to be Black in America. We shouldn’t have to walk on eggshells around police officers, the same people that are supposed to protect and serve. We are looked at as thugs, animals, and criminals, all because of the color of our skin.

Why are Black people the only ones viewed this way when every race has some type of wrongdoing? None of us are to judge. We are all human. 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.

Featured Image Credit: Darnella Frazier/Facebook/PA