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Hate mail disturbs grieving Jacksonville Illinois family
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Editor's Note
The Journal-Courier quotes portions of a letter some readers may find offensive. The passages were used to give a sense of the severe nature of the letter.



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Hate mail
Posted: Tuesday, September 10, 2013 6:00 am

Hate mail disturbs grieving Jacksonville family BY MARIA NAGLE, Journal-Courier Jacksonville Journal-Courier

A Jacksonville woman collecting donations to plant a memorial garden where her 5-year-old son died two years ago in a house fire is distressed by a letter she received Monday expressing hateful remarks about blacks and people of two or more races.

�I started crying. It was talking about my son who passed away,� said Eva Brooks. The anonymous letter was addressed to her and her daughter, Crystal Smith.

�How could a person talk about a little child like that?� Brooks said. �He�s neither white nor black. He�s mixed.�

�Hello ladies,� the letter began. �It always makes me heartsick to see a Negro and a white person team up. I do not believe any Negro deserves a park named in memory of them or a memorial garden.

�They should still be slaves. Oh, yes, we have a Negro president, but he should not be. I believe people is [sic] seeing this. I am not for anything a Negro does. I think they should all be put on a slow boat to Africa,� it said.

Jacksonville Police now have the letter, holding it as potential evidence, Deputy Chief of Police Tim Shea said. Authorities are trying to determine whether the letter constitutes a hate crime. In Illinois, a hate crime can only be charged when a �precedent� crime is established � such as an assault, criminal damaging, disorderly conduct or telephone harassment� and a specific hate motive is established.

Photos of Brooks and Smith, who are white, and Brooks� late son, Isaiah, and Smith�s young daughter appeared Aug. 30 in a Journal-Courier story about a memorial walk. The event marked the two-year anniversary of Isaiah�s death and talked about Brooks� desire to plant a memorial garden. Her address was in the story so donations could be made.

The letter was postmarked Sept. 7 in Champaign. The letter was not signed and the envelope had no return address.

�I was really disturbed by it, to know that somebody would go that low with this,� Brooks said. �People like that are ignorant. They should not be writing letters like that against the mixed races or against blacks.�

Brooks has nine children. The four now living with her range in age from 14, 12, 6 and 4 and are multi-racial. She also has four grandchildren and another on the way; they are also multi-racial.

Brooks said her family is a mixture of white, black, Vietnamese and American Indian races.

Ashley Woods, Brooks� oldest child, said her little brother Isaiah did not know there where whites and blacks.

�He knew there were people,� she said.

�You don�t judge a man by the color of his skin. You judge him by his deeds,� she said. �Love has no color. I am in love with a mixed-race man. I don�t look at him for the color of his skin.�

Brooks wants to create a memorial garden where her son died Aug. 29, 2011, in a fire at her family�s Jacksonville home. An empty lot is there now. She also wants it to remember a mother and her two young sons who died in a June 27 fire at their Marnico Village residence.

�The other fire victims that I was going to put roses out there for � are white people, so I don�t understand the racist thing,� Brooks said.

So far, a woman has volunteered to help Brooks plant the flowers in the vacant lot. Several relatives of the Marnico Village fire victims also have offered to help with the project as well.

Matt Tapscott, a U.S. Postal Service delivery supervisor at the Jacksonville Illinois Post Office, said postal officials probably will not be able to determine who sent the letter and from where. Mail collected in Jacksonville is dropped off at a postal facility in Springfield for processing, except on Saturdays, when it is taken to Champaign, Tapscott said.