Jada Williams was harassed out of her Rochester, N.Y. public school by white teachers who were infuriated by a contest essay she submitted on Frederick Douglass. The child said today's education practices is the equivalent of slavery, charged her peers to hold white teachers accountable, and challenged teachers to do their jobs.

The Bible says that “a child shall lead them” and that’s just what 13-year-old Jada Williams did,writing an essay on Frederick Douglass for a contest. Her very astute analysis describing modern-day classroom practices of “packing 30-40 students into a crowded classroom, and having mostly white teachers give them packets and pamphlets to complete that they don’t fully comprehend, impedes the learnig process; and that this produces results similar to those hoped for by a slave master that forbids his slaves from learning how to read at all”.  The very intelligent little girl’s essay called for her fellow students to ‘start making these white teachers accountable for instructing you’ and challenged teachers to do their jobs. ‘What merit is there,’ she asked, if teachers have knowledge and are ‘not willing to share because of the color of my skin?’ The essay infuriated the child’s teachers who launched a harassment campaign against her, which led to her parents having to remove Jada from her school. Many find the actions by educators at her Rochester, N.Y. school deplorable, outrageous, and note that any student should be applauded for critical thinking and obvious comprehension of the book she was assigned to read about Frederick Douglass. Singling out the child only exacerbates the long-standing argument that teachers, whites in particular, lack the basic practical knowledge to engage, stimulate, and properly educate children of color. Jada’s argument,  the continuous public debate, and the growing number of schools with massive academic failures primarily in impoverished communities is like a powder keg readying to explode while crying for complete reform in the manner the American Education Systems teaches our kids. The actions of these teachers are criminal, and though we should be outraged to the point of full-scale riot, perhaps the most criminal reality is that no Public Official, Clergyman, nor Black Leader has come forward to publicly denounce such blatant racism which directly impacted one of the communities most promising students. However, the cry for better education for American Children, especially poor kids who’s State elected officials routinely make it a point to allocate minimal funding for schools populated by African-Americans, is indeed an old commentary. Ultimately, the parents of these very same poor kids are responsible for demanding that the Educational System afford their children a more competitive learning instruction in the classroom. Jada Williams story is alarming, but we should expect such conduct from racist white Americans charged with educating our children. At what point will Blacks in this country realize that true equality has yet been achieved for our people? What will it take to spark a firestorm in our nation to resurrect black people’s interest to attack with fierce veracity to finish what the entire Civil Rights Movement never fully accomplished, and obtain full relief from hatred, bigotry, and outright racism from a sick and prejudice white America?  Such a perspective seems doubtful considering that many African-Americans in this country have become content with the limited freedoms afforded us by the Civil Rights era. It seems that this generation knows nothing about Fire Hoses, Police Dogs, and brutality that many southern blacks endured paving the way for many of the freedoms that we now enjoy.Racist people will continue to spew their sick hatred, but it’s time that a decisive message is sent that our children are hands off. The fact that these white teaches displayed such immaturity in response to a child’s thoughts, opinions based on her own critical analysis of an educational system failing to properly instruct her and her peers, only highlights that the little girl’s essay had complete merit. it was Dr. Martin Luther King who once said, “intelligence plus character is the true meaning of education”. Clearly Jada Williams spoke with pure intelligence in her essay, but what characterization is owed to a supposedly educated faculty who retaliated against one of the very children they are charged to encourage? The people’s Champion acknowledges Jada Williams for edifying the true spirit of learning and reading comprehension. I pray that black people in the masses by the 100’s of thousands fill the streets of Rochester, N.Y., and put on their walking shoes, because we are not done marching just yet.

The People’s Champion

I’m David Adams

Phlicia Simone Barnes: The murdered little girl's case may re-script the State of Maryland's Code on missing and exploited children.

Although the murder mystery of who killed Monroe, N.C. honors student Phylicia Barnes remains unsolved, the pretty little girl’s case appears to be re-writing the State of Maryland’s code for missing and exploited children. State Delegates are now lobbying to pass Bill 1120 dubbed “Phylicia’s Law”, an effort to re-script the manner in which State Law Enforcement agencies are required to react at the onset of reports related to missing children cases. The bill derived in the wake of the disturbing details surrounding how the Baltimore Police handled the Barnes teen case when she was first reported missing on December 28, 2010 while staying with her half-sister in Baltimore over the Christmas Holiday. Baltimore City Police were led to believe that the studious kid had left to get something to eat and probably would return a short time later. It’s very unclear who provided the primary officer with that information, but the investigation into that account proved to be unsubstantiated after Police gathered video footage from surveillance cameras atop local businesses in the Reisterstown Road area where the child was known to frequent. Consequently, it wasn’t until 5 days later when Phylicia missed her January 6, 2010 flight back to Monroe when cops became alarmed and began treating her case as an actual missing child case. Phylicia’s moher, Janice Mustafa has always been disturbed by the fact it took 5 days to get the police interested in trying to locate her daughter. One element of this case that maybe the direct cause for the delayed Police response is the fact that Phylicia’s Biological Father had his half-brother, a Baltimore Police Sergeant, go by Deena Barnes apartment when news first broke that the child had gone missing. According to at least one of the persons interviewed by police about Phylicia’s disappearance, Sgt, Jackson used intimidation tactics and other inappropriate measures while conducting interviews with some of the people who were around the apartment during the days and hours when the child was last seen alive. Baltimore City Police Commissioner, F.H. Bealefeld III has always held that no wrong doing was discovered in Sgt. Jackson’s intervention in a un-official capacity during the initial stages of the Barnes case, but his presence was problematic because as a working supervisor for the city police, he should have known that a conflict of interest existed by his mere presence alone, and that such conflict could potentially impact the eventual outcome of the entire investigation. Not just that though, Jackson’s presence and intervention related to his half-brother’s daughter disappearance place him in a prime advantage to field, direct, divert, and influence culpable information that could have directly implicated members of his family who may have been involved in the child’s disappearance. Moreover, Jackson’s involvement early on may have created a window of opportunity for the killer(s) to clean up Deena Barnes’ apartment and dispose of Phylicia’s body and any forensics evidence that would have led to determining who killed the child. Perhaps my perspective isn’t exactly the way Phylicia’s murder was meted out, but Sgt. Jackson should have use his expertise as a ranking police officer to insure that such an argument could never have been raised pertaining to the details surrounding the murder of a family member. Jackson’s actions at the behest of Russel Barnes has always been challenged and extremely suspicious to say the least. Maryland House Bill 1120 if enacted into law would set guidelines for Law Enforcement when notified of missing children in the state. The Bill requires standards for reporting cases to the State Police and other watchdog agencies in the onset of a missing child. The Bill also requires searches and standards for such searches as well as the institution on volunteers within the communities where the child disappeared from. You can view proposed Maryland State Bill 1120 in its entirety here “Phylicia’s Law“. I would like to thank Mr. George Tazz Keys of the Maryland based Guardian Angels for making this proposed legislation available to the public.

The People’s Champion
I’m David Adams

Phylicia Simone Barnes: Though many have began to quiet about our little angel, we haven't and will never forget her, and how she was senselessly murdered over the Christmas Holiday back in 2010.

