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Elijah Cummings’s Funeral Draws Presidents and Thousands of Mourners Elijah Cummings’s Funeral Draws Presidents and Thousands of Mourners
(about 4 hours later)
BALTIMORE — Representative Elijah E. Cummings was firmly rooted in Baltimore, but for decades his voice extended far from his brick rowhouse on the city’s west side. On Friday, the legacy of his tireless advocacy brought powerful leaders from Washington and elsewhere to his city. BALTIMORE — Two former United States presidents and a throng of powerful American leaders joined thousands of everyday people in Baltimore on Friday to bid farewell to Representative Elijah E. Cummings, a towering African-American presence in Washington who was praised for his integrity, his character and, in his final months, his unwavering challenges to President Trump.
Mr. Cummings, a Democrat who rose in prominence in recent years for his unwavering pursuit of President Trump, died at 68 last week in the city he called home, the same one in which he was born and lived all his life. In one of the stirring eulogies that prompted mourners to rise with applause, Barack Obama called Mr. Cummings “a man of noble and good heart.” Bill Clinton, gesturing toward the flag-draped coffin, professed his love for Mr. Cummings and his deep, booming voice.
Two former presidents, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, were among the prominent cast of politicians, mentees and relatives who spoke at his funeral on Friday morning. Others included Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts senator and presidential candidate. “We should hear him now in the quiet times at night and in the morning when we need courage, when we get discouraged and we don’t know if we can believe anymore,” Mr. Clinton said.
Mr. Obama roused the congregation, extolling Mr. Cummings’s values and saying that the congressman had earned the title, “the honorable.” But for all of the emotional remembrances of Mr. Cummings as a champion of working people and civil rights, the funeral, which came amid impending impeachment proceedings against Mr. Trump, also was an implicit rebuke of a president who had called the congressman a “racist” and had criticized his representation of Baltimore, Mr. Cummings’s hometown.
“This is a title we confer on all kinds of people who get elected to public office,” Mr. Obama said. “We’re supposed to introduce them as honorable. But Elijah Cummings was honorable before he was elected to office.” “You can’t run a free society if you hate everybody you disagree with,” Mr. Clinton told mourners.
“There’s a difference,” Mr. Obama continued, his voice rising as many in the crowd stood up and clapped. “There’s a difference if you were honorable and treated others honorably — outside the limelight, on the side of a road, in a quiet moment counseling somebody you work with.” Mr. Obama continued that theme.
Mr. Cummings’s success validates the concept of the American dream, Mr. Obama said, and his compassion and empathy were a lesson that kindness can be a sign of strength. “There’s nothing weak about kindness and compassion,” Mr. Obama said. “There’s nothing weak about looking out for others. There’s nothing weak about being honorable. You’re not a sucker to have integrity and to treat others with respect.”
“There’s nothing weak about looking out for others,” Mr. Obama said. “There’s nothing weak about being honorable. You’re not a sucker to have integrity and to treat others with respect.” In many ways, Friday’s service was reminiscent of the funeral last year for Senator John McCain, a Republican who was held up as a counterweight to Mr. Trump.
Earlier in the service, following a psalm read by Ms. Warren and a song from one of Mr. Cummings’s favorite singers, BeBe Winans, Ms. Clinton took the stage and thanked members of Mr. Cummings’s district “for sharing him with our country and the world.” Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton compared Mr. Cummings to his namesake Elijah, the biblical figure. “Like that Old Testament prophet, he stood against the corrupt leadership of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel,” she said, to a roar of applause from the congregation.
Ms. Clinton said Mr. Cummings never backed down in the face of abuses of power or from “those who put party ahead of country or partisanship above truth.” Indeed, Mr. Cummings, who died last week at age 68, “pushed back against the abuse of power,” she said, appearing to allude to the last great fight of Mr. Cummings’s life as chair of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, where, in recent months, he became a leading figure in the impeachment inquiry.
“But he could find common ground with anyone willing to seek it with him,” she continued. “And he liked to remind all of us that you can’t get so caught up in who you are fighting that you forget what you are fighting for.” “He was unwavering in his defense of our democracy,” she said. “He had little tolerance for those who put party ahead of country or partisanship above truth.”
Ms. Pelosi asked attendees how many had been mentored by Mr. Cummings, and at least a dozen raised their hands. She recalled that he had sought to mentor as many freshman representatives as he could after Democrats took control of the House in the 2018 election. The service attracted a bipartisan coterie of Mr. Cummings’s admirers, who have long praised him as a committed Democrat who nonetheless hewed to an old-fashioned generosity of spirit toward his political opponents. Among the Republicans in attendance on Friday were Representatives Jim Jordan of Ohio and Mark Meadows of North Carolina, both staunch Trump loyalists.
“By example, he gave people hope,” she said. On Thursday, Mr. Meadows had delivered a moving eulogy to Mr. Cummings as he lay in state in the Capitol, the first black member of Congress ever to be so honored.
