The George Floyd verdict would not have happened without months of protest | Nesrine Malik

Many politicians who welcomed Chauvin's conviction were also critical of the BLM marches. But there wouldn't be one without the other

Martin Luther King Jr famously said, The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice." President Obama was fond of the saying and used it often - but it could do with a second part. The arc of the moral universe does not bend on its own. It is bent in the right direction by protesters, campaigners and dissenters. It was their hands that forced it towards justice last week, when the former police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty of the second-degree murder of George Floyd. We cannot celebrate and take comfort in the verdict that was meted out without acknowledging the action outside the courtroom that secured it.

But this is what some will do: claim the verdict to be a great victory, after denigrating the means by which it was achieved. The protests in the wake of Floyd's murder have been called the largest in US and global history. They reached more than 50 countries. In the US, tens of millions of dollars were raised and invested in grassroots communities and advocacy in a diffuse, decentralised network that lobbied politicians and pushed through voter registration. It all made a deep impression on the public consciousness. Chauvin quite simply would not have been brought to trial on these charges, let alone been convicted, were it not for these tireless efforts.