The Social Media “Buzz’ that was sparked by the murder of Monroe, North Carolina honors teen Phylicia Barnes appear to have lost it’s steam. Many say the lack of interest in recent months is directly related to what the public views as an easy case, and a crime that should have been solved by now. The once growing public outcry for justice in the child’s killing has now fizzled to a statistic on Baltimore’s ever-growing unsolved cold case murder mystery file. The Barnes case like many others related to the African-American communities isn’t unique in the slow progress of justice for such a heinous crime. The public left no stone unturned discussing the details about the case, and the possible scenarios that led to the pretty little girls nude body being discovered in the Susquehanna River in Conowingo, Maryland April 21, 2011. Specific details about Phylicia’s killing have been suppressed by authorities out of concern that information made public could jeopardize the investigation. So in short, we don’t even know what actually killed her. What we do know for certain is that Phylicia’s mother entrusted one of her prized possessions in the hands of irresponsible people who failed to properly supervise and protect the child. To be honest, Phylicia’s murder hurts deeply because of many of the facts about the case that we now know. A child who simply wanted to reach out to extended family during one of the most celebrated times of the year in American culture ended tragically, and nobody knows what happened. Those within the Baltimore Community who have lost loved ones to the violent streets of  the city know the pain Raheem & Janice Mustafa are enduring, and the killing machine of Baltimore’s inner city streets churns on like a well oiled machine. Countless young people in the black community are falling prey to senseless violence, no one is talking about their stories, and it seems that the citizens of Baltimore have become immune to tragedy while accepting violence simply as a way of life. The hurt and pain has to be especially difficult for the Mustafas, not just because they lost their precious daughter, but because allowing a young naive Phylicia to travel to Baltimore from the rural south probably was a very difficult decision. Her mother took the appropriate steps by speaking with elder half-sister Deena Barnes, making it known what her expectations were as far as supervision of her daughter, and the mom explained her personal dues and don’ts while she allowed her child to stay with her family over the Christmas Holiday back in 2010. What ultimately occurred is a crime in its self. The late teen’s mother was told that only Phylicia would be staying at the apartment by Deena Barnes. Not only was the mother lied to about who would actually be there while Phylicia visited, but she later discovered that there were in fact three males also staying at the apartment. It was actually even worst then just that, because Phylicia had made calls to an older sibling with concerns about the volume of traffic in and out of the apartment, the door being constantly kept unlocked, and an incident where a male had made advances toward her. I believe Phylicia would have been hustled out of Baltimore in a New York second had Janice Mustafa known about the activities going on in Deena Barnes’ Northwest Baltimore home. Moreover, considering the fact that Phylicia had been to Baltimore several times prior to the 2010 visit, it’s unfortunate that the Mustafas never learned about the culture their kid was being exposed to. A clear picture was revealed about Deena’s honesty and character later on. Having denied exposing her baby sister to drugs, alcohol, and a gang of wannabe street thugs, images surfaced in Social Media depicting contrasting facts about what she alleged was going on while young Phylicia stayed with her. Prior to the Mustafas traveling to Baltimore to look for their child after her disappearance, her mom was given very disturbing information from another child close to her daughter. During my interview with Janice she advised me that the child had come to her distraught, concerned that something may have happened to Phylicia, and that’s when the child shared a conversation she and Phylicia had. Janice was hit with a bomb shell when she discovered that the child told her Phylicia had been allowed to drink alcohol and spoke marijuana during her trips to Baltimore. When the Mustafas confronted Deena Barnes about these allegations, she admitted it to Janice in person, but denied it publicly. Deena Barnes’ wall of lies started crumbling down when images began to emerge on Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter showing several young males and females sitting around a table with Vodka (something the child who had never been to Baltimore before told Janice that Phylicia said she was allowed to drink) and smoking pot. Once the TPC Blog showed these images to a National audience, it demonstrated that there was a mountain of credibility in the story the young child had shared with Janice. Also, there are a plethora of other circumstances about the Barnes killing that is alarming to the point of absolute nausea. Later on into the investigation the public learned that the Federal Bureau of Investigations (F.B.I.) had obtained warrants for Social Media accounts of 4 males in Baltimore related to a child pornography element of the murder case after nude images of a child were discovered on a cell phone belonging to one of the males related to the case. However, we soon learned that the warrants were actually for the media Accounts of Michael Johnson (Deena Barnes boyfriend), Glenton Johnson (Michael’s younger brother), Phylicia, and another unidentified male. The photos included images of a 16-year-old Phylicia Barnes streaking (naked) along with adult males, in and out of Deena Barnes’ apartment. I’m sure many in the public are all aware of the kind of craziness that many of our young people indulge in, but as disturbing as this particular scenario may seem, it’s even more challenging to comprehend why a Deena would condone her scholarly achieved baby sister to participate in such reckless and dangerous behavior. When ever this horrific case concludes, Deena Barnes will have to deal with her own demons related to her complete negligence which I am certain led up to the killing of Phylicia Barnes.

Many people have began to walk away from this story, given up hope for justice, and simply are just too frustrated with the extremely slow progress of the case. There are events that show circumstantial culpability of some of the people who were close to Deena Barnes and Phylicia, but they probably lack hard evidence such as DNA, hair fibers, other forensics, and eye witnesses willing to talk about what they know. The cops are more than likely having difficulty penetrating an extremely vexing “street code of silence”. The events on December 28, 2010 the day Phylicia went missing are very compelling when we take a closer look at statements made by individuals who visited Deena’s apartment that day, coupled with some of their Social Media comments, especially in the 12:30 -1:30 time frame which is reportedly the last time anyone allegedly saw Phylicia alive. Tweets by Glenton Johnson referencing the beating of a female just before the time Michael Johnson said he last saw the child, Glenton’s tweets about putting grass in a hooka with Ease (It was discovered during the a chat on TPC Blog that ease is in fact Michael Johnson), and the location that they were driving at the time, and it’s proximity to Deena’s place as well as the near straight shot to the Susquehanna River in Conowingo, Maryland (Where Phylicia’s nude body was discovered) are all beyond mere coincidence. We are unsure who may have also been traveling in Glenton’s vehicle on Rolling Road that day as well as who may know something about the case. No one is willing to come forward and help solve this case. The sad reality is that the lack of cooperation isn’t even from apprehensive fear that involvement in a murder case would most certainly bring, but rather the silence is more than likely predicated upon nothing other than maintaining “street credibility”. The fact that even the tens of thousands of dollars in reward money raised to help find the child’s killers hasn’t motivated people to start talking, is indicative of a culture of sickness that glorifies crime while creating an arena for some of the most notorious crimes to exist in our time.  People only seem to want to get involved when tragedies of this nature directly impact their families. The incredible silence that permeates the African-American community when it comes to violence originates from the days of slavery. Slaves were fearful of reprisals from the white ruling class for seeing too much or getting involved. The fear of being lynched or killed in some other brutal fashion is a trait manifested from slavery into the culture of black folks still to this day. The only difference is that whites are no longer doing the killing. There is a mindset that blacks are continuing to be oppressed. Many offer the ghetto and other social, economic, and deplorable conditions that plague some subcultures within the black community as a valid supporting argument. However, we see the violence and other criminal activity being committed by people of color not whites, rendering many black communities under siege, and it’s the silence of law-abiding citizens that aides in the continuance of perpetuating criminal culture within our communities.

Danisha McIntosh tweeted "is s trapped at the dam. don't pull the lever", months before Phylicia Barnes body was found near the Coniwingo Dam. She is friends with Glenton "Bootz" Johnson and Dorian Carpenter who were questioned about the disappearance and murder of Phylicia Barnes.

A perfect example related to the Phylicia Barnes case is the Tweets by the “Twitter Girl” (Danisha McIntosh), who tweeted about a dam months before Phylicia’s body was discovered in the Susquehanna River near the Conowingo Dam. The fact that she was extremely close friends with two of the very males the cops questioned about this murder case, speaks volumes that she is in the know about some of the details regarding how Phylicia ended up at that dam. In fact one of her tweets appear to depict her mocking a female “crying all crazy” as if she had no compassion for the person’s obvious distress. Danisha just like Phylicia, is beautiful, smart, and has aspirations to exceed in life based on what we have learned from her social media pages, but I wonder if the tables were turned and she ended up floating nude in a river, if her friends or loved ones would stand by in utter silence not wanting justice for her. I’m not completely convinced that Danisha isn’t in fact directly involved herself, but all indications points to her having been told something about the case at the very least.  It’s even more upsetting when we take into consideration the bond that women innately have toward each other, personal safety, and their natural protective instincts. Rather she suffers from a common disease plaguing this generation that places social acceptance above moral character. Our young people have been taught a value system unlike any social code we have ever known. It’s simply disturbing that post emancipation generations have yet to break the cycle of slavery. Don’t stop talking about a little girl name Phylicia Simone Barnes. her killer(s) are still at large. This could be your very own child, and this could very well be Danisha McIntosh. Though we are free from she shackles of human bondage, perhaps the greatest challenge for the African-American community is the shackles of mental slavery.

The People’s Champion

I’m David Adams

R&B Singer Bobby Brown and ex-husband of late Superstar Queen of Popular Music Whitney Houston, left her funeral when he and his children were not accomodated.

It should be stated that my intentions are not to overshadow the life and memory of the late Songstress Whitney Houston, but rather an effort on my part to understand the events that were allowed to occur at New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey. This incident creates a hell of a stigmatization upon the Houston Family as well as the Church’s Administration. I will spare nothing in describing my personal discuss and outrage that this so called Christian Community allowed to happen, and the impact it may have upon the children who were effected by this obvious ungodly, and cruel act. 

