Darnella Frazier, the brave 17 year old young woman and hero who filmed the murder of George Floyd, is this year’s recipient of the Benenson Courage Award from PEN America – a leading literary and human rights organization, the Star-Tribune reported on Wednesday.

“With nothing more than a cellphone and sheer guts, Darnella changed the course of history in this country, sparking a bold movement demanding an end to systemic anti-black racism and violence at the hands of police,” PEN CEO Suzanne Nossel said in a statement.

“With remarkable steadiness, Darnella carried out the expressive act of bearing witness, and allowing hundreds of millions around the world to see what she saw,” the statement said. “Without Darnella’s presence of mind and readiness to risk her own safety and well-being, we may never have known the truth about George Floyd’s murder.”

What happened on May 25th, 2020 is something that millions of Americans and people around the globe will not soon forget. George Floyd, a black man living in Minnesota was tortured and murdered in cold blood in a calculating, horrifying way for almost 10 minutes, and many of us would not have known about it had it not been for the brave, quick-thinking teen, Darnella Frazier.

Darnella Frazier was going about her regular business when she came upon the scene and started shooting the video with her mobile phone. That scene was a footage of Derek Chauvin – a white police officer, pressing his knee on the back of a handcuffed Floyd’s neck as he lay on the ground in distress pleading to be released from all the pain and pressure he was enduring.

One cannot imagine the trauma Darnella experienced as she witnessed the horror but she remained resolute and on task because as she said, “The world needed to see what I was seeing; stuff like this happens in silence too many times.” And as we all can agree, the world would not have seen what transpired had she not taken this video. George Floyd would just be another black man horrifically murdered in America with no knowledge to the wider society or qualms for accountability.

Now Darnella is slated to be one of the well-deserved recipient of The New York-based PEN awards, which was founded in 1963 with past recipients including Anita Hill, who testified against the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in 1991.

We appreciate, love and honor you Darnella Frazier, and we wish you peace, healing, and massive success in all your present and future endeavors.

You can show your support for her by donating to her GoFundMe.