BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A black man killed by police in front of a convenience store was remembered as the "meaning of Southern hospitality" and a good man whose death at the hands of two white police officers "woke up Baton Rouge and America."

Family, friends and activists gathered at Southern University, a historically black college in Baton Rouge, to both pay their respects to 37-year-old Alton Sterling and call for justice in his July 5 death.

Gary Chambers, master of ceremonies, said the funeral was intended to be a celebration of Sterling's life, not an opportunity for demonstrations about his death.

Sterling was shot to death as two white officers pinned him to the pavement. The killing was recorded on cellphone video and shared across the internet, fueling nationwide protests.

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