They say it was a day for Church and a day in which “one of New Jersey’s finest citizens” came home to her Home going Service at the Church that helped launch her career as one of America’s most beloved songstress. At Whitney Houston’s funeral there were more stars then at a Grammy Awards Ceremony. They sang songs about loving God, they came and preached, and the constant theme was how Whitney Houston’s life was marked by her love for the lord. It was one of the most heartfelt, loving, and Christian like events I have ever witnessed in my life. It’s just sad that Bobbi Kristina, Whitney’s daughter didn’t have her only surviving parent at her side during the family’s darkest hour. Bobby Brown who arrived with 9 other people was asked repeatedly to move by security at the church. There have been several rumors that Brown and his guest (which primarily consisted of his children; children that Whitney herself helped rise during their 15 year marriage) were asked to leave the service. Brown issued a statement to Entertainment Tonight stating, “My children and I were invited to the funeral of my ex-wife Whitney Houston. We were seated by security and then subsequently asked to move on three separate occasions. I fail to understand why security treated my family this way and continue to ask us and no one else to move. Security then prevented me from attempting to see my daughter Bobbi Kristina. In light of the events, I gave a kiss to the casket of my ex-wife and departed as I refused to create a scene. My children are completely distraught over the events. This was a day to honor Whitney. I doubt Whitney would have wanted this to occur. I will continue to pay my respects to my ex-wife the best way I know how.” Social media has been buzzing since reports first emerged that Brown left the funeral, and if Brown’s account is accurate, it’s troubling considering the constant reflection that many speakers highlighted about Houston’s caring and loving spirit for everyone. Who requested Brown and his kids move? Was it a member of the Houston Family? Was this act well thought out with Bobbi Kristina kept in mind? These are questions that many may have and probably will never be answered. However, the incident has now created more discussion about how Bobby Brown was treated then the actual Whitney Houston funeral. The circumstances surrounding the death of Whitney has yet to be confirmed, but I’m sure the debate will last for years whether it was Brown that brought the perceived pristine Queen of popular music to such depths of promiscuity that it was extremely difficult for her to recuperate from it all. The debate has always been even sided as to which of the two Music stars actually started the other on hard drugs, and we know the Houston family has always held Bobby directly responsible for Whitney’s fall from grace. I am not convinced that the family has a legitimate argument with that perspective. The Media and the Houston’s have continuously waged war on Bobby Brown, charging him with tainting her image, domestic violence, alcoholism, and substance abuse. Whitney was marketed as a good girl who grew up in the church in the shadows of her Gospel Music Award winning mother Cissy Houston. You would think that the life she experienced married to Bobby Brown was an unfamiliar culture that resulted in the eventual fall from grace of the Angelic like songstress. Many people forget or probably care not to remember the battles with substance abuse endured by the late songstress’ cousin Dionne Warwick. The R&B superstar, like many before her, also fell prey to the lures of drugs and alcohol in an extremely demanding industry. Though my recollection on this doesn’t mean a hill of beans related to the demise of Whitney Houston, it does offer some possible insight into the fact that Whitney wasn’t exactly naive about substance abuse and other negativities associated with the music industry. In fact mom Cissy, her cousin Dionne Warwick, and her God Mother, the Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin were all more than equipped to educate and groom Whitney about the lures of drug culture associated with the exact same craft of Musical Performance that they all had dominated, and excelled in during the peek of their careers. I am sure that there was constant counsel as Whitney’s addiction and troubles became more and more obvious publicly. I just don’t see drugs and the other events that occurred sufficient grounds to vilify Bobby Brown for some of the behavior that Whitney willfully chose to indulge in, and the fact that such disdain for Bobby was able to spill over into Whitney’s funeral in my mind tends to indicate that his disconnect from the Houston family runs deeper than what has been made known to the public. I don’t agree with the manner in which the Houston’s chose to deal with Brown’s presence at the funeral, but I understand that people are human. Pain, hurt, and grief often times get the very best of us, and cause us to act irrationally at times because we are all human. I just don’t understand denying children the opportunity to pay respects to a woman that was their mom too. Whitney helped raise Bobby’s other children in their 15 year marriage. Those same kids were innocent in what ever happened between Whitney and their Dad. I looked at the News clip on CNN, and the images of Bobby’s son, crying uncontrollablely in the parking lot outside of the church, was an extremely bitter pill to swallow. Was the hate and disdain for Bobby so overwhelming that his kids had to be punished for his actions perceived by the Houston family to be the cause of Whitney’s death? I am not sure this display of viciousness is even deserving of attention, but one thing for certain is that this incident speaks volumes about the Houston’s alleged allegiance to God, Christianity, and their so called faith. It was Pastor Marvin Winans who preached during Whitney’s eulogy about walking God like and prioritizing God’s word. By snubbing Bobby Brown, especially his innocent children, the Houston family contradicted just about everything that every speaker conveyed describing their experience in the life of Whitney Houston. This was a despicable act of viciousness, ungodly, and sends a hell of a message to the world about the unwillingness of some Christians desire to forgive. This basic principality (forgiveness) taught by Christ wasn’t present during the home going of a woman so many said loved him so. Moreover, those within in the Houston family who allowed this to occur wasn’t thinking about Bobbi Kris, were acting selfishly, and created a horrible stigmatization upon the Houston’s true Christian beliefs as well as the entire New Hope Baptist Church Ministry.

The People’s Champion

I’mDavid Adams

 A Black History Month Series

Clockwise from top left: Cynthia Wesley (14), Carol Robertson (14), Denise McNair (11) and Addie Mae Collins (14) were the four innocent little girls killed by hate mongers, who planted a bomb at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama on September 15, 1963, while children were preparing for a Sunday School sermon about Love, and Forgiveness.

