When George Floyd was killed on 25 May, his last words were ‘I can’t breathe.’ A white police officer named Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes while he was handcuffed and lying on the street. Luckily, the world is starting to take notice of the suppression against African Americans, but black Americans have been dying in similar situations to Floyd throughout the last 15 years or so. In this article I am going to take a look at other African Americans’ last words before they were unjustly killed.

Sadly, a few others have died speaking the same words as Floyd - ‘I can’t breathe.’ These include Freddie Gray (killed in 2015) and Eric Garner (2014).

Some were killed for no reason except for the colour of their skin and expressed this belief in their last words. ‘I wasn’t reaching for it [his gun]!’ Said Philando Castile in 2016. ‘I don’t have a gun. Stop shooting me!’ Were the last words of Michael Brown who was killed in 2014 by a police officer called Darren Wilson who continued to shoot him, even after Brown told him that he did not have a gun. Officer Wilson fired a total of 12 bullets, with six of them tragically hitting Brown and killing him.

Some were extremely young when they were murdered. 19-year-old Christian Taylor’s last words were ‘I don’t want to die young.’ Kimani Gray’s last words were ‘Please don’t let me die!’ He was only 16.

Others were genuinely perplexed as to what was happening before they were killed:

• ‘What are you following me for?’ (Trayvon Martin, 2012)

• ‘Why did you shoot me?’ (Kendrec McDade, 2012)

• ‘Officers, why do you have your guns out?’ (Kenneth Chamberlain, 2011).

Hopefully from this article you have seen how bad the discrimination against black people is in the USA. But there is also racism where you live too. I hope you have been inspired to do your bit in the fight against racism. Remember, black lives matter!