Jay Z and Roc Nation have put out a series of full page ads in some of America’s leading publications in honour of George Floyd, the African American man whose death at the hands of police has sparked widespread protests and riots.
The ads, signed by some of America’s most prominent public figures, were flighted in publications like the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, The Denver Post, and the Philadelphia Enquirer.
The ads were accompanied by a passage from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous 1965 Selma address.
“Only way we can really achieve freedom is to somehow hunker the fear of death. But if a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live, a part of the ad reads.
“Deep down in our nonviolent creed is the conviction — that there are some things so dear, so things so precious, so things so eternally true, that they are worth dying for.
“A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true.
“So we’re going to stand up amid horses. We’re going to stand up right here, amid the billy-clubs. We’re going to stand up right here amid police dogs, if they have them. We’re going to stand up amid tear gas!”
Jay-Z has been one of the most vocal figures in the world of Showbiz after the death of Floyd. On Monday, only two days after a call to Minnesota governor Tim Walz on Sunday, he released a statement commending the actions taken since their talk.
“After our very earnest conversation, thank you to Governor Walz for doing what’s right and calling in Attorney General Keith Ellison to take over the George Floyd case,” the statement read.
“Earlier today, Governor Walz mentioned having a human conversation with me – a dad and a Black man in pain. Yes, I am human, a father, and a Black man in pain and I am not the only one.
“Now I, along with an entire country in pain, call upon AG Ellison to do the right thing and prosecute all those responsible for the murder of George Floyd to the fullest extent of the law.”
