Shelton Chappell, left; Jacqueline Williams and Alonzo Chappell are among the surviving children of Johnnie Mae Chappell. Racists murdered their mother March 23, 1964, nine days after Jacqueline turned 13. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today
Published on February 21, 2025 at 3:23 pm
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A memorial marker now stands outside the Lincoln Villa Community Center on Flicker Avenue, near where Johnnie Mae Chappell was gunned down in a racially motivated shooting on March 23, 1964.
The Black mother and midwife was only 35 years old when she died, shot by one of four men in a passing car as she searched for her lost wallet.
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Until now, the only memory of her were 20-year-old signs on New Kings Road, naming it “Johnnie Mae Chappell Parkway.” Then two City Council members saw the need to add the marker as a reminder of a tragic incident and an inspiration for a “future dedicated to peace, equality, and justice,” according to the legislation providing for the marker.
Shelton Chappelle, only 4 months old when his mother died, wrote the words on the marker unveiled Friday morning.
The message ends with the hope that the marker “will preserve Mrs. Chappell’s legacy, remind us of this tragic incident in Jacksonville history, and inspire a future dedicated to peace, equality, and justice for all residents of our City.”
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“My mother loved everyone, so that’s really what I wanted to say,” Chappell said of the marker. “We just love — love each other, always.”
City Council Member Nick Howland was joined by fellow lawmaker Rahman Johnson in filing the legislation. He said the inspiration arose when he saw the highway signs last fall and wondered what Chappell would have made of them “with her name, but nothing there telling her story to the world.”
“I knew that it was a story that needed to be told again and again, forever commemorated, to help us better understand how far we have come,” Howland said. “Ten children, including Sheldon, lost their mother that night. A community, perhaps some here today, lost a cousin or a friend. Key evidence got lost, and the killer only got three years. But out of that tragedy came change.”
The day of the shooting
Chappell had been shopping that day 61 years ago when her wallet fell out of a grocery bag, according to a PBS.org story about her death. She was looking along New Kings Road with neighbors when 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, said “I’ve been shot,” then fell, dying soon afterward.
Investigators had no leads until a man revealed that he was in the 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 Chappell and the others, Rich shot her, then dumped the gun after they drove away. 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.
Johnson has said that Chappell’s murder was a story he heard as a child growing up in Jacksonville, and one that changed the lives of her 10 children “irrevocably.” He was among 11 council members on hand at the memorial marker’s unveiling Friday in Lincoln Villa, joined by Mayor Donna Deegan.
Chappell “was truly an icon in the community, although she never set out to be one,” Johnson said. “To the Chappell family, thank you — this story, our story must be told. … Today we have the opportunity to tell the story — her story — that is not fiction. It was about stolen time, stolen justice, and the power of storytelling ensures that our history is never lost.”
A son’s words
Rising to speak Friday, Shelton Chappell was overcome with emotion as he stood next to artist Pablo Rivera’s painting of his mother. “You know it’s hard,” he said before speaking to the crowded community center. He opened with words from Psalms 19:14, praying to “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord.”
“Thank you Mama, for my brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, friends and neighbors, community — thank you,” he said. “This tribute from the city means more than words can express. It reminds us that the impact of a single life can ripple through many hearts. We will continue to keep her memory, my mother, Mrs. Johnnie Mae Chappell, and legacy alive as we continue to shape and share hope with the world.”
He was joined by at least 30 family members Friday. Among them was younger brother John Claude Lovett, who encouraged people to “stay woke and say her name” as he said he felt disappointed with the city and the justice system after the way it handled the murder. He was 21 when his sister was killed.
Jacqueline Williams said she remembers that her mom celebrated her 13th birthday by surprising her at school. Nine days later, her mother was murdered, she said.
“There is a lot that was stolen from us because we were not able to ask her about family history,” said Williams, Chappell’s oldest living child. “It’s hard sometimes. But, I am thankful the Lord kept me here this long.”
Since the murder, Howland said, Jacksonville has seen improvements in racial equality with two Black sheriffs, a Black mayor, and others in the state Legislature and School Board. He said Shelton’s “determined pursuit of justice” in her murder helped in that progress.
“I would hope that Johnnie Mae would be proud of the progress her community has made since then,” Howland said. “And I bet she would also have concerns — why is crime so much higher along the Moncrief corridor; why are schools and infrastructure so far behind; and what can we do about it?”
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.
Shelton Chappell, who said the city and its people “still have work to do,” has plans of his own to let the world know of his mother’s unjust death.
“Getting a replica of the marker and going to the King Center; going to the Southern Poverty Law Center with it; and going to Washington and the National Museum of African American History and Culture with it,” he said. “To lay it down where it needs to be, for others to see and know so I can say, ‘Jacksonville, you did it!'”
