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A protester carries a U.S. flag upside down, a sign of distress, next to a burning building Thursday, May 28, 2020, in Minneapolis. Protests over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody Monday, broke out in Minneapolis for a third straight night. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

AP photo of flag-bearing Minnesota protester goes viral

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NEW YORK (AP) -- Associated Press photographer Julio Cortez spent long hours Thursday covering the violent protests in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Midnight was fast approaching when he saw a lone protester carrying an upside-down U.S. flag. Cortez followed the man and took a photograph that soon rocketed around the world. It showed the man silhouetted against the flames of a burning liquor store, the light of the fire glowing through the fabric of the flag.

It swiftly went viral -- perhaps the most indelible image yet of the racial divisions and violent protests flaring after the death of a handcuffed black man who pleaded for air as a white police officer knelt on his neck.