NC’s Rev. Barber among black leaders joining Oprah Winfrey panel on George Floyd’s death
North Carolina native and NAACP board member Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, a co-founder of the National Poor People’s Campaign, will join an Oprah Winfrey-moderated panel of black leaders to discuss the activism prompted by the death of George Floyd, and where the country goes from here.
The two-night special, “OWN Spotlight: Where Do We Go From Here?,” airs at 9 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday on all 19 U.S. Discovery cable channels, including Discovery, OWN, Investigation Discovery, Food Network, Animal Planet, HGTV and others.
Nikole Hannah-Jones, a New York Times reporter and recent Pulitzer Prize winner, also participates. Hannah-Jones is a former staff writer for The News & Observer.
Other panelists include Ava DuVernay, Stacey Abrams, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, Rashad Robinson, Ibram Kendi, Jennifer Eberhardt, David Oyelowo and Charles M. Blow.
According to information from Discovery, the panelists will offer insights and ideas on what matters now, what matters next and where people can go from here.
George Floyd Jr., a North Carolina native, was killed on May 25 while in police custody, after officer Derek Chauvin pinned Floyd to the street and held his knee on Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. Chauvin was fired from the police force and charged with second degree murder.
Following release of the video of Floyd’s death, protests, marches and rallies sprung up across the country, sometimes resulting in clashes with police. In downtown Raleigh, protests have happened daily since May 30. There have been protests in Durham, Chapel Hill, Charlotte, Fayetteville, Greensboro and other North Carolina cities.
This story was originally published June 8, 2020 at 2:15 PM.
