As it happened: George Floyd: Biden praises family after White House meeting - BBC News
The US president paid tribute to their fight for justice, one year after the murder of their brother.
James Bryd Jr's murder led to the creation of a federal hate crime law Image caption: James Bryd Jr's murder led to the creation of a federal hate crime law

Twenty-two years before the death of George Floyd, another brutal murder of a black man shocked the conscience of America and forced a racial reckoning.

James Byrd Jr was killed by three white supremacists who drove him down a dark country road and beat him. Then they chained him alive to a pickup truck and dragged his body for three miles - until he was decapitated.

Two of the murderers were executed for the crime. The other is serving a life sentence.

In 2009, President Barack Obama signed a federal hate crime bill into law which is named after James Byrd Jr (as well as Matthew Shepard, who was murdered in 1998 because he was gay).

My colleague Angélica Casas and I visited the Texas town of Jasper this month to find out how Byrd's family is coping two decades after such an unspeakable crime.

His daughter, Jamie, told us how she had reacted to his murder.

"I was numb, I was in denial. I was 16-years-old, so love and forgiveness were no part of my thought process at that moment."

Jamie says she still feels angry but chooses to channel it into positive actions. Now a police officer in Houston, she draws a connection between the murders of her father and George Floyd.

"My dad did not get killed at the hands of a police officer, but in today's world, that is what we're seeing.

"We're seeing a lot of brutality by the hands of officers, unfortunately."

She says it was a challenge to put on the uniform after George Floyd's murder as protests against police brutality and racism spread across the world.

Ultimately, she decided it was more important to keep serving her community.

"I want to be that officer, just be there in solidarity, and say 'hey, I know what you're going through'.

You can watch our film about James Byrd Jr on the BBC News website on Friday.