Ms. Pelosi had spoken at another funeral in Baltimore on Wednesday for her own brother, Thomas D’Alesandro III, a former mayor of the city. “I was privileged enough to be able to call him a dear friend,” Mr. Meadows said.
Earlier in the morning, thousands of grieving Baltimoreans stood in looping lines as the sun rose outside of New Psalmist Baptist Church, which seats 4,000 people and filled up shortly before 10, with many still outside. It’s the same church where Mr. Cummings sat in the front row most Sundays even after he began using a walker and wheelchair. With the firepower of a full choir, a performance by the gospel star BeBe Winans and stirring, faith-themed speeches from former presidents, Friday’s service served as a reminder of the centrality of the African-American experience to the soul of the contemporary Democratic Party. It included references to Mr. Cummings’s beginnings as a son of sharecroppers and his defense, as a member of Congress, of civil rights, the poor and the powerless, and the rule of law.
Mr. Cummings’s body lay in an open coffin at the front of the church on Friday, his left hand resting on his right as mourners passed by and a choir sang gospel music. An usher stood nearby with a box of tissues in each hand. And with its focus on Mr. Cummings’s faith — he was a regular 7:15 a.m. Sunday attendee at New Psalmist Baptist Church, which hosted the packed Friday home-going — the funeral also injected a strong dose of religiosity into a party whose presidential front-runners have been busy announcing policy prescriptions but sounding few of the overtly pious notes once regularly played by former Presidents Carter, Obama and Clinton.
With his reassuring baritone and hard-won moral stature — Mr. Clinton noted that the congressman bore a lifelong scar from a bottle he was hit with while trying to integrate a Baltimore swimming pool — Mr. Cummings was known for mentoring and dispensing wisdom to congressional staffers, neighbors on his block and freshman lawmakers alike. As the impeachment inquiry has gathered steam, he was said to still be joining strategy discussions with colleagues from his hospital bed.
He was also known for his fierce loyalty to Baltimore and its residents, and he stood up for them when, in July, Mr. Trump derided Mr. Cummings’s majority-black Baltimore district as “a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess” where “no human being” would want to live.
The slight remained on the minds of many of the thousands of Baltimoreans who formed long, looping lines outside the massive contemporary church building at dawn on Friday morning. “See? We’re not all trash and rats,” one congregant said as she found her seat.
Baltimore residents said they took so much pride in Mr. Cummings in part because he left no doubt that he was motivated by his constituents, whether standing in the halls of Congress or on the stairs outside his brick rowhouse in West Baltimore.
“He never forgot who we were,” said Bernadette McDonald, who lives nearby. “He was a son of Baltimore and a man of the people.”
Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, Mr. Cummings’s wife and the chairwoman of the Maryland Democratic Party, did not mention Mr. Trump by name, but in a fiery speech, she invoked him clearly, saying her husband’s work had become “infinitely more difficult” in the last few months of his life when he “sustained personal attacks and attacks on his beloved city.”
“It hurt him,” Ms. Cummings said.
After Mr. Cummings’s death, Mr. Trump changed his tune, offering his condolences and praising his “strength, passion and wisdom.”
Mr. Cummings’s body lay in an open coffin at the front of the church on Friday, his left hand resting on his right as mourners passed and as the church choir sang. Some buried their faces in their hands as they moved swiftly across the purple carpet. Others lingered a few feet from the casket for one final look at their representative. An usher was stationed nearby with a box of tissues in each hand.
Elonna Jones, 21, skipped her classes at the University of Maryland to attend with her mother, Waneta Ross, who nearly teared up as she contemplated Baltimore’s loss.Elonna Jones, 21, skipped her classes at the University of Maryland to attend with her mother, Waneta Ross, who nearly teared up as she contemplated Baltimore’s loss.
“He believed in the beauty of everything, especially our city,” Ms. Ross said. “It’s important we’re here to honor a civil rights activist who was still around in my generation.”“He believed in the beauty of everything, especially our city,” Ms. Ross said. “It’s important we’re here to honor a civil rights activist who was still around in my generation.”
Ms. Jones, a volunteer coordinator for a City Council candidate, said Mr. Cummings had motivated her to pursue a role in improving her city.
“As a young, black woman in Baltimore who wants to be in politics, he inspired me,” she said.
Mourning residents stood in black coats, hats and heels and sang Mr. Cummings’s praises as the police corralled the extended lines of people who woke up early to pay their respects. Above all, attendees noted, he always looked out for his city.
“He never forgot who we were,” said Bernadette McDonald, who lives in West Baltimore. “He was a son of Baltimore and a man of the people.”
The big names on the service’s agenda, the television cameras lined up outside and the large crowd belied the way many attendees interacted with the devoted congressman, who lived in the heart of West Baltimore and would simply give a knowing nod to those who recognized him on the street. He carried himself like anyone else when running errands or taking a walk around the block.
“If you didn’t already know him, you wouldn’t know who he was,” Ms. McDonald said.
