George Floyd (opens in new tab), a 46-year-old black man from Minneapolis, was handcuffed, pinned to the ground, and killed by white police officer Derek Chauvin a week ago today, with his knees pressed against his neck. Tragic video footage shows Floyd begging the officer for his life, "Please, I can't breathe," and people at the scene pleading with Shovin to stop. According to a report in The New York Times (opens in new tab), Shovin knelt at Floyd's neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, with three officers, Thomas Lane, Tou Thao, and J. Alexander Kuen, standing beside him.

Floyd was pronounced dead that night; all four officers were fired and Shovin was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. Across the United States, protesters condemned Floyd's murder and the ongoing police brutality against blacks, with many calling for Shovin's charges to be upgraded to first-degree murder and for the other officers at the scene to be charged as well. Protesters also call for the murderer of Breanna Taylor (opens in new tab), the Louisville woman shot eight times by police in her apartment on March 13, to not be charged, the recent murder of Ahmoud Arberry (opens in new tab), and other It also draws attention to the fact that countless blacks have been victims of racist barbarism.

Numerous celebrities have shown their support for the protesters, donating to a fund to help those arrested.

Gabrielle Union tweeted that she had donated to the Minnesota Freedom Fund (open in new tab) and the Louisville Community Bail Fund (open in new tab) in honor of George Floyd and Briona Taylor, and encouraged her followers to do the same whenever possible.

In an Instagram video, Rizzo also tweeted that he had donated to the Minnesota Freedom Fund (open in new tab), the Fund to Rebuild Lake Street in Minneapolis (open in new tab), the Minneapolis City Council's refusal to fund the Minneapolis Police Department, the Black Community, Indigenous Communities and other communities of color (open in new tab), which campaigns for the Minneapolis City Council to invest in black communities, indigenous communities, and other communities of color instead of funding the Minneapolis Police Department.

Musician Noname set off a chain of donations to the Minnesota Freedom Fund after sharing her pledge and urging celebrities following her to do the same. Janelle Monay, Yara Shahidi, Kelani, 6LACK, and Jamila Jamil followed suit.

Monae also donated to the Louisville Community Bail Fund and shared a list of petitions to sign and national bail funds (open in new tab) to donate to, urging others, white and privileged, to act.

Kerry Washington hosted a yoga and meditation class on Instagram Live over the weekend and donated to the Black Visions Collective and Louisville Community Bail Fund for each participant.

On Saturday, Chrissy Teigen tweeted that she would donate $100,000 to a national bail fund, which was later increased to $200,000.

John Legend said that he and Teigen donate to Movement for Black Lives (open in new tab), a coalition of national black organizations, and the National Lawyers Guild (open in new tab), a progressive legal organization, Bail Project (open in new tab), which operates a national bail fund and campaigns against the money bail system.

Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds donated $200,000 to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and encouraged their social media followers to donate as well.

Chris Evans condemned a video posted by Anna Kendrick showing police officers pushing, punching, and pepper spraying protesters, driving police cars through crowds, and trampling protesters with police horses. He shared a list (opens in new tab) of donors to the victims' families, protesters, and black-owned businesses.

Other celebrities such as Don Cheadle, Harry Styles, Seth Rogen, and Steve Carell announced their donations on Twitter.

Football player Colin Capernick began his protest campaign against anti-black racism and police brutality by kneeling during the national anthem. Capanic's "Know Your Rights" campaign provides free legal representation to Minneapolis "Freedom Fighters."

All of the organizations to which celebrities have donated are linked in the article: the Minnesota Freedom Fund, which has received over $20 million in donations; the estate of George Floyd (opens in new tab), the aforementioned local organization Black Visions Collective (opens in new tab) (opens in new tab), and Reclaim the Block (opens in new tab), a coalition also led by the Black Visions Collective that works to redirect funds from policing to community resources, to donate more.

You can also split your donation among the 37 bail funds nationwide here (opens in new tab) or to any of the 60+ funds that make up the National Bail Fund Network here (opens in new tab).