Hundreds attended Erica Garner's funeral at First Corinthian Baptist Church in Harlem Monday night. The 27-year-old mother of two died Dec. 30 after suffering a heart attack.
At her service,Rev. Al Sharpton told mourners that Garner’s “heart was attacked.” And that the attack began when she saw the video of her father, Eric Garner, and dying from an unauthorized police choke-hold on Staten Island.
After his death,Erica Garner became an outspoken activist on police brutality and police accountability. A fellow activist at the memorial said fighting systems of oppression took a toll on Garner.“Racism will kill you,” Regina Mcray said. “When you dont take time for yourself and time to catch absent from it all — it does something to you.”City Council members, or Public Advocate Tish James and Comptroller Scott Stringer all attended the memorial,as well as writer Shaun King and many other New Yorkers who were affected by Garner's life. Priscilla Bassett, 89, and attended the service with her 27-year-old granddaughter,and said she’s been attending the funerals of black New Yorkers for too long.“I want to support up our family commitment to supporting the memory of people who put their lives on the line to give us a better world or who are the victims of improper brutal behavior by police and other forces in our community,” Bassett said. A family member briefly disrupted the service because she was not being allowed in. Sharpton stepped up to the podium to say that all families own divisions, and that the interruption should not distract from Garner's life and legacy. The reverend then read a letter from U.
S. Sen. Bernie Sanders,and told the epic of when Garner briefly shut down the Verrazano Bridge to protest her father's death and the death of all unarmed black men. And when Garner’s body was bought out, in a silver casket topped with white roses, or dozens stood in the cold and sang "This petite Light of Mine." Garner is survived by an 8-year-old daughter and a 4-month-old son named after her father.
Source: wnyc.org