Nearly 50 years ago little children were preparing for Sunday school Class when tragedy struck a blow to the very core of God fearing people. The bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama rocked the consciousness of our entire nation, established a new low in cowardness, and took the lives of four little girls in church to hear a sermon entitled, “The love that forgives”. Though the bible teaches forgiveness, we must never forget the heinous acts committed by racist white men of the Klans of America whose heartless deeds preyed upon black children with hatred and evilness during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. It’s important to remember during this Black History Month the countless souls that perished in the quest for equality and to never forget the senseless killing of these four innocent and martyred little girls. The 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama was bombed on Sunday, September 15, 1963. The explosion at the African-American church, which killed four girls, marked a turning point in the U.S. 1960s Civil Rights Movement and contributed to support for passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Although city leaders had reached a settlement in May with demonstrators and started to integrate public places, not everyone agreed with ending segregation. Bombings and other acts of violence followed the settlement, and the church had become an inviting target. The three-story 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama had been a rallying point for civil rights activities through the spring of 1963, and was where the students who were arrested during the 1963 Birmingham campaign’s Children’s Crusade were trained. The church was used as a meeting-place for civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph David Abernathy and Fred Shuttlesworth. Tensions were escalated when the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) became involved in a campaign to register African Americans to vote in Birmingham. Still, the campaign was successful. The demonstrations led to an agreement in May between the city’s African-American leaders and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to integrate public facilities in the country. In the early morning of Sunday, September 15, 1963, Bobby Frank Cherry, Thomas Blanton, Herman Frank Cash, and Robert Chambliss, members of United Klans of America, a Ku Klux Klan group, planted a box of dynamite with a time delay under the steps of the church, near the basement. At about 10:22 a.m., twenty-six children were walking into the basement assembly room to prepare for the sermon entitled “The Love That Forgives,” when the bomb exploded. Four girls, Addie Mae Collins (aged 14), Denise McNair (aged 11), Carole Robertson (aged 14), and Cynthia Wesley (aged 14), were killed in the attack, and 22 additional people were injured, one of whom was Addie Mae Collins’ younger sister, Sarah.[11] The explosion blew a hole in the church’s rear wall, destroyed the back steps and all but one stained-glass window, which showed Christ leading a group of little children. On the morning of the bombing, a white man was seen getting out of a white and turquoise Chevrolet car and placing a box under the steps of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. Soon afterwards, at 10:22 a.m., the bomb exploded killing four children. The four girls had been attending Sunday school classes at the church. Twenty-two other people were also hurt by the blast. Civil rights activists blamed George Wallace, the Governor of Alabama, for the killings. Nicknamed “Bombingham,” the city has had more than 40 bombings since World War I Only a week before the bombing he had told The New York Times that to stop integration Alabama needed a “few first-class funerals.” A witness identified Robert Chambliss, a member of the Ku Klux Klan, as the man who placed the bomb under the steps of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. He was arrested and charged with murder and possessing a box of 122 sticks of dynamite without a permit. On October 8, 1963, Chambliss was found not guilty of murder and received a hundred-dollar fine and a six-month jail sentence for having the dynamite. The case was unsolved until Bill Baxley was elected attorney general of Alabama. He requested the original Federal Bureau of Investigation files on the case and discovered that the organization had accumulated a great deal of evidence against Chambliss that had not been used in the original trial. In November 1977 Chambliss was tried once again for the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing. Now aged 73, Chambliss was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. Chambliss died in an Alabama prison on 29 October 1985. On 18 May 2000, the FBI announced that the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing had been carried out by the Ku Klux Klan splinter group, the Cahaba Boys. It was claimed that four men, Robert Chambliss, Herman Cash, Thomas Blanton and Bobby Cherry had been responsible for the crime. Cash was dead but Blanton and Cherry were arrested and Blanton has since been tried and convicted. The explosions increased anger and tension, which was already high in Birmingham. Birmingham’s Mayor Albert Boutwell wept and said, “It is just sickening that a few individuals could commit such a horrible atrocity.” Two more people died in the hours following the Sunday morning bombing, including a 16-year-old African-American boy shot by police after he was caught throwing rocks at cars and refused to stop for police officers. In spite of everything, the newly-integrated schools continued to meet. School had been integrated the previous Tuesday with black and white children in the same classrooms for the first time in that city. As the news story about the four girls reached the national and international press, many felt that they had not taken the Civil Rights struggle seriously enough. Milwaukee Sentinel editorial opined, “For the rest of the nation, the Birmingham church bombing should serve to goad the conscience. The deaths…in a sense are on the hands of each of us.” The city of Birmingham initially offered a $52,000 reward for the arrest of the bombers. Governor George Wallace, an outspoken segregationalist, offered an additional $5,000. However, civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wired Wallace that “the blood of four little children … is on your hands. Your irresponsible and misguided actions have created in Birmingham and Alabama the atmosphere that has induced continued violence and now murder.” Following the tragic event, white strangers visited the grieving families to express their sorrow. At the funeral for three of the girls (one family preferred a separate, private funeral), Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke about life being “as hard as crucible steel.” More than 8,000 mourners, including 800 clergymen of all races, attended the service. No city officials attended. The bombing continued to increase worldwide sympathy for the civil rights cause. On July 2, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, ensuring equal rights of African Americans before the law. FBI investigations gathered evidence pointing to four suspects: Robert Chambliss, Thomas E. Blanton Jr, Herman Cash, and Bobby Frank Cherry. According to a later report from the Bureau, “By 1965, we had serious suspects—namely, Robert E. Chambliss, Bobby Frank Cherry, Herman Frank Cash, and Thomas E. Blanton, Jr., all KKK members—but witnesses were reluctant to talk and physical evidence was lacking. Also, at that time, information from our surveillances was not admissible in court. As a result, no federal charges were filed in the ’60s.” Although Chambliss was convicted on an explosives charge, no convictions were obtained in the 1960s for the killings. Alabama Attorney General William Baxley reopened the investigation after he took office in 1971, requesting evidence from the FBI and building trust with key witnesses who had been reluctant to testify in the first trial. The prosecutor had been a student at the University of Alabama when he heard about the bombing in 1963. “I wanted to do something, but I didn’t know what.” In 1977 former Ku Klux Klansman Robert “Dynamite Bob” Chambliss was indicted in the murder of all four girls, tried and convicted of the first-degree murder of Denise McNair, and sentenced to life in prison. He died eight years later in prison. Thomas E. Blanton, Jr. was tried in 2001 and found guilty at age 62 of four counts of murder and sentenced to life in prison. Herman Cash died in 1994 without having been charged. Bobby Frank Cherry, also a former Klansman, was indicted [in 2001] along with Blanton. Judge James Garrett of Jefferson County Circuit Court ruled “that Mr. Cherry’s trial would be delayed indefinitely because a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation concluded that he was mentally incompetent.” He was later convicted in 2002, sentenced to life in prison, and died in 2004. Though this crime arrived at eventual justice for these murdered children, it came many years later after the killers had lived long into their senior years. We must never forget these little girls who knew and loved God to the very end.

On Birmingham Sunday, a noise shook the ground
And people all over the earth turned around.
For no one recalled a more cowardly sound.
And the choirs kept singing of Freedom.

– Richard Farina

Image of Liberty Contracting Co. across the street from 16th Street Baptist Church in the aftermath of bomb that rocked the church and depicts the power of the blast.

Fireman stand inside the hole in the wall caused by the bomb at the 16th Street Baptist Church.

The side of the 16th Street Baptist Church after the explosion.

The People’s Champion

I’m David Adams

When you are a man of conviction, integrity, without any equivocation to your position, they lurk behind you in the shadows of darkness seeking your demise.

Some People said that I would never make it. They said that I was undeserving of success and that there was no good within me. They said that I would never live to be 21 years old and that my life would come to a violent end one day. They said I was void on righteousness, a vicious person, and a disciple of Satan himself. Those who have said these things even sought to have me incarcerated, killed, and excoriated for my sins. I experienced many of these things in my conformity yet I am still here. In my life time there have been personal upheavals and far to many to share. I often reflect upon what I have gone through and realize that because of this journey I have come to know the Lord. My faith has brought me through it all. There have been many good men who counseled my every path and to them I am greatly in their debt.  As the finger-pointing remain constant upon me, I have acquired an immunity from the nonsense and negativity some people bring to me without provocation. We know from the study of human behavior that acceptance is a basic physiological need, a trait in which many have literally sold their souls to obtain among social, employment, and other public  settings. I have never gone out of my way to appease others and I have a reputation for my candor.  Perhaps intelligence, self-confidence, and articulance are curses that have dogged me all these years. Some people’s interaction with others are predicated upon the value your association profits them in many superficial ways. Many of these perspectives I describe may be a direct result of others inability to use me in their efforts for personal gratifications or   other interest they have contrived related to social affairs with me. My refusal to be lumped into a category or profiled as the kind of man others wish, has come at a price. My deliberate distance, anti socialism, and personal exemption from various public venues are not illustrative of my lack of proper social decorum, poor social interaction skills, but rather socialite status simply has never been of interest to me. As a result, labels such as arrogant, radical, and other innuendos meant to defame me were born out the basic ignorance people possessed about my true character. We have no control over perceptions that others foster about us, nor reconstruct a person’s ideology. All we can do is pray to God that he allows us to remain pure and true to those ideas we manifest in our own personal lives, and learn to except those things we don’t have the power to change. Every person we come in contact with will not like you, even if it’s for no other provocation other than the fact that your light-skinned with hazel green eyes, or that you hold a Doctorate. People are complex and their reasoning can only be understood from their personally unique disposition related to the practicality of living. My personal depth on many of these issues have not gone unnoticed and in some ways have been used to solicit indifference from others toward me. In this life time many have sought money, power, and fame as the proper destination befitting their personal perception of success. This has never been my course for I was born with power. The ability to effectively communicate my thoughts and ideas has always been my most valued asset, and I avoid Mongols and Whores who worship material aspiring to propel themselves into the upper realms of classicism and social elites. I have spent my life attempting to convey an equilibrium related to the masses of all of God’s people. This is an effort on my part consistently met by a totalitarian culture proclaiming to be superior. I am not without  light and realize that much of my position on socialism and classicism is the root of some indifference that I have encountered. With that being said, and having offered insight to this topic, I must address some personal concerns that have surfaced. When I made a debut in Social Media several years ago, I emerged from my typical place of privacy. The onslaught of contacts that followed gave birth to the reintroduction of friends, classmates, and others associated with us all. Like most I’m sure, I proceeded with caution knowing that I didn’t know anyone, after all I hadn’t seen most in over 20 years, and we are now grown now. Most of these friendships  from my hometown were good, as I find native Baltimoreans usually rise above synthetic BS, and we are all good. However, I can not say the same for a very small minority of individuals from some of the various institutions of higher learning that I have attended. For me I know Social Media offers a glimpse of the lives of people connected to my youth. Their lives and successes are all of extreme importance to me as I genuinely  enjoy seeing the prosperity of others. Their kids and family life are all dynamic events that now polarize our journey from long ago. Sadly though, my perspective isn’t share by all who have become friends on many of my Media pages. For some reason people of color seem to enjoy the deployment of “messiness” and scandal. This is all fine and well with me as long as I am not involved, but this has not been the case. I find it interesting that individuals who never liked you, continuously speak your name in a negative light, and all along propagate a fictitious poster of fellowship. I stumbled upon these kinds of deceptions upon mutual friends discovery that individuals were plotting and spreading rumors. Like one person stated to me, “I find it odd that he is telling me all these things about you, how he doesn’t like you, and yet he keeps you on his friends list”. The funny part is I never recalled a single incident where there was a indifference between us. It just goes to show we have enemies that we are unaware of. Dislike for people is a nature human occurrence, but it’s baffling that one could continue to foster disdain for a person they haven’t seen in decades. In my mind this behavior depicts the lack of progression in maturity. But I should be clear here. I haven’t pursued women from my college days and don’t plan to either. I have reconnected with several females that I attended college with, and I have expressed my personal opinion on how they continue to be attractive even at our age, and trust me I went to school with a plethora of attractive females. Now do I ever revisit missed opportunities with  them? Sure I do, and I believe many guys do, but that’s usually the extent of it. I have heard about the annual rendezvous that are meted out in college towns during homecomings where parties unknown indulge in the hanging from chandeliers kind of sex throughout the weekend.  That’s all well and find, but why through my name into the mix? I have never been to a single homecoming and if I can help it, I probably never will. I think it’s a sad state of affairs when a married man has to play games to limit his competition in a “piece-of-ass” type conquest endeavor. It’s a (and she said this not me) “punk ass” move. Yes, I laugh, kid, clown, and flirt around with college days females, but it’s limited to just that. In short, I’ve learned to master “dick control”, and it’s not my fault your lack of penis endowment that has your wife ready to kick your punk ass out of your home. I mean let’s keep it real the ladies do talk, but that’s none of my concern either. Just leave me out of it, in fact make my name taste like human feces when you speak it. In reality you know from the very core of your heart that you are no match for me mentally, spiritually, educationally, and physically. I would suggest pursuing complete civility from here on out, and pray you never ever see me in person. That day you will develop a sudden and new found respect for me, and this I am certain. What ever your “beef” is with me, let it go because your damn near 50, and still running around playing schoolyard games. Everybody is talking about how you cried on the phone like a feathered panties wearing little bitch when you found out that she dumped you. To add insult to injury she is still friends with each and everyone of the people you tried to have her disassociate with. These are classic memoires of  the epic fail of an old school wanna be pimp. I pray I never have to revisit this topic again. Moreover, some of the females from my college days are just as slimey and have been seeking information about my life to expose what they perceive to be weaknesses on my part. For the record I have never professed to be a perfect man, and there are events in my life that I wish I could undo, but I’m confident that it all has been part of a plan that God mapped out for my life.  I don’t have to explain anything, but it’s important to distinguish  that all within humanity were born into sin. I won’t expound upon this in explicit detail because it angers me to the point of explosive violence, and I plan to keep my promise to my late father.  So, in closing I wonder why there are shadows from my past emerging and what evilness they seek. I have done nothing to anyone and I will not allow the disruption of my peace. I rebuke them all in the name of God, and I pray they return to the darkest depths of hell from which they have arrived. They only know my name, but they don’t know my story. God speed!