Mr. Cummings saw his profile rise in recent years as he consistently sparred with Mr. Trump, determinedly pursuing the president, his businesses and his associates as head of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. Mr. Cummings became a leading figure in the impeachment inquiry and was said to still be joining strategy discussions with colleagues from his hospital bed.
Rhonda Martin, who works at a local high school, said Mr. Cummings had inspired the next generation of Baltimore’s leaders by speaking to students in schools around the city.
“He brought a message of hope and told students that he did it, and they can do it, too,” Ms. Martin said.
Mr. Cummings, whose parents were former sharecroppers in South Carolina, graduated from Howard University in Washington and earned a law degree at the University of Maryland. He was first elected to Congress in 1996 and never faced a serious challenge over 11 successful re-election campaigns.
On Thursday, Mr. Cummings’s body lay in state in the Capitol, the first black lawmaker to do so, and Republicans and Democrats praised his integrity and his commitment to his constituents.
Over more than two decades in Congress, Mr. Cummings championed working people, environmental reform and civil rights. He served for two years as the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus and frequently spoke of his neighborhood while pushing legislation to lower drug prices, promoting labor unions and seeking more funding for affordable housing.Over more than two decades in Congress, Mr. Cummings championed working people, environmental reform and civil rights. He served for two years as the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus and frequently spoke of his neighborhood while pushing legislation to lower drug prices, promoting labor unions and seeking more funding for affordable housing.
Even in his war of words with the president, the battle made its way to Baltimore when, in July, Mr. Trump called Mr. Cummings’s district a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess” and appeared to make light of a break-in at Mr. Cummings’s home, during which the congressman scared an intruder away. The service was studded with glimpses from a life full of good humor, camaraderie, purpose and hope. Jennifer Cummings, one of Mr. Cummings’s two daughters, recalled early-morning calls from her father on her birthdays and the ice cream they shared in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.
The president’s insults still anger Baltimore residents. “See? We’re not all trash and rats,” one congregant said as she sat down in the church on Friday. Reading from a letter to her father, Ms. Cummings said he had taught her “to understand and appreciate my blackness” and had insisted on buying her dolls with brown skin.
Mr. Cummings responded to the president by saying it was his “moral duty” to fight for residents in his district. “Each morning, I wake up,” he wrote, “and I go and fight for my neighbors.” Mr. Obama said that when Mr. Cummings was a child, his father would make him dress up and take him to the airport, telling him, “I may not fly, but you will fly one day. We can’t afford it right now, but you will fly.”
Jennifer Cummings, one of Mr. Cummings’s two daughters, recalled early morning calls from her father on her birthdays and the ice cream they shared in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. In recent days, Mr. Cummings had told relatives that he was ready to go, they said. Two days before he died, the staff at Johns Hopkins Hospital wheeled his bed to the roof so he could see the sun — and look over the city he served, his wife recounted.
Reading from a letter to her father, Ms. Cummings said her father had taught her to “love my blackness” by insisting on buying her dolls with brown skin and telling her to appreciate her lips and nose. “Boy,” he said, “have I come a long way.”
While she was proud of all the titles he held over his life, “perhaps the most important title you held in your 68 years on earth was dad,” she said. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs reported from Baltimore and Richard Fausset from Atlanta.
One of Mr. Cummings’s brothers, James Cummings, said that in one of their last conversations, the congressman spoke of his heartbreak over the unsolved killing of James’s 20-year-old son, Christopher Cummings, in Norfolk, Va., in 2011.
The killing “haunted Elijah for the rest of his life,” James said.
Adia Cummings, the congressman’s other daughter, said Mr. Cummings always challenged her and her sister to be better people. And even though he would nudge her about owing him money, he rarely turned down her requests, even recently making sure that she could attend a concert for the rapper Cardi B.
“He didn’t really know who she was, but he went out of his way, even from his sick bed, to make sure I could go see her,” she said.
Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, Mr. Cummings’s wife and the chairwoman of the Maryland Democratic Party, gave a fiery speech that brought multiple rounds of applause and many congregants to their feet more than once. And while she did not cite President Trump by name, she invoked him clearly, saying her husband’s work had become “infinitely more difficult” in the last few months of his life when he “sustained personal attacks” on him and his city. “It hurt him,” Ms. Cummings said.
Looking at Mr. Obama, she recalled that Mr. Cummings had stood with the former president early and proudly. “But you didn’t have any challenges like we have going on now,” she added with a smile, as Mr. Obama nodded and responded with an appreciative chuckle.
Ms. Cummings said she felt as if people were trying to tear Mr. Cummings down, and that the celebrations and outpouring of love this week had assured her that he was sent off with the respect he deserved.
Two days before Mr. Cummings died, his wife said, the staff at the Johns Hopkins Hospital had wheeled him up to the roof to see the sun and look over the city he never left.
“Boy, have I come a long way,” he said, according to Ms. Cummings.