CHICAGO — The funeral of a Chicago teen who was beaten to death on his way home from school drew civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan on Saturday, both calling for an end to youth violence.
Farrakhan said he came to the funeral because he was “deeply pained” by the death of 16-year-old honor roll student Derrion Albert. The boy was walking to a bus stop after school when a group of teens attacked him during a street fight late last month.
“Naturally, we wonder why such a beautiful life? Such a future we thought was waiting for this young man,” Farrakhan said.
Cellphone video footage shows Albert being kicked and hit with splintered railroad ties. Four teens are charged in his death.
“The eyes of the world are watching,” Pastor E.F. Ledbetter Jr. told mourners at the Greater Mount Hebron Baptist Church on the city’s South Side. “This has affected people all over the globe.”
As mourners filed into the church, video screens scrolled through pictures of Derrion as a baby and with his family, as well as photos of his academic awards.