The People’s Champion

I’m David Adams

Many African Americans are unaware of the story of Emmett Till and how his murder fueled what would eventually become the “Civil Rights Movement”. Till was a 14 year old from Chicago visiting family in Money, Mississippi. Many historians believe that the brutal murder of  Emmett is what motivated black people to began fighting for equality in America.

Till arrived on August 21, 1955. On August 24, he and cousin Curtis Jones skipped church where Wright was preaching, joining some local boys as they went to Bryant’s Grocery and Meat Market to buy candy. The teenagers were children of sharecroppers and had been picking cotton all day. The market was owned by a white couple, 24-year-old Roy Bryant and his wife Carolyn, and mostly catered to the local sharecropper population. Carolyn was alone in the store that day; her sister-in-law was in the rear of the store watching children. Jones left Till with the other boys while Jones played checkers across the street. According to Jones, the other boys reported that Till had a photograph of an integrated class at the school he attended in Chicago,^{[note 1]} and Till bragged to the boys that the white children in the picture were his friends. He pointed to a white girl in the picture, or referred to a picture of a white girl that had come with his new wallet,^[20] and stated that she was his girlfriend. One or more of the local boys dared Till to speak to 21-year-old Carolyn Bryant.^[21]

The facts of what transpired in the store are still disputed, but according to several versions, Till may have wolf-whistled at Bryant.^[22] A newspaper account following his disappearance stated that Till sometimes whistled to alleviate his stuttering.^[23] His speech was sometimes unclear; his mother claimed he had particular difficulty with pronouncing “b” sounds, and may have whistled to overcome problems asking for bubble gum.^[24] Other stories claim Till may have grabbed Carolyn Bryant’s hand and asked her for a date, or said “Bye, baby” as he left the store,^[12] or “You needn’t be afraid of me, baby, I’ve been with white women before”.^[25] Carolyn Bryant later asserted that Till had grabbed her at the waist and asked her for a date. She said the young man also used “unprintable” words.^[26]

In any event, Carolyn Bryant was so alarmed she ran outside to a car to retrieve a pistol from under the seat. Upon seeing her do this, the teenagers left immediately.^[25] One of the other boys ran across the street to tell Curtis Jones what happened. When the older man, with whom Jones was playing checkers, heard the story, he urged the boys to leave quickly, fearing violence. Carolyn Bryant told others of the events at the store, and the story spread quickly. Jones and Till declined to tell Mose Wright, fearing they would get in trouble.^[27] Till expressed a desire to return home to Chicago. Roy Bryant was on an extended trip hauling shrimp to Texas and did not return home until August 27.^[28]

When Roy Bryant was told of what had transpired, he aggressively questioned several young black men who entered the store. That evening, Bryant, with a black man named J. W. Washington, approached a young black man walking along a road. Bryant ordered Washington to seize the young man, put him in the back of his pickup truck, and took him to be identified by an as-yet unnamed companion of Carolyn’s who had witnessed the episode with Till. Friends or parents vouched for the young men in Bryant’s store, and Carolyn’s companion denied that the young man Bryant and Washington seized was the one who had accosted her. Somehow, however, Bryant learned that the young man who had done it was from Chicago and was staying with Mose Wright.^{[note 2]} Several witnesses overheard Bryant and his 36-year-old half-brother John William “J. W.” Milam discussing taking Till from his house.^[29]

In the early morning hours—between 2:00 and 3:30—on Sunday, August 28, 1955, Roy Bryant, Milam, and another man (who may have been black) drove to Mose Wright’s house. Milam was armed with a pistol and a flashlight. He asked Wright if he had three boys in the house from Chicago. Till shared a bed with another cousin; there were eight people in the small two-bedroom cabin. Milam asked Wright to take them to “the nigger who did the talking”. When they asked Till if it was he, he replied, “Yeah”, for which they threatened to shoot him and told him to get dressed.^[12][30] The men threatened to kill Wright if he reported what he had seen. Till’s great-aunt offered the men money, but they did not respond. They put Till in the back of a pickup truck and drove to a barn at the Clint Shurden Plantation in Drew. Till was pistol-whipped and placed in the bed of the pickup truck again and covered with a tarpaulin. Throughout the course of the night, Bryant, Milam, and witnesses recall them being in several locations with Till. According to some witnesses, they took Till to a shed behind Milam’s home in the nearby town of Glendora where they beat him again and tried to decide what to do. Witnesses recall between two and four white men and two and four black men who were either in or surrounding the pickup truck where Till was seated. Others passed by Milam’s shed to the sounds of someone being beaten. Accounts differ as to when Till was shot; either in Milam’s shed or by the Tallahatchie River. He was driven to Bryant’s store where several people noticed blood pooling in the truck bed. Bryant explained he killed a deer, and in one instance showed the body to a black man who questioned him, saying “that’s what happens to smart niggers”.^[31]

