Washington Post reporters planning George Floyd biography

A pair of Washington Post journalists are preparing to publish a biography of George Floyd.

The book, titled “His Name Is George Floyd,” will be published by Viking and written by Post reporters Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa.

“This biography of George Floyd shows the athletic young boy raised in the projects of Houston’s Third Ward who would become a father, a partner, a friend, and a man constantly in search of a better life,” an announcement from the Post promoting the book reads. “In retracing Floyd’s story, Samuels and Olorunnipa bring to light the determination Floyd carried as he faced the relentless struggle to survive as a Black man in America.”

Material for the book was developed out of the Post’s six-part series examining the life and death of Floyd, who was murdered by a Minneapolis Police officer during an attempted arrest last year.

“When we first set out on this reporting journey, we told George Floyd’s friends and family that our mission was to understand his soul,” Samuels said. “And in trying to understand George Floyd’s life, we learned about a man who was complicated, loving, ambitious—someone who never gave up on a dream to make a difference in this world, despite the barriers that stood in his way. We are thrilled to introduce readers to the person we got to know and to illustrate what his life and legacy can teach us about race, racism, and the pursuit of the American dream.”

Olorunnipa said Floyd’s death, which was recorded and widely shared across social media and on television, “changed the world” and warranted a thorough retelling.

“As we’ve examined his life over the past year, we’ve learned how his struggle to exhale as a Black man in America began decades before a police officer’s knee landed on his neck,” Olorunnipa said. “We are excited to work with Viking to tell that story, revealing both a life that mattered and the systems that so tragically denied its worth.”

Samuels and Olorunnipa’s book is slated to publish in May.