PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — As part of a renewed “commitment to racial justice,” Portland leaders are commemorating George Floyd.

Portland City Council approved a resolution to honor Floyd’s life on Thursday. It comes nearly six years after a Minnesota police officer knelt on his neck for more than 9 minutes, killing him on May 25, 2020.

“This George Floyd resolution is a commemorative resolution,” District 1 Councilor Candace Avalos said. “It’s about memory. It’s about naming what happened and putting on the public record that his murder sparked a global movement for racial justice in four cities, including Portland, to reckon with police accountability and systemic racism.”

Portland held racial justice protests for more than 100 consecutive days after Floyd’s death. The recently-approved policy, which Smith introduced alongside fellow District 1 Councilor Loretta Smith, notes his death sparked local discussions about police brutality as well — with 81% of voters supporting a November 2020 measure to implement a new police oversight system.

Local activists also created the Black Resilience Fund, a financial assistance program for Black Portlanders, in the wake of Floyd’s death that same year.

But many of the 2020 commitments to supporting Black communities have since faltered, according to Avalos and Smith’s offices.

“In the years following the 2020 racial justice uprising, many local and national commitments to advance Black lives and dismantle systemic inequities have not been fully realized, and in some cases have been scaled back, weakened, or dismantled, leaving many Black communities without the sustained investment and action that was promised,” their resolution reads.

More than a dozen people testified in support of the policy, with some testifiers noting the city’s own deadly officer-involved incidents.

Portland Copwatch’s Marc Poris called attention to the $3.75 million settlement officials approved last summer, involving police officers’ deadly shooting of an unarmed man — 30-year-old Immanueal “Manny” Clark-Johnson — who they mistook as an armed robbery suspect in 2022.

Poris additionally noted the June 2025 incident in which 52-year-old Damon Lamarr Johnson died in the Kenton neighborhood after police arrived for a welfare check.

The resolution from Smith and Avalos said both deaths have “deepened community grief and reinforced the urgency of advancing racial justice and systemic reform.”

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