Al Sharpton

An African American man who died after he was brutally beaten by police in the southern US city of Memphis will be laid to rest Wednesday, as the shockwaves from his death keep pulsating across the country.

Dozens more controversial statues face being pulled down after councils vowed to review their monuments following a series of Black Lives Matter protests.

Two slave trader statues have been pulled down in recent days - one by campaigners at an anti-racism protest and another with the approval of a local authority following a petition.

Protesters stirred by the death of George Floyd vowed on June 5 to turn an extraordinary outpouring of grief into a sustained movement as demonstrations shifted to a calmer, but no less determined focus on addressing racial injustice.

The tenor of the protests set off by the death of George Floyd at the hands of police has taken a turn from the explosive anger that has fueled the setting of fires, breaking of windows and other violence to a quiet, yet more forceful, grassroots call for more to be done to address racial injustice.

A white gunman killed nine people at a historic African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina, the city's police chief said on June 18, describing the attack as a "hate crime". 

The suspect, who police described as a 21-year-old white man wearing a sweatshirt, jeans and boots, was still at large hours after the shooting on June 17 evening.