Addressing the theme, “I believe you, always,” and wielding it as an assertion that victims don’t have to keep silent for fear of having their statements received in incredulity, the Indianola Police Department and Delta Health Alliance co-sponsored the first Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Awareness Banquet last Thursday night.
Cassandra Rule, Delta Health Alliance and Police Sergeant Bennie Milton, who is also the domestic-violence investigator for the department, were the organizers of the event.
Milton said the banquet was a way to draw attention to the rise in violent domestic and sexual assault crimes and recognize the persons who are actively entrenched in the efforts to help the victims and curtail the attacks.
Milton stressed that domestic violence and sexual assault should not be considered a private affair, but something that affects the entire community and people should no longer stand by and declare, “That’s their business, I don’t want to get involved.”
She said domestic violence is escalating and people should start reporting suspected incidences because they can help in the fight against the assaults by notifying her or calling the crisis line at 1-888-884-LOVE (5683) and reporting it. “If you know something that’s going on, now is not the time to be silent,” Milton said.
She stressed that a simple request to ask them to “reach out” to a suspected victim may save a life. Several people were there to address the small crowd including some victims of domestic assault, such as the Rev. Anjohnette Gibbs, who shared her story and testimony.
Gibbs, a divorced, single parent at the time, describes herself as a praying woman who got caught up in an abusive relationship. “Educated, master’s degrees, good job, I pastored two churches the last 40 years, I’m supposed to be smarter than that, but sometimes you get caught in things you don’t deserve,” Gibbs said.
According to her, the man she married, who reportedly became her eventual attacker, did not show any initial evidence of an abusive nature. She described him as “A cup of sweet tea,” a term she said her sisters used to describe a good-looking gentleman.
“He pursued me, he wooed me, he wined and dined and he was good to my child,” said Gibbs.
But, after about six months of marriage the verbal abuse started and Gibbs said after enduring it for so long she began to pray to God, either for her husband to change or for God to remove her from that situation.
An incident, where he was purportedly verbally abusive to his ailing mother and sister, prompted Gibbs to pray even more fervently and without warning, the next day, her husband asked for a divorce.
Gibbs said she was so thankful for God answering her prayers that she left his home walking with no idea of where she was going because the house was his and she had, at his insistence, been driving the car that he gave her.
Gibbs cautioned the audience to look out for the signs, one of which is how a man treats his mother, she said.
She soon found a place of her own and got another car and when he found out where she was living he came to her door, but she would not let him in.
Later, a joint business matter required her to seek him out for his signature and going to his house resulted in a physical attack that left her severely battered and bloody.
She said before that day he had never physically assaulted her, but when she got to his home he locked the door behind her.
“He said to me if I can’t have you, nobody can,” Gibbs told the group.
She recounted how he used plaited belts to hit her all over her body, tearing her flesh from her head down. She then told how he put a .38 handgun to her head and pulled the trigger.
“And the bullet didn’t come out,” she said. Gibbs said that scared him and he let her go.
Gibbs said she had been praying through the whole ordeal and knows that it was God who brought her out; she asserted that God spared her life, so she could tell her story and help others.
“God told me when I walked out that day, ‘I spared your life, you’ve got a testimony, you need to tell somebody else that they can get out too,’” she said.
The authorities later arrested and charged her assailant and she had to retell her story in court, but she praised the people of Our House in Greenville and others by name who helped her and supported her through it all. Gibbs said because of them she now knows that she didn’t do anything wrong.
“I tried to love a man that was not lovable,” she said.
Patricia Davenport, PhD., CEO, Our House, Inc., shared that April is National Sexual Assault Awareness Month and commended the organizers for recognizing it in Indianola and endeavoring to establish a local Sexual Assault Response Team.
Davenport described S.A.R.T. as, “Individuals who want to work together to put an end to sexual assault in our community.”
During her talk, she addressed the profuse amount of statutory rape cases, where young girls were having sex with older men and not recognizing the crime for what it is. She noted incidences where young girls were assaulted in their homes by their stepfather or the mother’s boyfriend.
Davenport shared what she asserted as one of the most difficult calls to answer.
“When a man calls you and he feels he has to convince you that he’s been raped,” she said. With a deep sigh, Davenport reaffirmed, “I believe you, always, I believe victims, always.” She made a plea for more men to join their efforts to prevent sexual assaults.
She shared the anguish, frustration and pain experienced not only by the victims but also the families of those victims who do not survive their attackers.
She said S.A.R.T. serves as a voice and an advocate for those who feel like their voices are not heard. She called for the attendees to be “Upstanders and not bystanders.”
Chief Edrick Hall also shared some local domestic violence incidents that involved persons being shot and stabbed and he too called for the community to continue to pray for the persons who are affected by domestic violence.
The Rev. Herron Wilson served as master of ceremonies and acknowledged how elated he was to have been a part of the program.
Others on the program included Mathew Morgan, who offered the invocation, Mayor Steve Rosenthal welcomed the group, Sheriff James Haywood was called upon to speak a blessing over the event and Mariah Hall contributed a musical selection.
Indianola aldermen Sam Brock, Marvin Elder and Gary Fratesi along with Dist. 31 Representative Otis Anthony II also attended the event.
Melanie Barton Stewart, Prison Rape Elimination Act Advocate, Mississippi Coalition Against Sexual Assault, was the scheduled guest speaker; however, due to the severe weather outbreak in central Mississippi, she was not able to attend.
Milton publicly thanked several Indianola citizens and merchants who provided food and other items for the banquet, including Turner’s Downtown Market, Shoppers Value Foods, the B.B. King Museum, Double Quick, Southern Bancorp, Planters Bank, Community Bank and Walmart.
