How George Floyd’s death energised French protests

In the wake of the killing of George Floyd in the US last May, large protests erupted thousands of miles away in France.

Black Lives Matter banners aligned with France's own domestic movement organised under the slogan "Justice for Adama".

Adama Traoré was a young black man who died in French police custody in 2016.

Traoré, Amine Bentounsi, Remi Fraisse, Théo Luhaka, Cédric Chouviat. These are just some of the names of working-class victims of alleged police brutality in France, many of them black or Arab.

The movement dates back decades, with its earliest advocates from France's working-class suburbs, but there have also been more recent student protests in secondary schools. And the Gilets Jaunes movement – the yellow jersey protests against inequality – caused clashes with police that has led to growing concern in the mainstream over police tactics.

In the suburban town of Beaumont-sur-Oise, on the outskirts of Paris, Assa Traoré has become the symbolic figurehead of the movement in France, after her brother, Adama Traoré, died in police custody on his 24th birthday in 2016. No officers have yet been convicted.