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At Age 13, He Was an Avid Volunteer who Wanted to be a Pastor and an Engineer. A Stranger’s Bullets Destroyed Those Dreams

Story by Holly Yan, CNN Video by Lacey Russell, CNN (CNN) — The light blanket of dust covering Charles DuBose’s black cherry motorcycle belies the grandfather’s meticulous care of his prized Harley Davidson. But he refuses to disturb the handprints and fingerprints pressed into the dust. They belong to Deshon DuBose, a 13-year-old honor roll student […]
The post At Age 13, He Was an Avid Volunteer who Wanted to be a Pastor and an Engineer. A Stranger’s Bullets Destroyed Those Dreams first appeared on BlackPressUSA.

Published

1 year ago

October 28, 2023

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Story by Holly Yan, CNN Video by Lacey Russell, CNN

(CNN) — The light blanket of dust covering Charles DuBose’s black cherry motorcycle belies the grandfather’s meticulous care of his prized Harley Davidson.

But he refuses to disturb the handprints and fingerprints pressed into the dust. They belong to Deshon DuBose, a 13-year-old honor roll student who loved riding on the back seat of his grandpa’s Harley and couldn’t wait until he was old enough to be up front.

But that day will never happen.

On a cold Saturday in January, Deshon spent the last night of his life roller skating with the new skates his grandfather had just bought him for Christmas. As Deshon and his friends were leaving the Cascade Family Skating rink in Atlanta, a fight broke out among another group outside, a law enforcement source told CNN.

Gunfire erupted, the source said, and the teenager was struck by two bullets never meant for him.

Deshon died the next day, ending a young life devoted to community service and shattering his dreams of becoming an engineer and also a pastor – just like his grandfather.

“The hardest part is him never becoming the man we know he could be,” said Charles DuBose, who served as Deshon’s father figure and helped raise him.

His family’s anguish is shared by a staggering number of families across the country. So far this year, more than 1,300 children and teens have been killed by gunfire in the US, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Firearms became the No. 1 killer of US children in 2020, surpassing motor vehicle accidents, which had long been the leading cause of death among America’s youth.

“This is not a trend that should continue to go on,” said Deshon’s cousin Novella Edwards. “That’s a parent’s worst nightmare, is their child not coming home. And when his mom sends him off to go skating, you expect to get your son back the same way he went.”

Gun violence is an epidemic in the US. Here are 4 things you can do today

‘A respectful, well-mannered leader’

Despite his age, Deshon was a prolific volunteer. He hauled groceries for strangers who looked like they needed a hand and helped elderly neighbors with projects around their houses.

“Ask anyone who knows him and they’ll tell you how much of a respectful, well-mannered leader Deshon was (wherever) he went,” family friend Melissa Cruz wrote on a GoFundMe page benefiting the family.

“From his teachers to the parents of his friends, he was well-known and never in a negative light. He spent his afternoons at the YMCA, volunteered in the community, and was never one to shy away from helping anyone in need, whether he knew them or not.”

Indeed, Deshon’s death gripped so many in his community that the funeral home reached full capacity, his grandfather said. Some mourners had to be turned away and attended the services for him outside.

A family’s indescribable agony

Losing a child to gun violence is the kind of tragedy Charlett DuBose often had heard about in the news. She never imagined her own family would experience that same horror.

Just two months before his death, Deshon had been devastated to learn about a 12- and a 15-year-old killed by gunfire at a popular Atlanta shopping district, his mother said.

Now, the reality of losing her only son is like a nightmare that never ends.

“I do have my days … every day, nonstop, thinking about him,” Charlett DuBose said.

Even the sight of children going to school can overwhelm her with grief.

“That would break my heart … seeing the babies going to school, and my baby can’t attend school anymore,” the mother said.

Deshon excelled in school, always making the honor roll and winning awards for social studies, reading, writing and piano.

And he knew exactly what he wanted to do when he grew up.

“He never talked about anything else but being a pastor and an engineer,” Deshon’s mother said.

The child’s academic prowess was so strong, he joked he might go to college before his sister Maya, who’s five years older. Despite the age gap, Maya and Deshon were virtually inseparable, and she vividly recalls the day he was born:

“I see my brother and I hold my brother for the first time,” said Maya, now 18. “Ever since, I’ve been holding him. He’s been attached to everything.”

But now, Maya can’t hold Deshon in her greatest time of need – navigating life without him. She thinks about and misses him “every day, all day.” So she finds her own way of staying attached to him.

