US celebrities, civil rights leaders turn out for 18-year-old Michael Brown’s funeral

By The Associated Press

ST. LOUIS – Several civil rights leaders and celebrities were among thousands of mourners who turned out for the funeral of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Missouri.

Brown, who was black and unarmed, was fatally shot Aug. 9 by a white police officer in Ferguson, a St. Louis suburb. His funeral was Monday at a church in St. Louis.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson was in the pews, along with entertainers Sean Combs and MC Hammer, and moviemaker Spike Lee.

Also in attendance were the parents of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed 17-year-old African-American fatally shot by a neighbourhood watch volunteer in Florida, along with a cousin of Emmitt Till, a 14-year-old murdered by several white men while visiting Mississippi in 1955. Till’s killing galvanized the civil rights movement.

Several politicians also attended.

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