In an interview with William Bradford Huie in Look magazine in 1956, Bryant and Milam stated that their intention was to beat Till and throw him off an embankment into the river to frighten him. They told Huie that while they were beating Till, however, he called them bastards, declared he was as good as they, and had in the past had sexual encounters with white women. They then put Till in the back of their truck, drove to a cotton gin to take a 70-pound (32 kg) fan—the only time they admitted to being worried, thinking that by this time in early daylight they would be spotted and accused of stealing—and drove for several miles along the river looking for a place to dispose of Till. They shot him by the river and weighted his body with the fan.^{[12][note 3]}

Mose Wright stayed on his front porch for twenty minutes waiting for Till to return. He did not go back to bed. He and another man went into Money, got gasoline, and drove around trying to find Till. Unsuccessful, they returned home by 8:00 am.^[32]After hearing from Wright he would not call the police because he feared for his life, Curtis Jones placed a call to the Leflore County sheriff and another to his mother in Chicago, who, hysterical, called Mamie Till Bradley.^[33] Wright and his wife also drove to Sumner, where Elizabeth Wright’s brother contacted the sheriff.^[34]

Bryant and Milam were questioned by Leflore County Sheriff George Smith. They admitted they had taken the boy from his great-uncle’s yard but claimed they had released him the same night in front of Bryant’s store. Bryant and Milam were arrested for kidnapping.^[35] Word got out that Till was missing, and soon Mississippi state field secretary for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Medgar Evers, and Amzie Moore, head of the Bolivar County chapter, became involved, disguising themselves as cotton pickers and going into the cotton fields in search of any information that might help find Till.^[36]

Three days after his abduction, Till’s swollen and disfigured body was found by two boys fishing in the Tallahatchie River. His head was very badly damaged, he had been shot above the right ear, an eye was dislodged from the socket, there was evidence that he had been beaten on the back and the hips, and his body weighted to the fan blade, fastened around his neck with barbed wire. He was nude, but wearing a silver ring with the initials “L. T.” and “May 25, 1943” carved in it.^{[37][note 4]}

Confusion about Till’s whereabouts and a positive identification of the body retrieved from the river compounded issues in the case that eventually influenced the trial. Hodding Carter in theDelta Democrat-Times, a local Mississippi newspaper, reported that Till may have been hidden by his relatives or perhaps returned to Chicago for his safety.^[38] The body’s face was unrecognizable due to trauma and the result of being submerged in water. Mose Wright was called to the river and identified Till. The silver ring Till wore was removed and returned to Wright, and further passed to the district attorney. Stories from witnesses, both black and white, conflict about whether the ring was on Till’s body and who knew he had worn it previously.^[39]

The town of Sumner in Tallahatchie County served as the venue for the trial as the body had been found there. Sumner had only one boarding house and the small town was besieged by reporters from all over the country. David Halberstam called it “the first great media event of the civil rights movement”.^[55] A reporter who had covered the trials for Bruno Hauptmann andMachine Gun Kelly remarked that this was the most publicity for any trial he had ever seen.^[25] No hotels were available for black visitors. Mamie Till Bradley arrived to testify and the trial also attracted black congressman Charles Diggs from Michigan. Bradley, Diggs, and several black reporters stayed at Howard’s home in Mound Bayou, which, on a large lot surrounded by Howard’s armed guards, resembled a compound. The day before the start of the trial, a young black man named Frank Young arrived to tell Howard he knew of two witnesses to the crime. Levi “Too Tight” Collins and Henry Lee Loggins were black employees of Leslie Milam, J. W.’s brother, in whose shed Till was beaten. Collins and Loggins were spotted with J. W. Milam, Bryant, and Till. The prosecution team was unaware of Collins and Loggins. Sheriff Strider, however, booked them into the Charleston, Mississippi jail to keep them from testifying.^[56]

The trial was held in September 1955, lasting for five days and attendees remember it being very hot. The courtroom was filled to its 280-spectator capacity, and as a matter of course racially segregated.^[57] Press from major national newspapers attended, including black publications; black reporters were made to sit segregated from the white press, farther from the jury. Sheriff Strider welcomed black spectators coming back from lunch with a cheerful, “Hello, Niggers!”^[58] Some visitors from the North found the court to be run with surprising informality. Jury members were allowed to drink beer on duty and many white men in the audience wore handguns holstered to their belts.^[59]

Ernest Withers defied the judge’s orders prohibiting photography during the trial to document Mose Wright standing to identify J. W. Milam, which “signified intimidation of Delta blacks was no longer as effective as the past”^[60] and Wright had “crossed a line that no one could remember a black man ever crossing in Mississippi”.^[61]

The defense’s primary strategy was arguing that the body pulled from the river could not be positively identified and they questioned whether Till was dead at all. The defense asserted that Bryant and Milam had taken Till, but had let him go. They furthermore attempted to prove that Mose Wright—who was addressed as “Uncle Mose” by the prosecution and “Mose” by the defense—could not identify Bryant and Milam as the men who took Till from his cabin. Only Milam’s flashlight was in use, and no other lights in the house were turned on. Milam and Bryant identified themselves to Wright the evening they took Till—the third man did not speak—but Wright only saw Milam clearly. Wright’s testimony was considered remarkably courageous and a first in the state for a black man implicating the guilt of a white man in court. Journalist James Hicks, who worked for the black news wire service National News Association, was present in the courtroom and was especially impressed that Wright stood to identify Milam, pointing to him and saying “Thar he” (There he is),^{[note 7]} calling it a historic moment and one filled with “electricity”.^[62] A writer for the New York Post noted that following his identification Wright sat “with a lurch which told better than anything else the cost in strength to him of the thing he had done”.^[63] A reporter who covered the trial for the New Orleans Times-Picayune stated it was “the most dramatic thing I saw in my career”.^[64]

Mamie Till Bradley testified that she instructed her son to watch his manners in Mississippi and that should a situation ever come to his being asked to get on his knees to ask forgiveness of a white person, he should do it without a thought. The defense questioned her identification of her son in the casket in Chicago and a $400 life insurance policy she had taken out on him.^[65]

While the trial progressed, Leflore County Sheriff George Smith, Howard, and several reporters, both black and white, attempted to locate Collins and Loggins. They could not, but found three witnesses who had seen Collins and Loggins with Milam and Bryant on Leslie Milam’s property. Two of them testified that they heard someone being beaten, blows, and cries.^[65] One testified so quietly the judge ordered him several times to speak louder, he heard the victim call out, “Mama, Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy.”^[66] Judge Curtis Swango allowed Carolyn Bryant to testify, but not in front of the jury, after the prosecution objected that her testimony was irrelevant to Till’s abduction and murder. It may have been leaked in any case to the jury. Sheriff Strider testified for the defense his theory that Till was alive, the body retrieved from the river was white, and a doctor from Greenwood stated on the stand that the body was too decomposed to identify, and therefore had been in the water too long for it to be Till.^[67]

In the concluding statements, one prosecuting attorney admitted that what Till did was wrong, but it warranted a spanking, not murder. Gerald Chatham passionately called for justice and mocked the sheriff and doctor’s statements that alluded to a conspiracy. Mamie Bradley indicated she was very impressed with his summation.^[68] The defense stated that the prosecution’s theory of the events the night Till was murdered were improbable, and said the jury’s “forefathers would turn over in their graves” if they convicted Bryant and Milam. Only three outcomes were possible in Mississippi for capital murder: life imprisonment, the death penalty, or acquittal. On September 23 the jury acquitted both defendants after a 67-minute deliberation; one juror said, “If we hadn’t stopped to drink pop, it wouldn’t have taken that long.”^[69]

In post-trial analyses, blame for the outcome varied. Mamie Till Bradley was criticized for not crying enough on the stand. The jury was noted to have been picked almost exclusively from the hill country section of Tallahatchie County, which, due to its poorer economic make-up found whites and blacks competing for land and other agrarian opportunities. Unlike the population living closer to the river (and thus closer to Bryant and Milam in Leflore County) who possessed a noblesse oblige toward blacks according to historian Stephen Whitaker, those in the eastern part of the county were remarkably virulent in their racism. The prosecution was criticized for dismissing any potential juror who knew Milam or Bryant, for the fear that such a juror would vote to acquit. Afterward, Whitaker noted that this was a mistake as anyone who had personally known the defendants usually disliked them.^[25][68] One juror voted twice to convict, but on the third discussion, acquiesced and voted with the rest of the jury to acquit.^[70] In later interviews, the jurors acknowledged that they knew Bryant and Milam were guilty, but simply did not believe that life imprisonment or the death penalty fit punishment for whites who had killed a black man.^[71] This is somewhat disputed by later interviews with two jurors who stated as late as 2005 that they believed the defense’s case, that the prosecution had not proven that Till had died and that it was his body that was removed from the river.^[70]

