Connect with us

#NNPA BlackPress

Redemption: Cyntoia Brown Finds Her Voice

NNPA NEWSWIRE — Cyntoia Brown was supposed to spend 51 years in prison before she could even be considered for parole but her precarious case caught the attention of criminal justice reform activists, A-List celebrities and eventually Bill Haslam, the Governor of Tennessee. Upon learning of the details surrounding Brown’s case and calling on a higher power, the former governor granted Cyntoia Brown full clemency August 7, 2019, releasing the 31-year-old from the Tennessee Women’s prison.

Published

on

By Nsenga K. Burton, Ph.D., NNPA Newswire Entertainment and Culture Editor

To say Cyntoia Brown’s life has been complicated is an understatement. Brown is a young, black woman sentenced as an adult to life in prison when as a teenager, she killed Johnny Mitchell Allen, a 43-year-old man, who had solicited her for sex. Brown maintained she killed Allen in self-defense after he purchased her from a pimp and later appeared to be reaching for a gun to kill her. Prosecutors insisted Brown robbed and murdered Allen in cold blood.

Brown was supposed to spend 51 years in prison before she could even be considered for parole but her precarious case caught the attention of criminal justice reform activists, A-List celebrities and eventually Bill Haslam, the Governor of Tennessee.

Upon learning of the details surrounding Brown’s case and calling on a higher power, the former governor granted Cyntoia Brown full clemency August 7, 2019, releasing the 31-year-old from the Tennessee Women’s prison. Brown who once had given up hope after losing all of her appeals, had been granted “mercy” in a socio-political climate that readily demonstrates anything but mercy or empathy towards black women.

Brown, who strengthened her relationship with Jesus, found a God-fearing husband and the importance of education while in prison, set about to making her new lease on life count by continuing to do what she calls “God’s work” and share her story in order to help others.

One of the many ways Brown is sharing her story is through her book, Cyntoia Brown: My Search for Redemption in the American Prison System (Simon and Schuster).

Brown’s book offers a detailed look at Brown’s life behind bars and her traumatic childhood, which Brown attributes to the unfortunate direction of her early life. When speaking with Brown, it is clear she is getting used to her newfound freedom and has not had the privilege of thinking too far into the future.

Her answers to the questions are short and to the point and focused on the past and the here and now. When asked what motivated her to write a book, Brown states matter-of-factly, “God.”

“I prayed and felt that it [writing the book] was necessary. God gives us testimony so we can share them and not so we can sit on them,” Brown offers. The discussion of time is a constant in Brown’s answers.

She is a young woman who has gone from having nothing but time with a life sentence, to a new world where everyone wants some of her time.

Brown has a clear understanding that time is of the essence and she has to capitalize on new-found fame and empathy if she is going to help young girls struggling in their young lives just as she had when turned out as a child.

How might her life have been different if she knew at a young age there was more for her? “I know that a lot of people have been through what I’ve been through, so I felt it was necessary for people to see representations of their own experiences,” Brown says. “They need to know there is help out there for them.”

Help that evaded Brown at every stage of her early life. Brown, whose birth mother drank during her pregnancy, giving up for adoption at age 2. Her adoptive mother provided a stable home, but Brown didn’t get the treatment or help she needed to address her issues with fetal alcohol syndrome and abandonment, leading to her life as a runaway.

As a runaway, Brown was drugged, beaten and sex trafficked by a pimp named, “Kut-throat.”

Brown, who received therapy and treatment to help cope with her traumatic childhood while in prison, found writing the book took her to some “dark places.”

“I thought I had done a lot of processing of my childhood, but once I was working with (co-author Bethany Mauger) and she was asking me questions, I had to go back into those moments and that was kind of tough some times,” Brown says quietly. “This is Bethany’s first book too,” she adds letting me know they both underestimated the effect going into those dark corners would have on their lives.

Brown had endeavored to write this book many times while in prison but couldn’t do it. She would start and stop. Start and stop again. The disappointment of losing all of her appeals and not having the judges find any mercy or compassion for her and all she endured as a child wreaked havoc upon her mind.

Always a believer [in Christ], Brown kept praying and asking for what she wanted and was not getting it, which was difficult to understand. Brown credits relinquishing control of her life to God with the freedom that would eventually come. “After I realized I had to give God complete control over my life, that’s when things started changing,” including her ability to write her book.

“I was at a church service and the minister had come around and was anointing everyone and she said God said write the book. I went back to the cell and I called my husband and I said what do you think? He said write the book,” she shares. “I started writing the book and it started flowing out of me. Within three months I had a manuscript.”

