‘Last Straw’: Americans confront racism, violence in Chauvin trial

The trial and conviction of former Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin for murdering George Floyd came with America at a crossroads, a moment of anguish, but also of possibility, which historians and activists compared to the Civil Rights era.

From policing and race relations to the criminal justice system, the three-week trial of Derek Chauvin became "a symbol and stand in for our emotions, our fears and our hopes surrounding this whole set of issues," said David Greenberg, a professor of history and media studies at Rutgers University.

The audience for the trial was hard to measure, but likely vast because of the many streaming services that carried it live.

Even the president was paying close attention. Joe Biden called Floyd's family after Tuesday's verdict, which he said could be a step "forward in the march toward justice in America."

That the case was about more than one Black man’s death at the hands of a white police officer was underlined during the trial - just miles away another Black man was fatally shot by a white police officer who had pulled him over for a traffic violation.

The trial resonated all the more for many because Floyd's death was captured in a painfully intimate video that showed Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck for almost 10 minutes, with two other officers on his back.

Civil rights historian Clayborne Carson, director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Institute at Stanford University, was beaten by baton-wielding police during 1960s civil rights protests.