In November 1955 a grand jury declined to indict Bryant and Milam for kidnapping, despite the testimony given that they had admitted taking Till. Mose Wright and a young man named Willie Reed, who testified to seeing Milam enter the shed where screams and blows came from, both testified in front of the grand jury.^[72] T. R. M. Howard paid to relocate Wright, Reed, and another black witness who testified against Milam and Bryant, to Chicago.^[68]

Although racially motivated murders had occurred throughout the South for decades, the circumstances surrounding Emmett Till grew beyond the details of a 14-year-old boy who had unknowingly defied a severe social caste system. Till’s murder brought considerations about segregation, law enforcement, relations between the North and South, the social status quo in Mississippi, the NAACP, White Citizens’ Councils, and the Cold War, all of which were played out in a drama staged in newspapers all over the U.S. and abroad.^[40] When Till went missing, a three-paragraph story was printed in the Greenwood Commonwealth and quickly picked up by other Mississippi newspapers. They reported on his death when the body was found, and the next day when a picture of him his mother had taken the previous Christmas showing them smiling together, appeared in the Jackson Daily News and Vicksburg Evening Post, editorials and letters to the editor were printed expressing shame at the people who had caused Till’s death. One read “Now is the time for every citizen who loves the state of Mississippi to ‘Stand up and be counted’ before hoodlum white trash brings us to destruction.” The letter went on to state that Negroes were not the downfall of Mississippi society, but whites like those in White Citizens’ Councils that condoned violence.^[41] Till’s body was clothed, packed in lime, and put in a pine coffin and prepared for burial. It may have been embalmed while in Mississippi. Mamie Till Bradley demanded the body be sent to Chicago; she later stated she endeavored to halt an immediate burial in Mississippi and called several local and state authorities in Illinois and Mississippi to make sure her son was returned to Chicago.^[42] A doctor did not examine Till post-mortem.^[43] Mississippi’s governor, Hugh L. White, deplored the murder, asserting that local authorities should pursue a “vigorous prosecution”. He sent a telegram to the national offices of the NAACP promising a full investigation and assuring them “Mississippi does not condone such conduct”. Delta residents, both black and white, also distanced themselves from Till’s murder, finding the circumstances abhorrent. Local newspaper editorials denounced the murderers without question.^[25][44] Leflore County Deputy Sheriff John Cothran stated, “The white people around here feel pretty mad about the way that poor little boy was treated, and they won’t stand for this.”^[45] Soon, however, discourse about Till’s murder became more complex. Robert Patterson, executive secretary of the segregationist White Citizens’ Council lamented Till’s death by reiterating that racial segregation policies were in force for blacks’ safety and that their efforts were being neutralized by the NAACP. In response, NAACP executive secretary Roy Wilkins characterized the incident as a lynching and stated that Mississippi was attempting to maintain white supremacy through murder, and “there is in the entire state no restraining the influence of decency, not in the state capital, among the daily newspapers, the clergy, nor any segment of the so-called better citizens”.^[46] Mamie Till Bradley told a reporter that she would seek legal aid to help law enforcement find her son’s killers and that the State of Mississippi should share the financial responsibility. She was misquoted; it came out as “Mississippi is going to pay for this”.^[47]

Till's mother insisted on an open casket to show the world how racist white men in the south had brutally murdered and mutilated her son's body. Images printed in black publications The Chicago Defender and Jet magazine of Till made international news and directed attention to the rights of the blacks in the U.S. South.

The A. A. Rayner Funeral Home in Chicago received Till’s body, and upon arrival, Bradley insisted on viewing it to make a positive identification, later stating that the stench from it was noticeable two blocks away.^[48] She decided to have an open casket funeral, saying “There was just no way I could describe what was in that box. No way. And I just wanted the world to see.”^[36] Tens of thousands of people lined the street outside the mortuary to view Till’s body, and days later thousands more attended his funeral at Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ. Photographs of his mutilated corpse circulated around the country, notably appearing in Jet magazine and The Chicago Defender, both black publications, and drew intense public reaction. According to The Nation and Newsweek, Chicago’s black community was “aroused as it has not been over any similar act in recent history”.^{[49][note 5]} Till was buried September 6 in Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois. News about Emmett Till spread to both coasts. Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley and Illinois Governor William Stratton also became involved, urging Governor White to see that justice be done. The tone in Mississippi newspapers changed dramatically. They falsely reported riots in the funeral home in Chicago. Bryant and Milam appeared in photos taken a decade before of them smiling in their military uniforms and Carolyn Bryant’s beauty and virtue were extolled. Rumors of an invasion of outraged blacks and northern whites were printed throughout the state so that the Leflore County sheriff took them seriously. Local businessman, surgeon, and civil rights proponent T. R. M. Howard, one of the wealthiest blacks in the state, warned of a “second civil war” if “slaughtering of Negroes” was allowed.^[50] Following Wilkins’ comments, white opinion began to shift. According to historian Stephen Whitfield, a specific brand of xenophobia in the South was particularly strong in Mississippi, urging whites to reject the influence of Northern opinion and agitation.^[51] This independent attitude was profound enough in Tallahatchie County that it earned the nickname “The Freestate of Tallahatchie”, according to a former sheriff, “because people here do what they damn well please”, making the county often difficult to govern.^[52] Consequently, Tallahatchie County Sheriff Clarence Strider, who initially positively identified Till’s body and stated that the case against Milam and Bryant was “pretty good”, on September 3 announced his doubts that the body pulled from the Tallahatchie River was Till’s, who he speculated, was probably still alive. The body, according to Strider, was planted by the NAACP: a cadaver stolen by T. R. M. Howard, who colluded to place Till’s ring on it.^[53] Strider was motivated to change after the comments made in the press about the people of Mississippi, later saying, “The last thing I wanted to do was to defend those peckerwoods. But I just had no choice about it.”^{[25][note 6]} Bryant and Milam were indicted for murder, despite the reservations of the grand jury’s prosecuting attorney, Hamilton Caldwell, who was not confident a conviction would ever be returned in a case of white violence against a black male accused of insulting a white woman. A local black paper was surprised at the indictment and praised the decision, as did the New York Times. The high profile comments made in Northern newspapers and by the NAACP concerned the prosecuting attorney, Gerald Chatham, who worried that they would not be able to secure a guilty verdict, even with the evidence they had. Initially, with limited funds, Bryant and Milam had difficulty finding attorneys to represent them, but five attorneys at a Sumner law firm offered their services pro bono.^[51] Collection jars were placed in stores and other public places in the Delta, eventually gathering $10,000 for the defense.

The Peoples Champion

Black History Month Series

I’m David Adams

Danisha McIntosh, former girlfriend of Dorian Carpentor and close friend of Glenton Johnson who tweeted about a dam months before the body of Phylicia Barnmes was discovered at the Conowingo Dam in Northern Maryland.

By now many within the public have derived at their personal conclusions as to who they believe is responsible for the killing of Honors Teen Phylicia Barnes, and I believe the cops have also come to some degree of finality as well. The only problem is gathering enough information to convince a State’s Attorney to proceed with prosecution based on the evidence the cops have obtained thus far. We are all unaware what evidence the cops just may have in the case. The long drawn out ordeal has sparked disgust and frustration about the case to the extent that many within the public are losing interest in the pretty little girl’s story. I also have concerns given the volume of information about the case that the public has brought forward and even-handed over to the police. Though I’m sure Cell Phone records, Social Media comments, and other elements on record offer a very compelling scenario regarding who may be responsible, there are some aspects of the case that the police can actually move on.

The nude images of Phylicia with adults is something that the cops most certainly can use to bring people in and get them talking. The alcohol and drugs are another aspect of the case that cops can use to reek havoc on those who were either there on December 28, 2010, or who were regulars at Deena Barnes’ apartment. Contributing to the delinquency of a minor is a valid charge to bring people in. The timeline of events offered by Michael Johnson, Deena and others have been in all actuality, shot down by their own Comments on Social Media, and documents that have been made public. These are all good leads that could get folks to start talking. Also, the close proximity of where Phylicia was found at the Conowingo Dam in relationship to the location where Glenton Johnson lives, and where Tabitha Fickling (Michael Johnson’s new girl friend that is believed to be who he was moving in with when Phylicia went missing) lived, is far too convenient. It’s a near straight shot from the Rolling Road and Rolling Bend Road locations to Conowingo Maryland where the chi8ld’s body was discovered.

