Carol “Kit” Harris, holds her granddaughter Ja’Niya Dabney’s hand, 11, as she says her final goodbye’s to her mother Mary “Grams” Braud Harris, left, and aunt Clarice “Reecie” Braud Willis, right. | Kathleen Flynn for Vox

Smaller funerals, no second-lining, no traditional sendoff: “It’s like their soul is not being released by all of the community.”

Editor’s note: This story was reported before the uprisings across the country, when much of New Orleans was sheltering in place.

NEW ORLEANS — Derrick “Khabukey” Shezbie, 45, has stood outside this door hundreds of times, horn in hand. Usually, when the pallbearers in white gloves come out the door to carry the casket to the hearse, he and the brass band he’s with strike up the dirge “Just a Closer Walk With Thee,” starting a second-line funeral procession.

But Shezbie held only a cigarette as he stood