Carl Fredrick Tabb Jr. never missed an opportunity to joke. Sometimes his mother would call him up, and he would be out with his little nephew, David, at the zoo or circus on a whim.
“If you caught him and he was smiling, it would just warm your heart because that’s the type of person he was,” said Sharon Crossland, his mother. “If there was something he didn’t like or didn’t agree with, he just wouldn’t deal with you.”
On March 24, 2015, Crossland came home from work and found her son murdered on her dining room floor. He had just turned 30, and his case remains unsolved.
“It’s detrimental to lose a loved one, specifically for your child to be killed in such a heinous manner,” Crossland said. “It’s crippling.”
Ever since this happened, Crossland has participated in Better Family Life’s The Move, a march and rally dedicated to supporting those who have lost their loved ones to violence. This year The Move will take place on Saturday, April 13 at 10 a.m. At the march, people hold up signs honoring the people they have lost, she said, and friends and community members come out and walk by their side to show support.
“Maybe they can’t feel what we feel, but they can empathize,” Crossland said. “It goes a long way to see that kind of support. The Move brings a lot of love for the people who are experiencing this and lets us know that there is someone out there who is listening, who cares.”
This is the fifth consecutive year of the march. James Clark, vice president of community outreach of Better Family Life, said that The Move was born out of the idea that the African-American community needed to respond collectively to violence.
“If a police officer kills an African American, then we are up in arms – as we should be,” Clark said. “But when African Americans kill African Americans, we are too silent and we’ve been too silent for too long. What we tolerate, we teach. We are teaching young people that it’s acceptable for African Americans to kill African Americans. And 100 percent of the population is tired of it.”
Clark encourages individuals to wear black and to make signs and bring pictures of their loved ones lost to gun violence or substance abuse. Before the march, there is a reflection, where families can share stories about their loved ones and their experiences. For this portion, people are invited to assemble starting at 9 a.m. in the Roberts Center Parking lot at the corner of Page Boulevard and Euclid Avenue.
“This is their platform,” Clark said. “This is their stage. We want the community to feel their pain. We will not hear from traditional leaders. We will hear straight from the families who have lost loved ones.”
At 10 a.m., the march will proceed west on Page to the Better Family Life Cultural Center, 5415 Page Blvd., for a rally. The theme of the rally is “Now is the Time for Change.” There, streetwise community leaders will discuss the importance of those with street-level credibility taking the lead in addressing crime.
Phyllis Curry lost her 22-year-old son, DeAnthony, in 2016 when he had gone to the store after work. They have never found the murderer.
“For me to lose my son is one thing,” Curry said. “To lose him to gun violence is another thing. But to not to have any closure, it keeps you thinking about the bad of it and not remember the good times I was given with my son.”
Participating in The Move gives her hope, she said.
“It soothes me,” Curry said. “It helps me when I help people overcome the horrific feeling of losing a child. And I want my city to get together and save the children who don’t deserve to leave this earth.”
For more information, call James Clark at 314-381-8200 or 314-378-4026.
