Hundreds March to Heal and Denounce

Aaron Phillips

More than 500 people gathered in Jackson last Sunday to denounce racial violence.

by Lacey McLaughlin
August 17, 2011

Community organizers and leaders see the Aug. 14 vigil for James Craig Anderson as the first step toward community healing and racial reconciliation.

During the vigil, more than 500 community leaders, families and public officials from various faiths held candles and sang gospel songs as they walked in unison along Ellis Avenue to the Metro Inn where a white teenager allegedly murdered Anderson June 26.

West Jackson resident Cassandra Welchlin and her husband, Kass Welchlin, stood side-by-side at the vigil with their daughter Zia Brooke Welchlin wearing red shirts with the slogan "Not in My City." Cassandra, who is a member of west Jackson's Capital Neighborhood Association, started making shirts and organizing the vigil last week. She said the slogan caught on quickly and other community members made their own shirts to wear.

Welchlin said she has attended several meetings with concerned citizens over the past week and is planning to host education forums to promote racial justice.

"We are talking about having some kind of dialogue within communities about racial justice—what that looks like and what it means," she said.

The NAACP and leaders from local congregations including New Horizon Church, Hundred Clergymen of Hinds, Beth Israel Congregation and Pinelake Church organized last Sunday's candlelight vigil after a surveillance video went public last week showing the attack of James Craig Anderson. Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith has deemed Anderson's murder a racially motivated hate crime.

Brandon High School student Deryl Dedmon, 18, accused of driving the pick-up truck that hit Anderson, is charged with murder and remains in jail. John Aaron Rice, also 18, was originally charged with murder but now faces a lesser charge of simple assault and is free on bond. Authorities reported that a group of teens may have been involved with the incident, but no others have been charged at this time.

The Associated Press reported Aug. 13 that Rice's attorney, Samuel Martin, claims his client had no plans that night to attack a black man. Last month, JPD Det. Eric Smith testified that a black man had robbed Dedmon weeks before the attack and that the teen was looking for revenge.

It is unclear what happened before the attack. Defense attorneys claim that the teens came to Jackson with the intention of buying alcohol and that Rice was trying to help Anderson who was locked out of his car. When Dedmon arrived, they claim that's when an altercation took place.

During Sunday's vigil, organizers placed a wreath and candles at the site of Anderson's murder as a memorial.

"We are here to unify and to share openness and to teach ourselves and our children and everyone out there that there is a better way to live, and love is a better way to live," Beth Israel Rabbi Valerie Cohen said as attendees lit their candles. "We are here to get beyond hatred."

Madison resident Suzanne Freedman, who is a member of Beth Israel, brought her 5-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son to the vigil. She said the tragedy has given her an opportunity to teach them about racial injustice.

Vigil attendee Marcelina Singleton, a Vicksburg resident, said she was shocked when she saw the surveillance video on CNN last week.

"It could have been anyone," she said. "You would think we are above this, but I guess we are not."

Jordan Richardson, a senior at Brandon High School, went to school with Dedmon and said that he was a victim of Dedmon's bullying. "I knew the hate that he had in his heart for people who were not like him," Richardson said. "Deryl bullied and terrorized me my freshman year. He would never do it by himself. ... I just felt that it could have been me in that casket instead of (James) Craig Anderson. But this is a great day for the community to come together, black and white." He fears this incident will scar Brandon.

Winston Thompson, an attorney for the Anderson family, called on community members to donate to the James Craig Anderson Foundation for Racial Tolerance. The foundation wii help promote racial unity, understanding and healing in Hinds, Madison and Rankin counties and "the United States as a whole," he said.

Send donations to the James Craig Anderson Foundation for Racial Tolerance to The Cochran Firm, 162 Amite St., Jackson, 39201, or call 601-812-1000.

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