Despite the bitter cold weather, mourners waited outside the Riverside Church in Manhattan, along the funeral route and at the Apollo Theater to pay their last respects to Percy Sutton on Jan. 6. Sutton, 89, died on Dec. 26.
Old friends, the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, both spoke at the funeral, with the Associated Press reporting Jackson saying, “The tallest tree in our forest has fallen.”
According to the AP, Sharpton spoke about his commitment to justice, referencing Sutton’s arrest during a protest over the shooting of unarmed Amadou Diallo. “Even when he was a multimillionaire, a media mogul, owned radio stations, welcomed in the White House and any other place of significance, he laid down in front of police headquarters for a West African boy he never knew,” Sharpton said.