Welcome to your Saturday Daily.听
For his report today, part of our occasional series on the halting evolution of race relations since the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020, Cameron Pugh went to Sanford, Florida. Teenager Trayvon Martin was killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer there in 2012.听
I asked Cameron if, on this assignment, he鈥檇 found credible evidence of respect and trust, two prerequisites for progress. He had. An activist who had criticisms of the city鈥檚 efforts also took time to commend officials by name. And Sanford鈥檚 project manager on that April day 13 years ago described an outlook that set a constructive, conciliatory tone.
鈥淭hey were visitors and they were welcome,鈥 Andrew Thomas told Cameron, referring to protesters who poured in. 鈥淸W]e didn鈥檛 need a confrontation with them. We needed to accommodate them 鈥 and that was the approach and strategy.鈥
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Some staff recognition: Cameron joined me last May on a podcast to discuss his reporting on Black women and maternal health, a story that made him a finalist at today鈥檚 National Association of Black Journalists awards. (Joining Cameron are 2025 Monitor NABJ award finalists聽Ira Porter听补苍诲听Ken Makin.)
As always, find our latest news updates this weekend at CSMonitor.com.听