JMJP Fellowship

This summer I worked with the John Mitchell Jr. Program as a Fellow focused on Criminal Justice Case research, Advocacy, and Archiving. Throughout the summer, I researched 3 main cases, two in Wallace, NC, and one in Richmond, VA as well as working in Salisbury, MD to complete archival work. The research for the three cases involved obtaining background information victims, two who passed away in their cases, and sending data to either my director or directly to Emancipate NC, an organization devoted to social and legal justice. My research centered not only around the background of each case, but the individual factors that made these cases stand out in their unjust manner. The goal of my ongoing research and work with JMJP is to understand racial inequities in law, find direct correlations in access to medical help and care, and to advocate for the families of the victims and their communities in hopes of closing the gap in access to resources and treatment. While each victim had severe mental illnesses, the outcomes were very different between the White male in distress and the Black male in Wallace. Part of the research that I did was uncovering the lack of mental health resources in rural areas, the unequal social environment of Wallace, and the impact they have on people suffering from mental illness. Furthermore, I worked as an archivist for the Chipman (Archives for Racial and Cultural Healing) with the Charles Chipman Cultural Center in Salisbury, which is a digital archive preserving the Black community of what once was Georgetown. For the A.R.C.H. I worked with JMJP to organize, store, and preserve artifacts given to the Chipman Center by descendants/survivors of the town in order to keep their stories alive by providing resources versus owning each artifact or database ourselves.

Hello! My name is Leona Dominguez Mueller; I’ve been working with the John Mitchell Jr. Program and I put together some highlights of the work I’ve been doing this summer, and I’ll explain it all as we go. So I have been working as a Fellow focused on Criminal Justice Case research, Case Advocacy, and Archiving. Throughout the summer, I researched 3 particular cases, two in Wallace, NC, and one in Richmond, VA as well as working in Salisbury, MD to complete archival work. The research done for the three cases involved obtaining background information on each victim, two who passed away in their cases, and in the main case I worked on I was in charge of sending the data to either my director or directly to Emancipate NC, a non-profit organization devoted to social and legal justice. My research centered not only around the background of each case, but the individual factors that made these cases stand out in their unjust manner. Each victim suffered from mental illnesses, and the two police encounters with Black victims ended in their death. The goals of my ongoing research and work with JMJP are to understand racial inequities in law, find direct correlations in access to medical help and care, and to advocate for the families of the victims and their communities in hopes of closing the gap in access to resources and treatment. While each victim had severe mental illnesses, the outcomes were vastly different between the White male in distress and the Black male in Wallace. Part of the research that I did for Emancipate and JMJP was uncovering the lack of mental health resources in rural areas, the unequal social environment of Wallace, and the impact that both have on people suffering from mental illness. I have been advocating this case through social media platforms, through preparatory bill writing, and networking to get the word out about similar cases such as attending the Congressional Caucus on Black-Jewish Relations to get the word out on our program and find people in power to aid our cause.

Furthermore, with JMJP, I worked as an archivist for the Chipman Archive for Racial and Cultural Healing, or the A.R.C.H. through the Charles Chipman Cultural Center in Salisbury, which is a digital archive preserving the Black community of what once was Georgetown. To better understand the need for this A.R.C.H., it’s important to know about the history of Georgetown. Georgetown was a thriving Black neighborhood that was booming with the most prominent Black businesses in Wicomico County in the early 1900s. However, many businesses and homes were torn through in the 1930s when U.S. Route 13 began construction right through the middle of the area. Many buildings continued to be bulldozed as Route 50 would be built directly through whatever was left of the community in 1949. The only remaining building of Georgetown is the Charles Chipman Cultural Center, so it is of the utmost importance that the stories of the survivors and descendants are not lost forever. For the A.R.C.H.; I worked with the JMJP team to organize, store, and preserve artifacts given to the Chipman Center by descendants and survivors of the town in order to keep their stories alive and personal to each family as we only provide resources rather than owning each artifact or database ourselves. As far as research in this field work goes, myself along with many others, researched individuals and historic sights in Salisbury and the former Georgetown. I had the privilege of learning and writing about Norma Lee Barkley, and they are now available on the A.R.C.H. to start off the launch of the archive which is an ongoing project.

Please visit www.chipmancenter.org/exhibit/arch if you would like to know more about the A.R.C.H. and the rich history along the Eastern Shore. Thank you.