ATLANTA — The White House and Congress continue to face pressure from Black civil rights leaders and activists to make progress on police reform.
The frustrations grew this week, which marks one year after George Floyd’s deaths.
"We are done dying," President of Georgia's NAACP Rev. James Woodall said. "We are done asking for our humanity."
It’s been one year since George Floyd’s murder with a year of protests, a trial and a conviction.
Conversation on police reform reached a national and federal level and then it halted.
"What hasn't changed if the law hasn't changed," former NBA player and George Floyd's best friend Stephen Jackson said.
Activists want the George Floyd Police Act passed. A bill that would set of a national registry of police misconduct, ban racial profiling and certain types of police force.
"It's time for the government to be on our side for once," Activist Porchae "Queen" Miller said.
While the U.S. Department of Justice announced investigations into police departments in Minneapolis and Louisville, activists said it’s not enough.
More videos are emerging of police encounters turning fatal.
"We not stopping, we not going away because they still killing us," Jackson said.
Activists applaud Congress for quickly passing a hate crimes bill addressing the rise in anti-Asian attacks but wonder why police reform is stalled.
"We've been fighting for Black hate to be a crime for over 400 years," Miller said.
As activists fight for police reform from the outside, police chiefs like Atlanta’s Rodney Bryant are working to address issues from the inside.
"My biggest fear is that police officers aren't getting it right. Not just here but all over the country," Bryant said. "Many of the events we have to address, they didn't happen in Atlanta, they happened somewhere else. But now we have to address that at a more heightened level. It fractures our ability to have good conversations in our community, and that's my biggest issue."
Chief Bryant said the police officer profession took a hit last year and they are still recovering from it.
In 2020, 120 Atlanta police officers resigned, compared to only 73 in 2019.
City leaders narrowly voted down a measure to defund the police, a measure Bryant firmly opposes on a local level and President Biden opposes on a national level.
Activists are still holding on to hope for the bill, which Pres. Biden promises they’re making progress.
"I hopeful that sometime after Memorial Day, we'll have an agreement on the George Floyd legislation," Pres. Biden said.
"When that day comes, it looks like we can finally start breathing again," Miller said.
So if not police reform, what has changed in the minds of those who’ve spent the last 365 days plus marching, chanting, working and hoping?
"Us standing in solidarity like never before," Miller said.
"Treating us like human beings and not like animals is the topic and we keeping it the topic," Jackson said.
Jackson said work is not being done in vain and activists like Jackson will continue to be a voice for everyone.
"That's why the work continues," Jackson said.