PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — After Dorothy Johnson-Speight’s son, Khaaliq, died from gun violence more than 20 years ago, she made it her mission to address this issue and push for change in his honor.
For the last two decades, she has been working toward gun violence prevention, education and intervention through her organization, Mothers in Charge.
“... Doing this work, you touch your own pain,” Johnson-Speight said. “One of the things that, I think, is a factor with me continuing to do the work is that I understand the pain. I know it, and I don't want someone else to feel it. So I try to do what I can to address this issue.”
“But the other part of it for me, too, is that my son was a great guy like, he was a peacemaker,” she said. “He died breaking up an argument between his friend and the guy who was the shooter, and because of who he was in life, I have to do this, you know, so that his life and death is not in vain.”
The organization began in Philadelphia and has since expanded to offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Kansas City. They host events and weekly classes, like anger management.
And just this last Wednesday their headquarters in Spring Garden was filled with counselors and mothers receiving grief support and services. They say the need is stronger than ever.
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“We're hopeful that it won't always be this way, because it wasn't. It hasn't always been this way,” Johnson-Speight said. “But I would think in the last three or four years, it has really escalated in terms of the number of shootings and the number of deaths.
According to the CDC, homicide is one of the leading causes of death among Black males. There have been more than 500 homicides each year, for the past two years, and in the first three months of 2023 alone, at least 105 people were killed.
Johnson-Speight says she’s hopeful for a day and a world where the organization isn’t needed and they can find another cause.
On May 24, they will be hosting a gala, themed “Honoring our past and powering a better future,” at Lincoln Financial Field. The event will be attended by gun violence prevention stakeholders who are hopeful for the same outcome as Johnson-Speight.
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