HOUSTON — Childhood friends of George Floyd, the Minneapolis man whose death touched off a national debate about systemic racism, paid their final respects to the Houston native on Monday.

Floyd’s casket arrived at Fountain of Praise church, where mourners braved 90-degree-plus heat to wait outside before coming in for their personal tributes. Floyd was raised in Houston’s Third Ward and played football at Jack Yates High School.

Milton Powell was among those who waited in line for more than 30 minutes to catch a glimpse of Floyd’s body.

To him, the man was more than a hashtag or a slogan on a T-shirt. Powell graduated a year after Floyd and played football with him at Yates, where his classmates referred to him only as “Floyd.”

Powell said it was disappointing that he was only able to spend a few seconds at the casket and couldn’t get closer than 10 feet away.

“That’s not how I wanted to pay my respects to a close friend, ya know? We didn’t want any of this for him,” said Powell, who spent the rest of the afternoon volunteering outside the church as an usher. “So for me, just helping out like this, that may be my form of paying respects. Because even though that is my close friend, this situation is bigger than me. This is for the world.”

Well-wishers, wearing masks as a precaution against the coronavirus, filed into two lines as ushers directed them to Floyd’s gold-colored casket where they said their goodbyes.

Most stood silently while bowing their head in front of the open casket, while some took a kneein front of Floyd, who was dressed in a seemingly copper suit jacket that gave off a slight sheen and a light blue shirt underneath.

The bended knee has become a protest symbol, calling attention to how Floyd died and the movement against racism and police brutality launched in 2016 by former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

Rodney Floyd said his brother was so generous, he would have willingly given his life for the cause unity, NBC affiliate KPRC reported.

“If he was told he would have to sacrifice his life to bring the world together, knowing him, I know he would have did it,” Rodney Floyd told reporters outside the church.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner were among those paying tribute at the church on Monday.

More than 200 people lined up before the doors opened, as Red Cross volunteers outside distributed water on one of Houston’s hottest days of 2020.

Some carried signs depicting Floyd’s face or wore T-shirts with his final words written on them: “I can’t breathe.”

Joey Lucio Sanjavier, a 26-year-old son of Mexican immigrants, used a black marker to write, “las vidas negras importan” — Black Lives Matter — on his mask.

“I feel like, as a Latino, I have to be here,” Lucio Sanjavier said, while waiting in line to view Floyd’s golden casket. “If we’re not here to support our black community, how are we going to stand up for our own rights?”

Dolly Spencer, 72, brought flowers.

“Mr. Floyd gave his life, not intentionally, but I wanted to pay my respects,” said Spencer, who is black. “And maybe we’ll get something out of this, that something bad will lead to something good.”

The viewing Monday precedes a final memorial service on Tuesday at the same church that’s being limited to 500 people, also a result of the pandemic.

Floyd, 46, died two weeks ago after he was arrested on suspicion of passing a counterfeit $20 bill and a Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into his neck for nearly nine minutes, officials said.

That officer was fired the day after Floyd’s arrest and has been charged with murder. Three other officers involved in the arrest were also fired and have been charged with aiding and abetting.

The incident has sparked worldwide protests against police brutality and systemic racism. Floyd was eulogized in Minneapolis last week and a viewing was held Saturday in Raeford, North Carolina, near where he was born.

Kevin Block, 38, graduated from Yates a decade after Floyd, but said he was a role model for young men in neighborhood.

“He was a good guy, always looking out for the younger generation,” Block said. “We had to come out and represent for the neighborhood.”

This is a developing story please refresh for updates.

Michael Hixenbaugh reported from Houston, and David K. Li, Doha Madani, Rima Abdelkader and Janhvi Bhojwani from New York.

David K. Li

David K. Li is a breaking news reporter for NBC News.

Doha Madani

Doha Madani is a breaking news reporter for NBC News. 

Janhvi Bhojwani and Rima Abdelkader contributed.

The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr. has been at the heart of the fight for civil rights for most of his 78 years, a journey that has taken him from aide to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to running for president in 1988.

But while social justice gains have often been elusive, Jackson now finds himself optimistic. The multi-racial and multi-city protests sparked by the death of George Floyd suggest that many Americans have become painfully aware of the nation’s festering racial wound, Jackson told USA TODAY Monday.

“I’m hopeful because we have finally pulled the scab back,” Jackson said. “Many white people never had the chance to really express how they feel. These marches are marches of hope. White people are saying racism is a problem, that’s an awakening.”

While for decades “white America tolerated lynching,” Jackson added, “today white people feel embarrassed by what’s happening.”

In recent days, diverse crowds of Americans have protested in cities large and small over the death of Floyd and other men, women and children killed by police.

Many of the protests were held in towns with relatively small African American populations, from Norfolk, Nebraska, to Farmington, New Mexico. White celebrities have come out in support of Black Lives Matter, including Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber.

Minneapolis City Council leader Lisa Bender, who is white, was among those voting for an historic measure Sunday to defund the city’s police department. Also on Sunday, former presidential hopeful and Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah tweeted out photos of himself — with the caption “Black Lives Matter” — at a protest near the White House, becoming the first Republican lawmaker to do so. 

Jackson said the unprecedented protests are due in part to a perfect storm of issues coming to the fore at the same time,including the coronavirus pandemic, which has disproportionately hit black Americans. He said the outbreak, along with police brutality and income inequality, need to tackled at the ballot box in November.