Symbolic Funeral For Slain Lumumba | Harlem, New York City | Feb 1961

Saturday, February 25th 1961.

Footage of a "funeral" held in Harlem to protest the murder of Patrice Lumumba, the first Prime Minister of Congo-Kinshasa.

Excerpt of Reuters News Text:

"With drums beating to attract attention, the African Nationalist Movement staged a demonstration of 200 Negroes in the Harlem district of the city ... It took place outside a Negro bookshop opposite the Hotel Theresa (where Cuban Premier, Fidel Castro, stayed when he made his famous appearance at the United Nations). Inside the bookshop was a coffin with a face mask of lumumba. The coffin was decked with flowers, and above it hung a scarecrow-like effigy of Lumumba with this printed message: "They lynched me".

Speakers denounced "colonist bandits" for his death as New York police stood by in case of trouble. Leader of the Movement, james Lawson, said: "Lumumba did not have a funeral - we are giving him one now." But police refused to let them take the coffin to the UN building."

Source: Reuters News Archive.