JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The funeral service for a woman killed in the racially motivated mass shooting at Dollar General brought a civil rights icon to Jacksonville Friday.
Rev. Al Sharpton delivered a eulogy for 52-year-old Angela Carr, one of three victims killed by an Orange Park man who police say targeted the community.
Mayor Donna Deegan sat on the front row with her staff. City Council members Ju’Coby Pittman and Ron Salem also attended.
An impassioned Sharpton called for an end to the racism and neo-Nazism he says is plaguing Florida.
The reverend announced a $5000 donation to a new scholarship fund in Carr’s memory.
“They’ll ask who was ‘Angela Michelle Carr? Who was Angie?’ And then you can tell the story,” Sharpton said. “She didn’t hurt nobody. She was driving an Uber, waiting on a passenger, and hate killed her, but we turned the hate into love by sending people to school in her name.”
Sharpton took shots at Gov. Ron DeSantis, calling him out for the recent change to African American history curriculum in Florida schools and his gun policies.
He said the governor should be ashamed of himself for arguing with a Black veteran at a press conference in Jacksonville Thursday.
That happened after the man told the governor his policies are hurting black people.
“How many people have to die before you get up, whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat and say we’ve got to stop this and we’ve got to bring some sanity back in this country?” Sharpton asked.
Carr’s son pleaded with the crowd not to forget his mother. He said it’s time to stop crying and start celebrating her life.
“Keep her in your memories at all costs because she was a hardworking woman,” he said. “She did what she had to do for her kids and her grandkids. She even did it for her friends. Everybody.”
Sharpton is hoping to have an anti-Black hate crimes summit in Jacksonville soon.