Allan Appel Photo
Don’t put each other down. Learn to walk away; it’s no sign of weakness. Do be your brother’s keeper. Pull your pants up, boys. Keep your legs together, girls. Finish school, be involved with a church, and finish your lives.
Those were some of the exhortations offered Saturday morning by Sean Reeves Sr. and others as they turned his son’s thronged funeral service at St. Paul’s U.A.M.E. Church on Dwight Street into a remarkable teaching moment. Some three dozen young people seemed to take the advice immediately to heart.
At least 300 people, many wearing Rest In Peace t‑shirts and buttons, filled St. Paul’s to overflowing to participate in the “homecoming service” for Sean J. Reeves Jr.
Reeves was an honor roll high school basketball player killed by a stray bullet fired during a brawl on George and Day streets on Aug. 10. (Click here for a story on evolving details about the case.)
Several groups in town contributed money to help pay for the funeral, including the New Haven Guardians, a black police officers’ organization, and the New Haven Blazers, a team on which Sean played.
Sean lay Saturday in a open brown coffin in the nave of the church. There was a small paper sculpture of a set of angel’s wings at the center, a spray of red roses at the foot and an enlarged photo of the 16-year old’s smiling face to the left of the dais.
The corner of the photo showed a basketball hoop and a lay-up about to go in.
While women in starched white dresses circulated the filling-up sanctuary handing out tissues, the extended family entered somberly.
Relatives Tina Mitchell & Joey Ladson.
They were followed by other mourners. Many family members like Tina Mitchell, Sean’s aunt, and cousin Joey Ladson were wearing Rest In Peace T‑shirts and buttons. Ladson’s read: “If love could have saved you, you would have never died.”
Among the mourners were many young people and athletes who, like Sean, had excelled at basketball.
It was to these young people that speaker after speaker both evoked Sean and suggested changes in behavior that would give meaning to the young man’s life and death.
In an atmosphere more celebratory than funeral, a rocking version of “Rock of Ages” was followed by the Rev. Scott Marks calling on God to “touch the hearts” of the many young men in the sanctuary.
Sean’s principal at the Hyde Leadership Academy, John Russell, called him a wonderful student. “Principals would love to have a school full with Seans. So you be those Seans,” he said.
Then he presented the family with a $1,000 check and reminder that Hyde Leadership Academy is having its own memorial service for the young man Thursday night.
Applause filled the sanctuary.
Another speaker urged the celebrants to practice for their SATs with the tenacity they use to practice three-point shots.
St. Paul’s Reverend Joseph Bash evoked a picture of a younger four-foot Sean chewing his white glove at the back of the sanctuary as he practiced being an usher. Who could believe he would grow into such a splendid young athlete? he said.
Allan Appel Photo
The speakers then pivoted and challenged the young people: “Don’t let Sean’s death be in vain,” said Chase Newman of Chase Newman Ministries. He is a traveling evangelist whom family members invited to speak, he said.
“Men, keep your pants up. Ladies, keep your legs closed,” he exhorted.
To both young men and women, he said to stay in school and stay out of the streets.
Above all, pray, because “We do not need another generation of poverty stricken black children.”
Newman said he felt right speaking in such candid and even stark terms because he himself is only 23. “They understand the lingo,” he said.
Please Rise
The centerpiece of the service occurred when Sean Reeves, Sr. rose. He leaned into the microphone and speaking softly, said: “Everybody under 21, please rise.”
More than 100 people rose.
Sean Reeves Sr. said that he did everything he could for his son. Even by the age of 16, Sean Jr. knew five or six people who had themselves died by violence, his father said.
“We got to do something different. You have to be your brother’s keeper. Don’t put each other down. Be friends. Be children. This is your privilege. That said, remember the good days.”
After evoking the beauty of his son’s smile and promise, Sean Sr. said, “Now I want to see some smiles.”
His remarks were followed by several official letters, including a formal letter of condolence from the Board of Aldermen, organized by Aldermen Claudette Robinson-Thorpe, Jackie James Evans, and Alfreda Edwards.
Why Not Exhort Girls Too?
Just before the pallbearers grasped the handles of the coffin to carry it down the aisle and to the hearse waiting outside, at least three dozen young people heeded Rev. Bash’s call to accept Jesus and the life changes that entails.
“Don’t look around,” said Bash. Look inside yourself.
They raised their hands in a gesture of glory.
Evangelist Newman said that for 30 or 40 to make a commitment through a death of one of their peers is unusual.
Newman said he kids were inspired that “it doesn’t have to end this way.”
For that to happen, however, “They need to see more care for this generation.”
Riquee Blackman-Jarmon & Lynda Wilson.
Lynda Saye Wilson was a little more skeptical. “I just hope and pray those kids who went up there truly mean it for their hearts to turn from this madness.”
She knows whereof she speaks. On Oct. 24, 2010 her own 16-year-old niece Jamese Hudson was killed by a bullet. “I’m a living witness. I know what they’re suffering,” she said.
She approved of the service but said it was directed too much to men. “My child was not a man. The problem and the solution belongs to all, male and female, young and old.”
Sean Lives On
Sean Jermaine Reeves Jr’s coffin was loaded into a hearse. A caravan of dozens of cars followed it out to Beaverdale Memorial Park, where he was interred.
Riquee Blackman-Jarmon, a longtime family friend, reported after the service that Sean was an organ donor. She said that his family authorized the step in the hospital before the young man died.
“He saved four lives,” she said: his heart, a lung, liver, and eyes were donated.
“Valencia [Sean’s mother] told me, ‘I know his heart’s beating for someone right now,’” she reported.