Move or Die n—-r!’: Couple and community fight racial injustice in White enclave

(Note: This is an excerpt of a story that appears in The Final Call Newspaper dated August 18, 2009 ,Vol. 28 No. 45)According to Broderick Gamble, when he and his fiancée Kay Littlejohn moved into their new home in a nice predominately White neighborhood in Arlington, Texas they felt they were on their way to living the so-called American dream. But that soon turned into a nightmare with their home being burned to the ground, dead animals thrown in their front lawn, and a vicious attack with a two-by-four at the hands of a racist 67-year-old White woman, who wanted them to move.

All of this happened within a two year span and the Black couple has refused to back down. The White woman, Grace Snowden Head, was convicted on August 7 in Tarrant County of a misdemeanor assault, criminal mischief and a hate crime.

However, in a sentence delivered on August 10, after nine hours of deliberation, the jury sentenced her to only 180 days of jail time on August 10, angering the couple and her supporters.

“The sentencing does not fit the crime! She got a slap on the wrist”, Mr. Gamble told The Final Call. “This sends a continuous message that Black folks can be done any kind of way in this country even if (the offender) are convicted of a hate crime.”

“She got mercy today, not justice”, Ms. Littlejohn told The Final Call. “After she got sentenced she just smiled at me in the courtroom and had no remorse. But the buck doesn’t stop here. She has a higher power to answer to.”

It was December 19, 2007 when Ms. Head went on a racially-charged tantrum. That morning she first trashed the couple’s lawn. Later that day she bombarded them with racial and vulgar slurs and commanded her Doberman pinscher to attack the couple, saying “kill them”. As Mr. Gamble and his fiancée fought off the dog, Ms. Head commenced to smashing Ms. Littlejohn in the face with the two-by-four, according to the couple.

“It is a shame that in 2009 we are still dealing with things like this”, Mr. Gamble, 36, told The Final Call. “We refused to let this case get slipped under the rug.”