The guilty verdicts in the murder and manslaughter trial of Derek Chauvin are a necessary first step toward national healing and accountability. But no conviction will bring George Floyd back to his family. Just as the murder of George Floyd was not the first instance of unprovoked police brutality against a Black person, it was also, tragically, not the last.

While we know that no trial or verdict can restore an unjustly taken life, let us build on the activism, awareness, and solidarity of this past year to commit together to dismantling white supremacy and making deep and meaningful reforms so that we will not need to continue bearing witness to police brutality and murder tomorrow, next month, or next year.

As Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said, this verdict “reminds us that we must make enduring, systematic, societal change.”