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phis. A friend he was chatting with, OJ Phillips, 62 , nodded. “Some people said they can’t stand to watch it,” Martin said.

Research has shown that viewings of Black people dying at the hands of law enforcement can be psychologically and emotionally harmful for other African Americans, according to Duane Loynes Sr., an assistant professor of urban and Africana studies at Rhodes College in Memphis Nichols’ anguished cries for his mother during the beating are likely to trigger traumatic memories in the minds of Black Memphians, many of whom had grown up on a hard lesson: Running from the police often results in a beating.

For many, he said, it was enough to hear a description of what happened.

“These realities are not new to Black residents in Memphis or many communities around t he United States, a nd so for a lot of people it’s like, ‘Why would I watch something so brutal and violent when I’ve lived this reality?’” said Loynes, whose research focuses on the relationship between Black communities and police. “For some people, they didn’t watch this video, because they lived this reality, because it’s going to bring a great amount of stress and anxiety.”

Similar images of Black bodies being brutalized, at the hands of police or other civilians have in the past sparked strong condemnations from elected officials, but rarely led to lasting changes in the real world. Not even three years ago, a video of George Floyd dying under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer sparked widespread protests and a reckoning over racial injustice, he said. But most cities have fallen far short of the radical changes to policing that many advocated for in the wake of Floyd’s murder, he said.

“For every Tyre Nichols, I guarantee you already in the month of January that are many other [similar incidents] we will never hear about. And so, will that change America? I’m not so sure,” Loynes said. “If we don’t learn our lessons, we’ll be here again, the next city, the next state.”

By Sunday, a sense of normality had returned to parts of the city.

At the morning service at First Baptist Church Broad, guest Pastor Eric Givens’ sermon was about the biblical story of Elijah and its lessons about the power of prayer and trusting God’s plan at the cost of great personal sacrifice. As Givens’ voice thundered through the large church auditorium, some churchgoers stood to clap or swayed with arms outstretched to the sky.

When he finished, the congregants gathered their belongings and prepared to march through the surrounding neighborhood. news.ed@ocolly.com