“Ever since my brother’s been gone, I’ve been in his room, sleeping in there. And I hear him saying, ‘Maya, I’m OK. I’m OK,’” she said.

Such reassurances helped give Maya the strength to graduate high school and start college on time – feats Deshon worked so hard to achieve but will never get to accomplish himself.

“I went to college first,” Maya said. “I did it for my brother.”

The most somber birthday

In a few weeks, Deshon’s family members should be celebrating his birthday. Instead, they’re at a loss about how to mark November 20; there’s no guide for how to commemorate such a first since a child’s death.

“We’re thinking about going to the cemetery to see him for his 14th birthday,” his mother said.

Deshon’s birthday usually is also the prelude to a wave of joyous family holidays – none of which will be the same again.

“This will be a harder year because that’s also the week of Thanksgiving,” Edwards said. “It’s around the holiday time. And I know from experience that a lot of the first holidays after a death so close is very hard.”

Deshon’s sister said she plans to visit her brother’s graveside for his 14th birthday.

“But after that, I might ask my mom, ‘Can I sit at the cemetery and talk to him for a minute?’ Because it still don’t feel real, having my brother gone,” Maya said.

“It’s been eight months since he’s been gone. It still don’t feel real to me.”

This article originally appeared in San Diego Voice and Viewpoint.

The post At Age 13, He Was an Avid Volunteer who Wanted to be a Pastor and an Engineer. A Stranger’s Bullets Destroyed Those Dreams first appeared on BlackPressUSA.

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Fighting to Keep Blackness

BlackPressUSA NEWSWIRE — Trump supporters have introduced another bill to take down the bright yellow letters of Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C., in exchange for the name Liberty Plaza. D.C.

Published

4 days ago

March 7, 2025

Oakland Post

By April Ryan

As this nation observes the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama, the words of President Trump reverberate. “This country will be WOKE no longer”, an emboldened Trump offered during his speech to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night. Since then, Alabama Congresswoman Terri Sewell posted on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter this morning that “Elon Musk and his DOGE bros have ordered GSA to sell off the site of the historic Freedom Riders Museum in Montgomery.” Her post of little words went on to say, “This is outrageous and we will not let it stand! I am demanding an immediate reversal. Our civil rights history is not for sale!” DOGE trying to sell Freedom Rider Museum

Also, in the news today, the Associated Press is reporting they have a file of names and descriptions of more than 26,000 military images flagged for removal because of connections to women, minorities, culture, or DEI. In more attempts to downplay Blackness, a word that is interchanged with woke, Trump supporters have introduced another bill to take down the bright yellow letters of Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C., in exchange for the name Liberty Plaza. D.C. Mayor Morial Bowser is allowing the name change to keep millions of federal dollars flowing there. Black Lives Matter Plaza was named in 2020 after a tense exchange between President Trump and George Floyd protesters in front of the White House. There are more reports about cuts to equity initiatives that impact HBCU students. Programs that recruited top HBCU students into the military and the pipeline for Department of Defense contracts have been canceled.

Meanwhile, Democrats are pushing back against this second-term Trump administration’s anti-DEI and Anti-woke message. In the wake of the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma, several Congressional Black Caucus leaders are reintroducing the Voting Rights Act. South Carolina Democratic Congressman James Clyburn and Alabama Congresswoman Terry Sewell are sponsoring H.R. 14, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Six decades ago, Lewis was hit with a billy club by police as he marched for the right to vote for African Americans. The right for Black people to vote became law with the 1965 Voting Rights Act that has since been gutted, leaving the nation to vote without the full protections of the Voting Rights Act. Reflecting on the late Congressman Lewis, March 1, 2020, a few months before his death, Lewis said, “We need more than ever in these times many more someones to make good trouble- to make their own dent in the wall of injustice.”

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Rep. Al Green is Censured by The U.S. House After Protesting Trump on Medicaid

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — His censure featured no hearing at the House Ethics Committee and his punishment was put on the floor for a vote by the Republican controlled House less than 72 hours after the infraction in question.

Published

5 days ago

March 6, 2025

Oakland Post

By Lauren Burke

In one of the quickest punishments of a member of the U.S. House of Representatives in the modern era, Congressman Al Green (D-TX) was censured by a 224-198 vote today in the House. His censure featured no hearing at the House Ethics Committee and his punishment was put on the floor for a vote by the Republican controlled House less than 72 hours after the infraction in question. Of the last three censures of members of the U.S. House, two have been members of the Congressional Black Caucus under GOP control. In 2023, Rep. Jamal Bowman was censured.

