Shown above are participating authors (L-R) Cynthia Anderson, Willie Dorsey, Willye Dennis, Rodney Hurst and Marsha Phelts.
06.MAR.08
Local authors shared insights on what inspired their work last week at the Ritz Theatre and LaVilla Museum. The distinguished panel of Jacksonville citizens have titles covering an array of topics from politics to life lessons and traditional family recipes. LaVilla Museum Director Lydia Stewart beamed with pride as she looked upon the audience. The assembled group waited anxiously for the five presenting authors to tell them more about the inspiration behind their works. Each author graciously presented what in their thoughts motivated them to be put their experiences to words. Continued
Shown above at the resopration kickoff are (L-R) Diane Melendez, Councilwoman Glorious Johnson, Councilman Warren Jones, Lois Gibson, Liz Means and Lamont Cruse, son of Vera Cruse.
06.MAR.08
City Council Members Glorious Johnson and Warren Jones kicked off the restoration of the historic Brewster Hospital along with members of the Brewster Hospital Alumni Community Nurses Association in it’s new location in the LaVilla area. "Many doctors and nurses have come from this great institution who are now living in all parts of the world,” said Council Member Johnson. “As the first training hospital for African-Americans in the nation, its history must not be forgotten. The restoration of Brewster will allow our children the opportunity to learn about the history of those who cared for so many people in the Jacksonville community." Continued
Arthur Johnson, Ann Battle, Ida Ross-Johnson, Leon Milton and Adilah Shariff at the surprise tribute.
Thirty year veteran of the educational school system, Ida Ross- Johnson was honored last weekend at a surprise Living Legend Banquet in her honor at the Masjid-Al Salaam. For years, Ross- Johnson was known to many as Ida Ross, an entertainment news reporter on WZAZ Radio. During her tenure there she had interviewed and befriended such entertainment powerhouses as Barry White, Dick Gregory, Della Reese and the ever elusive Prince. She is said to have one of very few recorded interviews with Prince. Although a successful broadcaster, the graduate of William Raines High School and the University of Miami knew that her passion rested in educating the youth of the community. For more than thirty years she has been a Speech-Pathologist/Audiologist with the Duval County Public School system. Continued
Cody sits in his den sharing some of his many documents that he has collected and maintained over the years pertaining to the case.
Marsha Oliver 07.FEB.08
Jacksonville, Miami, and Mississippi are a few of the places Lee Cody has traveled during the course of his life, but his greatest journey is the one for justice he has been on for nearly 40 years.
Prior to Monday, January 21st, very few people may have ever heard of Lee Cody. Oprah Winfrey quickly changed that with her full-hour special devoted to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. During the show, entitled The Dream Lives, Winfrey highlighted the 1964 Jacksonville murder of Johnnie Mae Chappell, a wife and mother of 10, gunned down by a passing motorist along New Kings Rd. As explained in the 10-minute television segment, Lee Cody was a DuvalCounty homicide detective who conducted the murder investigation. Cody and his sergeant partner, although not assigned to the Chappell case, solved the murder by locating the weapon, identifying the murderers, and securing confessions from them, revealing that Mrs. Chappell had been tragically killed because of the color of her skin - a victim randomly selected by four white men who decided to end a day of racially-charged riots in the city by killing the first black person they saw. Johnnie Mae Chappell was spotted by the men as they drove down New Kings Rd., and was pierced in her side with a .22 caliber bullet. She bled to death on the same road she often walked - this day, while retracing her steps in search of the wallet she believed to have dropped earlier while toting groceries.
Lee Cody still feels the pain of Mrs. Chappell’s murder and refuses to drop his fight for her and her family as he continues to search for justice in a case that he describes today – 40 years later - as “agonizing.”
All four of the men involved in the shooting were indicted by the grand jury for first degree murder, according to Cody, but only one spent less than three years in jail for manslaughter. The remaining men served no time.
The agony for Cody began shortly after he and his partner solved Mrs. Chappell’s murder. As they sought to ensure that proper laws, protocols, and procedures were thoroughly and efficiently followed in the investigation, they were challenged by superiors, according to Cody, and instructed to ‘not rock the boat . . . the anchor is too big.’ When persisting to ensure a conviction and protect Mrs. Chappell’s civil rights, Cody says that both he and his partner were split up, demoted, and later terminated.
Last week, I had an opportunity to sit down with 78-year-young Lee Cody to learn more about his “journey for justice.” Seated in his living room in a recliner directly next to a beautifully lit fireplace, I could feel both the warmth and love he has for family, music, and singing, as well as the fiery passion he holds for truth, diligence, and civil rights.
