By Christopher Young,
Contributing Writer,
Hundreds gathered at New Horizon Church International Monday, November 20, 2023, for Dexter Alex Wade’s homegoing celebration. The church is located at 1770 Ellis Avenue, Jackson, MS.
Scores of family members were joined by friends, community members and dignitaries including Mississippi’s 2nd District Congressman Bennie Thompson, Reverend Al Sharpton, Attorney Ben Crump, attorney’s Dennis Sweet III and Dennis Sweet IV, NAACP Jackson City Branch President Nsombi Lambright-Haynes, newly elected State Representative Fabian Nelson (D-66), outgoing Hinds County District 2 Supervisor David Archie, and Jackson City Council member Kenneth I. Stokes.
New Horizon Church International Senior Pastor, Ronnie C. Crudup, Sr., welcomed all with understanding, warmth and love. Rev. Al Sharpton delivered the eulogy.
The Westhaven Funeral Home Choir provided several selections, surely highlighted by Walk Around Heaven All Day. Later, Dexter Wade’s mother, Bettersten Wade, shared that her son would always say “I’m going home to my Father and I’m gonna walk around with my Father on the golden streets.”
After scripture readings from the old and new testaments, Rev. Orlando D. Franklin of Unity Fellowship Baptist Church offered encouragement and prayer centered in John 11 – the story of Mary, her sister Martha, and her brother Lazarus – a story that he hoped would give the Wade and Robinson families strength, followed by special expressions by family and friends.
Attorney Benjamin Crump began by thanking DeRay Mckesson, executive director of Campaign Zero – an American police reform campaign launched on August 21, 2015 (https://campaignzero.org) – “for providing the financial support necessary for an autopsy and giving him a respectable funeral as a first step to get justice.” He gave thanks for our Representative, Congrerssman Bennie Thompson, Nsombi Lambright-Hayes and others, before introducing Reverend Al Sharpton as “a man who was chosen for this moment.”
Sharpton began by saying that after Crump told him what had gone on, and then after speaking to Mrs. Wade, he wanted to come today “for two reasons: to give words of comfort to the family, and I want to give words of discomfort to the city, the police department, and the State of Mississippi.” For fifteen minutes he hammered on the multiple levels of injustice brought upon Dexter Wade and his family – calling it a disgrace.
He spoke about Jackson’s water crisis… “there was a stench in the water in some parts – but today I’m here to tell you there is something else stinking in Jackson, Mississippi. Something doesn’t smell right. Just like we stood up with Jackson about the water, it is time for the Mayor and City Council to stand up for Dexter.”
He asked how a young man is killed and buried with state identification in his pocket and you can’t notify his family – “you let him lay in the morgue and then bury him in a pauper’s field.” He questioned why the off-duty officer who ran him over didn’t go back on duty and do their job. “No officer could have pulled this off by themselves. If you thought you could do this and we wouldn’t do anything about it you were sadly mistaken. His life mattered to his mama and relatives, and we are going to make it matter all over this country.”
Sharpton stated, “it doesn’t matter if the off-duty policeman is black. Would you have done this to a young white man? You will learn that you can’t do this in Mississippi – we’ve come to demand justice for Dexter Wade.” He questioned if it was revenge. “In my opinion it is one of the most disgraceful things I have ever heard of, and I’ve been in this a long time. Others besides that officer had to help cover this up.”
He went to Luke 15 to speak of the lost sheep. “I’ve come to Jackson because there is a lost sheep. Jesus stood up for the lost sheep, the unknown and the unrecognized. I may not be here for the big shot, but I come for the lost sheep.”
He spoke of Jackson “having fought so hard to even put blacks on the police force…people marched, went to jail, suffered, Medgar Evers lost his life so our people could put a badge on in Jackson…and you would take that badge and manipulate and bury your brother like he was some piece of worthless skin…how bad you misuse the movement that sponsored you in the first place. If a white cop had done it, we’d have 5,000 people marching. Your skin doesn’t give you immunity. You shamed the movement that made you possible. Unless we stand up for Dexter, we can’t stand up for any other cause or civil or human rights. If people have to qualify for justice, then it’s not justice… Until the ‘Dexters’ matter, the movement doesn’t mean anything.”
At the conclusion of the service a brief press conference was conducted in an anteroom with Attorneys Crump, Dennis Sweet III and IV, Bettersten Robinson Wade and Tiffany Carter, the mother of Rasheem Carter who was terrorized and murdered in Taylorsville in October 2022. The elder Sweet indicated that he has been informed that the Board of Supervisors have the authority to call a hearing, an investigation – and we ask that they do so. The City of Jackson also has the power to investigate and so we ask that they do that and come forward with the findings.
Interment took place at Cedarwood Memorial Park, 340 New Market Drive, a barrenly new cemetery in South Jackson, off Highway 18, just past Maddox Road. Few words were spoken, only wails of anguish as the beautiful mahogany casket was placed inside a burial vault emblazoned with a gold name plate fastened to the cover – Dexter Alex Wade 1985-2023. Finally, proper respects.
See photos page 4.
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