Brown’s story has been covered all over the news, social media outlets, criminal justice reform spaces, college campuses – you name it and #FreeCyntoiaBrown has been a topic of discussion.

When asked, what will people get from her book they haven’t already gotten from the media and she responds, “The full truth.” “For one, everything in the interview is very surface level, cleaned up and it’s not entirely correct,” she states. “You’re going to get the full truth. It goes a lot deeper than anything you’ve seen in an article. So many people have told me after reading the book, they got to experience it,” says the first-time author. It refers to the traumatic life she lived up until being sentenced to life after fighting for her life. “So many things affected me from the time in school, to the time in the facilities and you really get to walk through that journey with me.”

Readers will be able to fully step into the shoes of Brown and understand all of the things that had to happen for society to lock up and throw away the key on the life of a 16-year-old black girl who had seen the worst life has to offer from her beginning in the womb.

Despite the horrific acts that transpired in Brown’s young life, she is aware that some people think she should still be in jail and should not be forgiven. Brown who believes everyone is “entitled to their opinion,” knows she has to focus on telling her story to help the girls who are currently in the same position as she was as a teenager.

When asked what advice she would give to girls mired in the same dire circumstances she faced, she simply states, “I want them to know there is another side of life.”

The criminal prison reform advocate adds, “There were so many times when I felt there was nothing and nobody out here to help me. But, you have to allow yourself to be helped to get to the point to see there’s better for you and it’s possible. Know who you are in God. Know that he’s looking out for you even when you can’t see it,” says Brown, a free woman who has clearly found her voice.

Although she speaks energetically about God, change and submission to God’s will, Brown shies away from questions about movies or what movie star should play her in a movie about her extraordinary life.

Brown grows quiet, and says she has no idea. “I haven’t even thought about that,” she says, giving voice to the fact freedom is still new for her.

The here and now appears to be her safe place and criminal justice reform is where her attention resides. Brown’s sense of urgency is wrapped in her obedience to God, the need to help save others from the painful path she took as a child, the desire for redemption and the recognition that time waits for no one.

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

#NNPA BlackPress

Trump Set to Sign Largest Cut to Medicaid After a Marathon Protest Speech by Leader Jeffries

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — The bill also represents the biggest cut in Medicare in history and is a threat to the health care coverage of over 15 million people. The spending in Trump’s signature legislation also opens the door to a second era of over-incarceration in the U.S.

Published

on

By Lauren Burke

By a vote of 218 to 214, the GOP-controlled U.S. House passed President Trump’s massive budget and spending bill that will add $3.5 trillion to the national debt, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The bill also represents the biggest cut in Medicare in history and is a threat to the health care coverage of over 15 million people. The spending in Trump’s signature legislation also opens the door to a second era of over-incarceration in the U.S. With $175 billion allocated in spending for immigration enforcement, the money for more police officers eclipsed the 2026 budget for the U.S. Marines, which is $57 billion. Almost all of the policy focus from the Trump Administration has focused on deporting immigrants of color from Mexico and Haiti.

The vote occurred as members were pressed to complete their work before the arbitrary deadline of the July 4 holiday set by President Trump. It also occurred after Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries took the House floor for over 8 hours in protest. Leader Jeffries broke the record in the U.S. House for the longest floor speech in history on the House floor. The Senate passed the bill days before and was tied at 50-50, with Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski saying that, “my hope is that the House is gonna look at this and recognize that we’re not there yet.” There were no changes made to the Senate bill by the House. A series of overnight phone calls to Republicans voting against, not changes, was what won over enough Republicans to pass the legislation, even though it adds trillions to the debt. The Trump spending bill also cuts money to Pell grants.

“The Big Ugly Bill steals food out of the hands of starving children, steals medicine from the cabinets of cancer patients, and equips ICE with more funding and more weapons of war than the United States Marine Corps. Is there any question of who those agents will be going to war for, or who they will be going to war against? Beyond these sadistic provisions, Republicans just voted nearly unanimously to close urban and rural hospitals, cripple the child tax credit, and to top it all off, add $3.3 trillion to the ticking time bomb that is the federal deficit – all from a party that embarrassingly pretends to stand for fiscal responsibility and lowering costs,” wrote Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Yvette Clarke (D-NY) in a statement on July 3.

