You may have wondered what Jamal Harrison Bryant, senior pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, was doing at the funeral of Frank Lucas, one of the biggest drug kingpins in the nation.
What you may not know, though, is that “American Gangster” Lucas and Bryant are distant relatives.
Lucas died at 88. The Stonecrest pastor delivered the eulogy Tuesday in Newark, N.J.
Bryant explained Monday on Twitter and Instagram:
“You get to pick your friends BUT God gets to pick your family! Tomorrow I’m delivering the eulogy for my uncle #franklucas. He flooded more drugs into the country than anyone in the 70s at end of his life he was advisor to many on alternatives to street life. It’s not how you start but how you finish.”
The service was streamed on Bryant’s Facebook page.
Lucas’ story was told in the 2007 film, “American Gangster,” which was directed by Ridley Scott and starred Denzel Washington and Ruby Dee.
A native of North Carolina, Lucas later moved to Harlem, where later became a drug lord, funneling heroin from Southeast Asia into the United States.
