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Ward 7 Councilmember Yvette Alexander is flanked by
Ward 7 residents (L-R) Lisa Shaw and Hazel Janis.
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His name did not make the headlines in the daily newspapers, but the family of murder victim Anthony Reginald Ford, 26, were not about to forget him.
“He died for nothing; that’s the hurting part,” said Ford’s stepfather, Robert Carey, adding that Ford was helping a friend when he was shot July 7 on 58th Street SE.
“We’ll only get healing when they get the person who did this,” added Mildred Hastings, Ford’s grandmother. Carey and Hastings were among 350 people at the Willard Intercontinental Hotel on Aug. 30 for the fifth annual Mother’s Summertime Tea for families of homicide victims. The family wore t-shirts with Ford’s photo, birth and date of death. His young son, Tekyh, held a photo of his father.
Called a “party with a purpose,” the event was a large gathering for people who lost families to violent crime to give them the opportunity to heal, said one of the organizers, Valencia Mohammed, director of Mothers of Unsolved Murders. Mohammed lost two sons to violent street deaths – in 1999, her 14-year-old son, Said Ragib, was killed, and his murder remains unsolved; Mohammed’s second son, Imtiaz, 23, was killed in 2004. As of September, the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) reports there have been 99 murders in the District – down from 136 in 2007.
“When your child is murdered, it is a bitter pill to swallow,” said Mohammed, who became involved with the mother’s tea event for the first time. Through Mothers of Unsolved Murders, a DC advocacy group for mothers of homicide victims, she has been campaigning for an operational forensic lab in the District of Columbia, which will help enhance MPD’s crime-solving capacity. According to the District government website, a lab is being built in Ward 6.
The two-hour summertime tea festivities focused mainly on healing. Attendees wore fancy hats, sipped tea and munched on finger food at elegantly set tables. Ward 7 Councilmember Yvette Alexander said it was a moving event, and she sees a need for this in her community.
“Whenever there’s loss of life, there’s pain suffered by two families – the one who lost the loved one, and the one who killed,” Alexander said. “This is a wonderful organization, and I really appreciate what they’re doing. Forgiving is part of the healing process, and I’m glad to be part of it – especially for the mothers east of the river.”
The tea is organized by the Rev. Anthony J. Motley, president and CEO of Inner Thoughts, a Southeast community organization dedicated to a form of street level ministry that has been offering redemption to at-risk youth since 1981. He said that from the beginning, it was the goal of the tea to be able to bring together the survivors and victims of violent crime for them to fellowship, be inspired and leave with a sense of hope and clarity in their lives.
“Through prayer, forgiveness, song and dance, we believe that this gives opportunity for people to embrace one another and work together toward finding peaceful solutions to the violence around us,” Motley said in a written statement. “So by bringing mothers, grandmothers, families and friends together, it is our intent to encourage one another to share in each other’s hurt, pain, hopes and aspirations. Thus creating a world where we will love one another and not murder or maim.”
At the mother’s tea, he theorized that the richest place in the world is a graveyard.
“All those goals never reached, destinies never fulfilled.” He advised attendees not to give up on their dreams and to let their “good work shine.”
Philip Pannell of the Anacostia Coordinating Council added that tea attendees forged an emotional, spiritual and empathetic bond with the survivors and victims of violence. His organization donated a bus for Ward 8 attendees, and he said that the sixth tea is already being planned. According to Motley, Pannell has provided him with technical and moral support for the summertime tea ever since the first one in 2004. The entire tea at the hotel is sponsored by longtime District residents and philanthropists, Richard and Marie Carr; and it is supported by a coalition of nonprofits, which were created because of violent loss such as Roots Inc., Survivors of Homicide, Forgiving Mothers, Murdermistaken and the Kendra Smith Foundation, among others. |
