Remembering the racial killing of Johnnie Mae Chappell

It was after dark on March 23, 1964, when Johnnie Mae Chappell searched for the wallet she had dropped near the intersection of New Kings Road and Flicker Avenue.

That is when a dark sedan with four white men drove by. A gunshot fired from the car hit the 35-year-old Black mother and midwife.

She died before she could reach a hospital, leaving behind 10 children and her husband.

Now an historic marker will serve as “a reminder of a tragic incident in Jacksonville’s past, and as an inspiration for a future dedicated to peace, equality, and justice,” according to a bill approved by Jacksonville City Council.

The marker will be planted where Chappell fell.

Councilman Rahman Johnson joined the unanimous approval of lawmaker Nick Howland’s bill on Sept. 24, saying he “ended up in tears” when the bill was presented in committee. He said this is a story he heard as a child growing up in Jacksonville, a slaying that changed the lives of her 10 children “irrevocably.”

“Shelton Chappelle is still emotional. He was only 4 months old when his mother was murdered,” Johnson said. “I talked to him earlier tonight, and he was not able to make it because he was just emotional still. But he is so supportive of this, and his family, of the fact that her sacrifice will not go in vain because when people see that marker, they will remember who she was; they will remember what happened; and we will never let it happen again.”

Chappelle’s family wrote the words on the marker. Before reading them, Howland thanked Johnson for alerting him to this “critically important” story.

“Mrs. Chappelle’s story is a part of our community’s history, part of an ugly past, and only by telling those stories do we learn from them,” Howland said. “And only by learning from them do we become a stronger community.

“Nothing we do here can ease the pain and suffering that the Chappelle family has felt for the past 60 years. But this marker will tell the story of Mrs. Johnnie Mae Chappelle.”

Chappell had been shopping that day 60 years ago when her wallet fell out of a grocery bag, according to a PBS.org story about her death . Looking along New Kings Road with two neighbors, they heard a loud “pop” as a car sped past, according to a Department of Justice memo on the case. Chappell grabbed her right side as she said “I’ve been shot,” then fell, dying soon afterward.

Investigators had no leads until a man revealed that he was in that speeding car with three other white men, the PBS website states. He said a fellow passenger named J.W. Rich fired the gun. The men had been driving around town when the gunman said, “Let’s get a —–,” using a racial term, PBS said.

When they passed by Chappell and the others, Rich shot her, then got rid of the gun after they drove away, PBS said. Police found all four men and charged each with murder, but only Rich stood trial. A Department of Justice memo in 2014 said Rich was convicted of manslaughter and served just under a third of his 10-year prison sentence, PBS said.

The Civil Rights Memorial Center , a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center, has memorialized Chappell on its Facebook site. Her name also is among dozens of others on a wall at the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Civil Rights Memorial Center in Montgomery, Alabama.

Each name is a testament to people whose lives were taken in racially motivated violence during the modern American Civil Rights Movement from 1954 to 1968. A portion of New Kings Road near the killing scene was named in 2005 in Chappell’s honor after the state Legislature approved a bill filed by Sen. Tony Hill.

Howland’s bill will appropriate $10,000 from a Recreation Department contingency fund for the sign, which will recognize and honor “the life and untimely death of Mrs. Johnnie Mae Chappell,” the bill states.

“Mrs. Johnnie Mae Chappell was more than just a victim of violence; she was a devoted wife to Mr. Willie Chappell Sr., a dedicated mother of ten children, a hardworking domestic/midwife, and a proud resident of Jacksonville’s Pickettville neighborhood,” the sign will read, in part. “This marker honors Mrs. Johnnie Mae Chappell, whose children became wards of the state, forced to grow up in a system without their mother, and whose life was cut short by a racist who, not even knowing her name, aimed his gun and pulled the trigger.”

The sign will be placed five miles from another permanent marker that honors the three victims of a racist mass shooting just over a year ago at a Dollar General store in the New Town community. City Council approved that marker unanimously in August.

On the one-year anniversary of the shooting, a replica of the marker was displayed as more than 300 people remembered victims Jerrald Gallion, Angela Carr and Anolt “A.J.” Laguerre. The crowd participated in a soil collection ceremony , a tradition started by the Equal Justice Initiative to remember victims of racial violence.

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