On the night of March 4, as President Trump delivered a Joint Address to Congress, Rep. Green interrupted him twice. Rep. Green shouted, “You don’t have a mandate to cut Medicare, and you need to raise the cap on social security,” to President Trump. In another rare event, Rep. Green was escorted off the House floor by security shortly after yelling at the President by order of GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson. Over the last four years, members of Congress have yelled at President Biden during the State of the Union. Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor-Greene was joined by Republican Rep. Lauren Bobert (R-CO) in 2022 in yelling at President Biden. In 2023, Rep. Greene, Rep. Bob Good (R-VA), and Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI) yelled at Biden, interrupting his speech. In 2024, wearing a red MAGA hat, a violation of the rules of the U.S. House, Greene interrupted Biden again. She was never censured for her behavior. Rep. Green voted “present” on his censure and was joined by freshman Democrat Congressman Shomari Figures of Alabama who also voted “present”.

All other members of the Congressional Black Caucus voted against censuring Green. Republicans hold a four-seat advantage in the U.S. House after the death of Texas Democrat and former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner yesterday. Ten Democrats voted along with Republicans to censure Rep. Green, including Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, who is in the leadership as the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. “I respect them but, I would do it again,” and “it is a matter of conscience,” Rep. Green told Black Press USA’s April Ryan in an exclusive interview on March 5. After the vote, a group of Democrats sang “We Shall Overcome” in the well at the front of the House chamber. Several Republican members attempted to shout down the singing. House Speaker Mike Johnson gaveled the House out of session and into a recess. During the brief recess members moved back to their seats and out of the well of the House. Shortly after the vote to censor Rep. Green, Republican Congressman Andy Ogles of Tennessee quickly filed legislation to punish members who participated in the singing of “We Shall Overcome.” Earlier this year, Rep. Ogles filed legislation to allow President Donald Trump to serve a third term, which is currently unconstitutional. As the debate started, the stock market dove down over one-point hours from close. The jobs report will be made public tomorrow.

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Trump Moves to Dismantle Education Department

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — The department oversees programs under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), serving 7.5 million students. Transferring IDEA oversight to another agency, as Trump’s plan suggests, could jeopardize services and protections for disabled students.

Published

5 days ago

March 6, 2025

Stacy M. Brown

By Stacy M. Brown
BlackPressUSA.com Senior National Correspondent
@StacyBrownMedia

The Trump administration is preparing to issue an executive order directing newly confirmed Education Secretary Linda McMahon to begin dismantling the Department of Education. While the president lacks the authority to unilaterally shut down the agency—requiring congressional approval—McMahon has been tasked with taking “all necessary steps” to reduce its role “to the maximum extent permitted by law.” The administration justifies the move by claiming the department has spent over $1 trillion since its 1979 founding without improving student achievement. However, data from The Nation’s Report Card shows math scores have improved significantly since the 1990s, though reading levels have remained stagnant. The pandemic further widened achievement gaps, leaving many students behind.

The Education Department provides about 10% of public-school funding, primarily targeting low-income students, rural districts, and children with disabilities. A recent Data for Progress poll found that 61% of voters oppose Trump’s efforts to abolish the agency, while just 34% support it. In Washington, D.C., where student proficiency rates remain low—22% in math and 34% in English—federal funding is crucial. Serenity Brooker, an elementary education major, warned that cutting the department would worsen conditions in underfunded schools.

“D.C. testing scores aren’t very high right now, so cutting the Department of Education isn’t going to help that at all,” she told Hilltop News. A report from the Education Trust found that low-income schools in D.C. receive $2,200 less per student than wealthier districts, leading to shortages in essential classroom materials. The department oversees programs under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), serving 7.5 million students. Transferring IDEA oversight to another agency, as Trump’s plan suggests, could jeopardize services and protections for disabled students.

The Office for Civil Rights also plays a key role in enforcing laws that protect students from discrimination. Moving it to the Department of Justice, as proposed in Project 2025, would make it harder for families to file complaints, leaving vulnerable students with fewer protections. Federal student aid programs, including Pell Grants and loan repayment plans, could face disruption if the department is dismantled. Experts warn this could worsen the student debt crisis, pushing more borrowers into default. “With funding cuts, they don’t have the materials they need, like books or things to help with math,” Brooker said. “It makes learning less fun for them.”