On Monday, thousands celebrated the life of Michael Brown Jr., 18, at Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church in St. Louis City. Brown died suddenly after he was shot six times by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. His “unjustified” death, as some have called it, has sparked international outrage and protests.
Three White House officials attended the funeral—including Broderick Johnson, head of the My Brother’s Keeper Task Force and assistant to President Barack Obama and White House cabinet secretary. He was joined by Heather Foster and Marlon Marshall, both with the White House Office of Public Engagement. Marlon is a St. Louis native who attended high school with Brown’s mother, Lesley McSpadden.
Nationally renowned personalities such as Spike Lee, Tom Joyner, Bishop T.D. Jakes, Congresswoman (and St. Louis native) Maxine Waters, D-CA, the Rev. Jesse Jackson as well as two of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s children were also in attendance. Officiating pastor Rev. Michael Jones announced that an estimated 600 of those in attendance were family members. Family members honored the “gentle giant” by wearing shades of red and buttons or black neckties with his image on it.
Brown’s stepmother, Calvina Brown, said she felt privileged to speak on behalf of someone she considered a “dynamic young man” and her “best friend.” Before his death, Brown told her that one day he would shape the world. That one day the world would know his name, she said. Brown’s uncle Pastor Charles Ewing of Jennings Mason Temple C.O.G.I.C. referenced the Bible’s account of Cain and Abel and said “there is a cry being made from the ground for justice.”
The youth have taken a stand and said they have had enough of seeing their brothers and sisters killed in the streets, Brown’s cousin Eric Davis said. Only by voting can the youth continue being agents of change, he said. Some have said that history is repeating, referring to Brown’s police-involved shooting death and its ensuing aftermath as reminiscent of the Civil Rights Era.
“You might not have been around in the 1960s,” an elderly photographer was overheard saying outside the church before the funeral. “But, this is just like the 1960s.”
Before introducing National Action Network President the Rev. Al Sharpton, lead attorney Benjamin Crump referenced the Dred Scott Decision of 1857 and its precedent the 1787 Three-fifths Amendment.
“He was not three-fifths of a citizen,” Crump said of Brown. “He was an American citizen and we will not accept three-fifths justice.”
Sharpton, who gave one of two eulogies, told those gathered that it was “out of order” for Michael Brown Sr. and McSpadden to bury their child. Brown should’ve been well into his second week of studies at Vatterott Technical College, he said. He was set to begin his first day of college on Monday, Aug. 11, two days after he was killed. He glanced at the black and gold casket that bore Brown’s body and said, “All of us are required to respond to this.”
“God is not going to judge you by your behavior in Heaven,” he said. “He’s gone judge you by what you do on earth.”
Brown would not have wanted to be remembered for riots, Sharpton said, but instead would’ve wanted to have been remembered as the one that made the country deal with how it polices its people.
Sharpton also said the country will have to come to terms with how it has money to obtain military equipment, but lacks funds for job training and public education.
“How do you think we look when the world can see you can’t come up with a police report, but you can find a video,” Sharpton asked. “How do you think we look when young people march nonviolently asking ‘for the land of the free and the home of the brave’ to hear their cry and you put snipers on the roof?”
The community is not anti-police and that the “rotten apples” need to be “taken out the bushel” and held accountable, he said. And the African-American community should be equally outraged at black-on-black violence.
“I understand that nobody will help us if we don’t help ourselves,” he said. “We are required to leave here today and change things.”
St. Louis American website editor and reporter Kenya Vaughn contributed to this report.
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