"What Black Lives Matter has initiated is a civil rights movement," said Tyler D. Parry Assistant professor of African American History at UNLV.

A police officer. A fire chief. Two popular radio personalities.

The curfews that rolled out across the country this week in reaction to police brutality protests mark a tragic milestone: Not since the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. have so many cities ordered simultaneous curfews.

I can’t help but weep when I hear the outcry from George Floyd calling for his “mama” as he took his last breaths while a police officer held him down at the neck with his knees and other officers kneeling on the rest of his body.

The protests around the country have been about excessive force and deaths of black men at the hands of police. 8 News Now’s John Langeler spoke with UNLV Assistant Professor of African American studies Dr. Tyler D. Parry about why George Floyd’s death is the one that sparked this call.

The white policeman stands in the center of the photograph, the German shepherd’s leash wound loosely around his left hand. With the right, the officer is reaching out to grab the cardigan of the young black protester, drawing him closer to the dog snapping viciously at his waist. The teenager’s eyes are cast down, a living symbol of nonviolence, his knee thrust forward as if to block the attack. Behind him on the street, other African Americans look on with alarm.

The white policeman stands in the center of the photograph, the German shepherd's leash wound loosely around his left hand. With the right, the officer is reaching out to grab the cardigan of the young black protester, drawing him closer to the dog snapping viciously at his waist. The teenager's eyes are cast down, a living symbol of nonviolence, his knee thrust forward as if to block the attack. Behind him on the street, other African Americans look on with alarm.

In this episode of The Jack Dappa Blues Radio Podcast, I speak to co-authors Dr. Tyler D. Parry and Dr. Chaz Yingling about their book in the works Slave Hounds, Abolition and The Americas.