'I can't breathe' - these words were the root of the rise of bold and incessant protests of the 'Black Lives Matter' movement that had gone into branches across the United States to stand up against the racism and violence on the people of colour. 'I can't breathe' were the last words of 46-year-old George Floyd who was struggling for survival under the knee of a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Floyd's tears had gone in vain as he had died due to strangulation. 

Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin had knelt on African-American Floyd's neck for nine minutes 29 seconds. Floyd was screaming that he can't able to breathe but Chauvin has gone deaf and pressurized his grip on Floyd's neck. He was then taken to the hospital but eventually, he passed away. The video of Floyd's pleading and Chavin's horrendous act had sparked heated agitations across the United States with millions of people coming to the streets and protesting against Floyd's death. 

If Floyd's death didn't come to light, his tears would have gone dark. The 'Black Lives Matter' movement and a unanimous call for justice and solidarity have spread across the globe after the video of Floyd's death was shared across and beyond the borders. The brave act of recording Floyd's murder, which was etched in history as a Black Day in America, has now been honoured and recognized as the teen woman who shot the video is now been conferred with a prestigious citation. 

18-year-old Darnella Frazier, who was 17 when she recorded Floyd's homicide, will be conferred with a special citation by the Pulitzer Prizes, the honour of awarding achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. As her video of recording Floyd's death had sparked the global movement to protest racial injustice, Frazier has been given a special citation. 

Pulitzer Prizes has on Friday said, "Darnella Frazier was cited on Friday, June 11, for courageously recording the murder of George Floyd, a video that spurred protests against police brutality, around the world, highlighting the crucial role of citizens in journalists' quest for truth and justice." She was honoured as New York's Columbia University has announced the 2021 prestigious journalism awards in a virtual ceremony. 

Floyd was murdered on May 25, 2020. Frazier had testified at the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin that she was walking to a corner grocery store to get snacks with her then-nine-year-old cousin when she saw a man being terrified, scared, and begging for his life. During the trial, she said that she didn't want her cousin to see what was happening and after dropping her cousin into the store, Frazier went back to the pavement and began recording Floyd's screaming as it wasn't right. 

She said Floyd was suffering and he was in pain and she kept recording even though she felt intimidated when white police officer Chauvin ignored the cries of bystanders and knelt on Floyd's neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds. Her video, which had shown Floyd's screaming that he couldn't breathe, was posted to Facebook hours after it was recorded, triggering outrage in Minneapolis and beyond. Her video was one of the pivotal pieces of evidence in the trial of Derek Chauvin. 

After the trial, Chauvin was convicted in April of second-degree murder unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and manslaughter. During her testimony at the trial, Frazier has informed the jurors that she sometimes wishes she had done more to help Floyd. She said she looks at her father and other Black men in her life. She stated, "It's been nights I stayed up, apologizing to George Floyd for not doing more, and not physically interacting and not saving his life." 

After a year of Floyd's death, the Pulitzer Prizes had now honoured Frazier for her courageous act. Roy Peter Clark, who has been a Pulitzer juror for five times, told the Associated Press on Friday that Frazier was like many journalists or artists who have won Pulitzer Prizes for standing up for tolerance, equality, and social justice. He said, "There she was, at 17, sort of witnessing an injustice and she stood there in the face of threats and captured that video." 

He added, "It would be hard to select, even from the work of professional journalists over recent years or decades, a 10-minute video that had as profound an impact as this young woman's video did." Clark highlighted that Frazier's video was globe-shaking, spoke truth to power, and gave a voice to the voiceless. Besides Frazier, the staff of the Star Tribune of Minneapolis was awarded the Pulitzer in the breaking news category for its coverage of Floyd's death. 

The New York Times was honoured with the Public Service Prize for its courageous, prescient, and sweeping coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Associated Press won the Pulitzer for breaking news photography and an Associated Press photographer Emilio Morenatti was conferred with the award for feature photography. Last year, Frazier was also conferred with the PEN/Benenson Courage Award by PEN America, a literary and human rights organization.