Charmaine Lawson and Communities of Color hold rally highlighting issues of racism and injustice
Even before the Humboldt County Women’s march was reinstated, Charmaine Lawson organized a march after she heard of its cancellation. Lawson is the mother of David Josiah Lawson, a student of color who was murdered on April 15, 2017, while a sophomore at Humboldt State University and whose case is yet solved. In the 21 months since her son’s murder, Lawson has been driving community outreach and organizing events in Humboldt County while living in Southern California.
“It’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day so lets invite people of all backgrounds, creed, religion, sexual orientation,” Lawson said. “Let’s invite everybody out to celebrate and have a wonderful day for a people’s rally.”
Lawson reached out to her Justice For Josiah supporters the day after she heard the cancellation of the women’s march. She spoke with Rene Saucedo, a committee member at Centro del Pueblo, who Lawson said “has done a lot of our talks on race and whats going on on with DJ’s case.” From there, they reached out to the Wiyot Tribe, NAACP and Seven Generation Fund for Indigenous People, all who supported Lawson and are sponsoring the event.
“It was my vision and I said ‘we have to do something’ so lets reach out to other organizations,” Lawson said. “We immediately got responses and a few phone calls later we had an event in a week and a half.”
The original Women’s March in Humboldt County was cancelled on Dec. 28 for being “too white” and amid controversy was back on with new organizers. The cancellation made national headlines while the murder of Josiah Lawson has not. A problem which Jill Larrabee, an organizer for J4J, said is wrong with Humboldt County. During the 21 month anniversary vigil for Josiah on Jan. 15, Larrabee told the crowd of supporters of the open case, “We know it is racially charged, we have to say it especially as a white community.”
“Charmaine has formed a coalition of communities of color in Humboldt County,” Larrabee said. “A rally for justice, justice for Josiah and justice for everyone. Justice denied to one is justice denied to all.”
The past organizers of the Women’s March for Humboldt County cancelled due to a lack of diversity and said they wanted to put more energy in outreach efforts before the International Women’s March in March. Within 10 days Lawson had gained the support of diverse organizations in the community. Lawson said the people’s march on Martin Luther King Jr. Day is to show those outside Humboldt County that although it’s tucked away behind the redwood curtain, when it comes to banding together and preaching against hate the people stand united with one another. Lawson said Josiah’s case is being stalled by the office of Humboldt County District Attorney Maggie Fleming. Lawson said that on Monday they’ll, “focus on what isn’t being done and ask why they are letting a murderer walk the street.”
“No one is going to divide us and we are going to continue to push,” Lawson said. “What’s prolonging my son’s case is what Martin Luther King talked about, injustice, and that is what DJ is getting.”
The People’s Rally and March For Justice: Justice Denied To One Is Justice Denied To All will be held at on Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday Jan. 21 at 10 a.m. at the Humboldt County Courthouse.
2 Comments
There is no such thing as Justice by the way it’s just a word that means nothing in America and especially Humboldt County…
… there’s a backlog in the thousands for justice to be served in Humboldt County alone, Josiah’s just in the back of the line like everybody else who’s ever been abused by government officials or private sector people that government officials protect in Humboldt.
Humboldt is ran by a bunch of lying backstabbing motherfuckers and that is the fact of the matter and the sooner you all realize that and admit it then the sooner you all will quit wasting your time on these motherfuckers and go above their fucking head!
If it aint Humboldt County officials making up complete bullshit Fabrications and pulling faces to create their little social memes to attack individuals in the community, then it’s the same bad apples turning a blind eye…
… Josiah’s murder and the political games since are disheartening… and don’t be surprised to understand at a later date the connections in this murder case with local government officials, not only at Humboldt State University but the County government, city governments, special agency districts, oh yeah this is deeper then people understand and that’s why it’s taking so long because somebody’s going to have to let the cat out of the box…
… still shaking that head about Arcata police letting the suspects transport vehicle to be driven off the seen by the mother of a girl (who is the daughter of a local government official) who was friends with the government officials son who was the only suspect…
So yeah this murder is a government officials freaking murder… got government officials written all over it insofar as the players involved in the murder of events…and some of the finer details in fact…
… why do you think the DA is being so extracurricular, versus an imported Outsider police chief who isn’t playing the bullshit games with the local motherfuckers in government…?
…food for thought for the college students who are mostly not from Humboldt and don’t understand the conspiracies and fraud that go on every day in Humboldt government… it really is that bad!
Justice is reality and Charmaine Lawson is pursuing justice for Josiah in all the right ways