Hours before the pews filled with mourners Monday at Union Baptist Church in Hempstead, Kangisi McNeil shared one last moment with his late grandfather.

McNeil, 26, unfurled a quilt emblazoned with a star and a U.S. Air Force logo and draped it over the half-open coffin of Joseph McNeil, a civil rights icon and longtime Hempstead resident who died Thursday at age 83. Kangisi McNeil is a member of the Standing Rock Reservation, and the ritual is native to the culture, he said.

The quilts are designated for people of "high significance or high honor," including Joseph McNeil, the grandson said.

"He was able to have a touch on the world that's just monumental," Kangisi McNeil told Newsday. "Being able to live and experience that, it's something that's sometimes hard to put into words."

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