French protesters take a knee for abolishing slavery

Several hundred people took a knee on Monday in front of a memorial to the abolition of slavery in the western French city of Nantes. Images shown on French television and social networks showed a peaceful crowd marching through the city, a former trading hub for shipping African slaves to European colonies in Caribbean and the Americas.

Ships from Nantes are estimated to have taken some 550,000 black slaves to the colonies, according to the city's Slavery Abolition Memorial. Protesters have been marching around the globe since the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee on his neck after he pleaded for air while handcuffed on May 25.