“The Congressional Budget Office predicts that 17 million people will lose their health insurance, including over 322,000 Virginians. It will make college less affordable.  Three million people will lose access to food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). And up to 16 million students could lose access to free school meals. The Republican bill does all of this to fund tax breaks for millionaires, billionaires, and corporations,” wrote Education and Workforce Committee ranking member Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) in a statement. The bill’s passage has prompted Democrats to start thinking about 2026 and the next election cycle. With the margins of victory in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate being so narrow, many are convinced that the balance of power and the question of millions being able to enjoy health care come down to only several thousand votes in congressional elections. But currently, Republicans controlled by the MAGA movement control all three branches of government. That reality was never made more stark and more clear than the last seven days of activity in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate.

Continue Reading

#NNPA BlackPress

WATCH: NNPA Publishers Pivot To Survive

7.2.25 via NBC 4 Washington

Published

on

7.2.25 via NBC 4 Washington

https://youtube.com/watch?v=9oZc5Sz0jQQ&feature=oembed

Continue Reading

#NNPA BlackPress

Congressional Black Caucus Challenges Target on Diversity

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — we found that the explanations offered by the leadership of the Target Corporation fell woefully short of what our communities deserve and of the values of inclusion that Target once touted

Published

on

By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

Target is grappling with worsening financial and reputational fallout as the national selective buying and public education program launched by the Black Press of America and other national and local leaders continues to erode the retailer’s sales and foot traffic. But a recent meeting that the retailer intended to keep quiet between CEO Brian Cornell and members of the Congressional Black Caucus Diversity Task Force was publicly reported after the Black Press discovered the session, and the CBC later put Target on blast.

“The Congressional Black Caucus met with the leadership of the Target Corporation on Capitol Hill to directly address deep concerns about the impact of the company’s unconscionable decision to end a number of its diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts,” CBC Chair Yvette Clarke stated. “Like many of the coalition leaders and partner organizations that have chosen to boycott their stores across the country, we found that the explanations offered by the leadership of the Target Corporation fell woefully short of what our communities deserve and of the values of inclusion that Target once touted,” Congresswoman emphasized.  “Black consumers contribute overwhelmingly to our economy and the Target Corporation’s bottom line. Our communities deserve to shop at businesses that publicly share our values without sacrificing our dignity. It is no longer acceptable to deliver promises to our communities in private without also demonstrating those values publicly.”

Lauren Burke, Capitol Hill correspondent for Black Press of America, was present when Target CEO Cornell and a contingent of Target officials arrived at the U.S. Capitol last month. “It’s always helpful to have meetings like this and get some candid feedback and continue to evolve our thinking,” Cornell told Burke as he exited the meeting. And walked down a long hallway in the Cannon House Office Building. “We look forward to follow-up conversations,” he stated. When asked if the issue of the ongoing boycott was discussed, Cornell’s response was, “That was not a big area of focus — we’re focused on running a great business each and every day. Take care of our teams. Take care of the guests who shop with us and do the right things in our communities.”

A national public education campaign on Target, spearheaded by Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., president and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), the NNPA’s board of directors, and with other national African American leaders, has combined consumer education efforts with a call for selective buying. The NNPA is a trade association that represents the more than 220 African American-owned newspapers and media companies known as the Black Press of America, the voice of 50 million African Americans across the nation. The coalition has requested that Target restore and expand its stated commitment to do business with local community-owned businesses inclusive of the Black Press of  America, and to significantly increase investment in Black-owned businesses and media, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU, Black-owned Banks, national Black Church denominations, and grassroots and local organizations committed to improving the quality of life of all Americans, and especially those from underserved communities. According to Target’s latest earnings report, net sales for the first quarter of 2025 fell 2.8 percent to $23.85 billion compared to the same period last year. Comparable store sales dropped 3.8 percent, and in-store foot traffic slid 5.7 percent.

Shares of Target have also struggled under the pressure. The company’s stock traded around $103.85 early Wednesday afternoon, down significantly from roughly $145 before the controversy escalated. Analysts note that Target has lost more than $12 billion in market value since the beginning of the year. “We will continue to inform and to mobilize Black consumers in every state in the United States,” Chavis said. “Target today has a profound opportunity to respond with respect and restorative commitment.”

Continue Reading

Subscribe to receive news and updates from the Oakland Post

* indicates required

CHECK OUT THE LATEST ISSUE OF THE OAKLAND POST

ADVERTISEMENT

WORK FROM HOME

Home-based business with potential monthly income of $10K+ per month. A proven training system and website provided to maximize business effectiveness. Perfect job to earn side and primary income. Contact Lynne for more details: Lynne4npusa@gmail.com 800-334-0540

Facebook

Trending

Copyright ©2021 Post News Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.