Mothers of Central Alabama gun violence victims unite to help others
CJ Calhoun was killed in a gas station shooting on December 31
By Chip Scarborough
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BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (WVTM) — It’s the start of a week aimed at honoring those who have been a victim of a crime.
CJ Calhoun was killed in a gas station shooting on December 31, 2018. He was just a few months shy of graduating from Minor High School in Jefferson County. Shootings like the one in Dadeville last weekend only serve as a reminder for his mother of what happened to her own son.
“I was devastated,” Jessica Barnes-Brown says. “Anytime that there is a tragedy of gun violence, especially when young people are involved, it is just devastating. It not only affects the immediate family, but it affects the whole entire community.”
To mark the beginning of National Crime Victims Rights Week, the Alabama chapter of Voices of Black Mothers United hosted an event Greater Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church in Birmingham on Sunday. A chance for families who have lost loved ones to gun violence to learn how to go about trying to lead a more normal life after such a tragedy.
“Often times, we’re not heard,” Voices of Black Mothers United national director Sylvia Bennett-Stone says. “Often times, people do not know of our trauma and the aftermath of the trauma.”
At the same time, mothers who have lost children to gun violence say they want others to know there can be hope.
“Even though it’s hard and it’s painful, you still can go on,” Barnes-Brown adds. “You still can live. You still can try to lead some type of normal life. It won’t be like it was, but you can go on.”
Mothers of gun violence victims say their work now allows them to honor the memories of their children who are no longer with them.
“Crystal would have wanted me to live,” Bennett-Stone explains. “She would have wanted me to voice and do what I do to make a difference and her life is not in vein.”
All while hoping there can one day be an end to gun violence.
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