In this file photo, a man walks past the mural of George Floyd near the makeshift memorial of Floyd before the third day of jury selection begins in the trial of former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin on 10 March 2021. Image: Chandan Khanna / AFP
In this file photo, a man walks past the mural of George Floyd near the makeshift memorial of Floyd before the third day of jury selection begins in the trial of former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin on 10 March 2021. Image: Chandan Khanna / AFP
The Pulitzer Prize Board awarded a “special citation” on Friday 11 June to the teenager whose video of the murder of George Floyd by a white police officer sparked worldwide protests against racial injustice.
Eighteen-year-old Darnella Frazier was honoured as New York’s Columbia University announced the 2021 prestigious journalism awards in a virtual ceremony.
Darnella Frazier: ‘Courageously’ recording George Floyd murder
Frazier was being recognised “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 citation said.
Frazier was also among the witnesses who testified at the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who was convicted in April of Floyd’s 25 May 2020 murder.
In the video taken by Frazier, Chauvin is seen kneeling for more than nine minutes on the neck of Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, as bystanders urge him repeatedly to get off and Floyd says that he can’t breathe, before losing consciousness.
Other Pulitzer prize winners
- The staff of the Star Tribune of Minneapolis was awarded the Pulitzer in the breaking news category for its coverage of Floyd’s death and its repercussions.
- The New York Times was honoured with the public service prize for its “courageous, prescient and sweeping coverage” of the coronavirus pandemic.
- Online outlet BuzzFeed won its first Pulitzer — in the international reporting category — for coverage of prison camps built by China for mass detention of Muslims.
- Ed Yong of The Atlantic received the prize for explanatory reporting for a series of “lucid, definitive pieces” on the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Reuters was honoured in the same category for an examination of the legal doctrine of qualified immunity and how it is used to shield police from prosecution.
- The Associated Press won the Pulitzer for breaking news photography and an AP photographer, Emilio Morenatti, was honored for feature photography.
- The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich was awarded the prize for fiction while Wilmington’s Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy by David Zucchino was honoured for non-fiction.
- The biography prize was given to The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X by the late Les Payne and Tamara Payne.
- Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz was the winner in the poetry category; The Hot Wing King by Katori Hall won the drama prize, and Stride by Tania Leon won for music.
— By © Agence France-Presse
