Cops called her “colored.” Two white male Wilkes-Barre police officers described Black homicide victim Juanita Todd as “colored” in the box reserved for “race” in their September 28, 1972 “initial crime report.” This pejorative helps us understand why police failed to work as hard to find who killed the 22-year-old single mother of two as […]
Each cut, 22 stab wounds, rips Juanita Todd’s flesh, drawing blood for each of the 22 years she has lived. The blade tears open her face, her neck, her breasts. An electric fan whirs in the small stifling apartment as Juanita’s babies – Odetta, 18 months, and Tamu, five months – lay unharmed near their […]
Better than a wind-up alarm clock, the gulls squawking encouragement outside Sam Bennett’s open bedroom window woke him with the sacred call of the wild. Announcing the dawn of a unique evolutionary day, the birds soared, gliding above his balcony and building at the Paradise Apartments, swooping excitedly as if they knew today would mark […]
When two dolphins surfaced and smiled at Ruby Arenas she laughed so hard she got a mouthful of salt water. A normal morning swim in the Gulf of Mexico turned even more joyous than usual as Ruby took long strokes, cutting through blue-white waves, propelling herself through warm water that refreshed her more than she […]
Stinking of his favorite Jade East cologne, Florida Gov. Ronnie DeShifty screamed into the cell phone he held with one hand while combing his thick black hair with the other. DeShifty loved the spit-shined impression of himself he saw in the mirror. Dull, dapper, demented and short, even while preparing for a make-it-or-break-it public policy […]
