On Thursday, June 4, comedians Tiffany Haddish and Kevin Hart attended the first memorial for George Floyd held in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The memorial service, held at the Frank J. Lindquist Sanctuary at North Central University, is the first of three public memorial services for the late Floyd, who was killed when police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for over 8 minutes during an arrest. Haddish and Hart were not the only celebrities in attendance as Ludacris, Tyrese Gibson, T.I., Will Packer, and Master P all attended the memorial service. Rev. Al Sharpton, Rev. Jesse Jackson, and Martin Luther King III along with Minnesota politicians including Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, and one-time Presidential candidate Senator Amy Klobuchar were also present at Floyd’s memorial service.
Sharpton delivered the eulogy for Floyd, during which he shouted out the celebrities in the audience, asking each celebrity to stand and eventually inviting Haddish to join him on stage. The choice to highlight the celebrities in attendance drew some online criticism, prompting Tiffany Haddish to tweet the following, “I usually don’t give space to the bullshit that some people spew about me, not today. We are in the middle of the fight for our lives. I was blessed and honored to be asked to attend the memorial service of George Floyd, our brother, who was murdered, which led us to this moment.†A second memorial service for Floyd will be held on June 6 in Raeford, North Carolina, the state where Floyd was born, at Cape Fear Conference B Headquarters.