The fact that Michael was the last person to see Phylicia alive, coupled with potential circumstantial evidence may prove he was more than likely with Glenton Johnson (Younger brother) prior to the time he said he last saw her, and the two may also have been traveling in the Rolling Road  area the exact same time. None the less, a Prosecutor could make a hell of a summation during trial that the two are the ones who took the child’s body to the dam. I am unsure what the investigative strategy is in solving this case, and I don’t know why cops haven’t utilized these avenues to bring people in. Perhaps there is something we are missing that make us all seem too presumptuous about making an arrest. I don’t know about many of these things and just like many within the public, I remain clueless as to where the case stands now. However, there is one element of this case that I believe I am not in the dark about. The Tweets from Danisha McIntosh,  “It’s trapped at the dam don’t pull the lever”, remains the most solid piece of evidence that cops may have stumbled upon throughout this entire murder mystery.

The Tweet was made on January 28, 2011, one month after Phylicia went missing, and nearly 3 months before she was discovered in the Susquehanna river near the Conowingo Dam. It doesn’t take rocket science to figure out she knows something about this case. Her relationship with Glenton and Dorian Carpenter, two of the males initially questioned by police about this murder, is explosive and she must be questioned. I am unaware at this time whether cops have finally spoken to her, but if they have, no stones should have been left unturned. There isn’t any rationalization she could offer, in my opinion, that could explain her reference to a dam considering what we all know now. I know cops sometimes like to take the soft approach, not coming off too harsh toward potential witnesses in hopes of winning the person’s cooperation, but hell if that fails and she becomes uncooperative, then all cards should be pulled off the table.

She needs to be arrested. If for no other provocation other than to hold her as a material witness. The cops could even charge her with obstruction of justice. He statement is compelling, she knows something, and the cops have to escalate their efforts to get the information they need from her. They need to hold her for at least 72 hours. Let her get a feeling of what life will be like at the Maryland Correctional Institute for Women (MCIW) or some other state Correctional Facility where she could possibly spend the rest of her life behind bars. It’s time to stop playing with those who may have information to solve this case. Young women who like to associate with hood rats or aspire to be a “ride or die chick'” like the hip-hop song goes, can ride and die in jail right along with these murderous bastards.  I’m convinced that she is the key to solving this murder case. Get her, bring her in, hold her there until she talks, and for God sake do it before she ends up in a body bag like young Phylicia Simone Barnes.

The People’s Champion

I’m David Adams

Small tot "baby Joshua Davis" pictured with his mom Sabrina Benitez

A tragic story that began on February 4, 2011 has become even more saddening as the New Braunsfel, Texas Police Department issued a statement saying that, “their child is probably deceased”. This late breaking news is disturbing because authorities have not made an arrest in the case nor offered an explanation as to why they believe the tot has come to a tragic ending. Baby Joshua’s story gained little media attention since the night he vanished from his Texas home without a trace. The story angers many who have followed the case and has left doubt about the accuracy of what the child’s family told police that night. Baby Joshua some how disappeared while there were 8 adults in the house during the time the tot’s mom says she noticed him missing. Federal, State, Local, and even the Texas Rangers Police Authorities have combed the 2,500 populated trailer home community without obtaining a single clue about what may have happened to the child. Police say there isn’t even evidence to suggest that the child might have been abducted by someone. The Bizarre disappearance of  an 18 month old baby during the winter months has cops thinking the family is directly responsible for what ever happened to the baby. Though the family continuously convey their innocence, they continue to publicly say they believe he is alive. However, the police think otherwise.  Lt. Stephen Hanna of the New Braunfels Police Department says, “The investigators have essentially confronted the family, basically saying that we are fairly certain that something has happened, that their was an accident inside the house and that something happened to the child.”  Hanna also believes that someone is not being honest from that night. Hanna said, “The seven individuals that were in the house that night, one of them or numerous of them know what happened and have been misleading investigators as to what happened to the child.” There are many people who believe the cops are accurate. The initial statements from Sabrina Benitez, the tot’s mom, opened the door for suspicion from the very start. Chiefly, her account that she jumped up to go looking for Joshua after he had only been out of her sight for 10 minutes. Many feel the fact that she immediately went into panic mode after such a short time period, tends to indicate that something may have happened in the home to cause the mom to develop concern for the safety of her baby. Also, her word usage during her earlier comments like “the grand father” and “the baby”, shows distance and separation. The fact that she describes the events of that night while referring to her own son as “the baby” angers the public. It’s perceived that a mother innately displays clarity when identifying their child in the wake of  such an emergency pertaining to the whereabouts and safety of not just their kids, but children in general. Moreover, while the public is disturbed by her statements, it’s completely unimaginable that a small child like baby Joshua could simply vanish while there are numerous adults in the home at the time. Perhaps an active tot “busy” as ever in a a crowded living environment may offer clues to what really happened that night. This is a very sad , yet incredible story in which many continue to seek answers. View recent media coverage here Baby Joshua Update.

From left, Joshua Davis sr. and Sabrina Benitez, the parents of missing tot Joshua Davis, handing out fliers seeking the public's help locating their missing child.

The People’s Champion

I’m David Adams

18 month old Joshua Davis went missing from his New Braynfels, Texas home February 4, 2011 while 9 adults were present at the time of the child's disappearance.

As February 4th approaches there is sadly still no clues in the disappearance of 18 month old Joshua Davis who mysteriously went missing from his New Braunfels, Texas home , where he lived with his mom, and strangely with 9 adults present when the small tot simply vanished into thin air. The child’s disappearance occurred during the winter months and his mom says she has been baffled how the baby could have wandered off with icy conditions around the house. The family called police 10 minutes after they say they noticed the child was nowhere to be found. Sabrina Benitez, the tot’s mom says she became alarmed when “the baby” wandered off while they were watching a movie,”Toy story”. She initially went to “the grandfather’s” room where another baby that young Joshua “was interested in” was. She began to question the other adults about the baby’s location, while no one had seem the baby, that’s when she says she sounded the alarm, and called police. In the early stages of the investigation it was widely believed that baby Joshua wandered off. That theory led to a massive search in and around the 2,500 mobile home populated community in an effort to locate the child. There has never been any sign of the tot, and no indication that someone abducted the child. Just a few months into the investigation, local police solicited the assistance of Federal, State, and Texas Rangers Authorities. The new investigative efforts took on an entirely different direction in finding out what happened to baby Joshua Davis. The Authorities have since revisited the child’s home and collected items from the back yard. Though the child’s mother and family deny any wrong doing in the case, the mother’s initial comments has garnered criticism and suspicion from many within the public who have been following the case. During a Nancy Grace broadcast, the only National Media the child’s disappearance received, analyst have expressed that there clearly appears to be an element of deception in the mom’s story surrounding the night her toddler simply disappeared. View the Nancy Grace Transcript here. One aspect of the case pertaining to the mother’s initial statement that caught my immediate attention, is that she claims to have been watching “Toy Story” with the child and ten minutes had gone by without her having saw Joshua, and she states she “jumped up” to go looking for him. Jumping up tends to infer a sense of urgency. It’s interesting that the mom would become alarmed in a home with 8 other adults there with her, unless there was some event that raised alarm on her part about her child’s safety. There was one person who reportedly had been coming and going from the home, and the fact there is no sign of Joshua tends to offer the perspective that someone in the home either did something to the child or removed him from that house. The mother has admitted the baby wasn’t even tall enough to open any of the doors to the house and that they had been secured all day. These details Sabrina Benitez offer are fuels an opinion that something happened to baby Joshua Davis within their home and somebody knows something about it. However, the child’s family did a Blogtalk Interview on “Peas In Their Pod” last night and have continued to deny any wrong doing. Listen to the “Peas Broadcast” here. With the lack of National Media attention related to the plight of missing children of color, it is imperative that the Black Community began a grass-roots effort to locate our kids, do what we most certainly can, and must do for ourselves. Ms. Janice Lowery, Chief Executive Officer for “Peas In Their Pods” has contacted me for assistance in bringing more National Media Attention to Baby Joshua Davis, and other missing children within our communities. I am willing and prepared to Champion for closure, and safe return of these babies to their families.

The People’s Champion

I’m David Adams