Until the Killing of Black Mothers' Sons ...

As I have read this week of the suspicious death of Billey Joe Johnson, the haunting refrain from Sweet Honey in the Rock's "Ella's Song" has echoed in my head:

"We who believe in freedom cannot rest
We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes
Until the killing of black men, black mothers' sons
Is as important as the killing of white men, white mothers' sons ..."

There is no national outcry over the death of this young man. Perhaps we think it is a story too old to still be news: and yet, if our hearts do not break, and are not outraged, something in us has died, too. We need to hear Bernice Johnson Reagon's words, written to commemorate civil rights freedom-worker Ella Baker, and live into them.

The young Mr. Johnson was a football star in Mississippi, according to a story in Mississippi's Sun Herald, "a tailback who rushed for more than 4,000 yards in his three-year high school career. A national recruiting service said Johnson had scholarship offers from Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, LSU and others.

"'He was one of the kids that was out front," Al Jones, the high school's head football coach, said Monday. "It's hard to believe. I was getting ready to take him to a banquet that day. All of sudden you go from that to this tragedy.'"

The tragedy is that Mr. Johnson is dead of gunshot wounds. The story of how he came to die is not yet clear. Official reports record a traffic stop of Mr. Johnson for running a stop sign. As the deputy, Joe Sullivan, returned to his car to run a license check, he reports having heard a gunshot, whereupon he "found Johnson lying on the ground on the driver's side of the teen's vehicle."

The official report asserts a self-inflicted gunshot, either suicide or accidental.

Family and friends are outraged, disbelieving a young man with everything going for him would do such a thing. Family members add disturbing details, reported by longtime civil rights activist Ruby Sales of SpiritHouse in Washington, D.C., who visited Mississippi this week.

Following the traffic stop and its tragic ending, police held Billey Joe Johnson's body for more than seven hours, not allowing his parents to "see or identify their son's body. The parents waited all day, hoping and pleading to see their son. Over and over, the sheriff denied their requests, although they permitted the high school coach and school superintendent, Barbara Massey, to identify the body." Police subsequently took Billey Joe Johnson's body to Jackson, Mississippi, for an autopsy, "without seeking or receiving the permission or approval of the parents," according to Sales.

The parents were not allowed to see their son's body until three days later; the father reports "they butchered Billey's body like a pig."

The family and community of Billey Joe Johnson want answers; they are working with the NAACP to obtain a second autopsy.

If the death of this black mother's son matters to you, you can write to the sheriff of George County, Mississippi (Garry Welford) and/or the District Attorney (Tony Lawrence) and let them know that you are watching to see how justice is done.

Sheriff Garry Welford
George County Sheriff’s Office
4263 Highway 26 W
Lucedale, MS 39452

Tony Lawrence
Jackson County District Attorney
P.O. Box 998
Pascagoula, MS 39568

Billey Joe Johnson will be buried December 20, 2008.

We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes.