February 10, 2021
From the time she was a little girl, Rosa Jinsey Young knew she wanted to be a teacher. Even though there were no schools for black children in her community, she wanted to help “her people” learn.
A small child with frequent bouts of illness, Young was an unlikely heroine. Born in 1890, the fourth of 10 children, Young grew up in Rosebud, in the heart of Alabama’s Black Belt, a swath of counties cutting through the center of the state with the blackest soil and the largest old plantations. Her parents were farmers; her father also preached as a circuit rider for the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Rockford quadruple homicide victim s mother finds peace in forgiveness
ROCKFORD Six years after a Rockford woman tragically lost her daughter and two grandsons in a quadruple homicide, she says she s chosen to forgive the killer.
“By the grace of God, he has given me peace,” said Rolanda Collins, who spent the anniversary of their death last weekend surrounded by family. There was no special memorial or tribute, just a place of love, she said.
Collins daughter, Martia Flint, was at home with her two sons, Tyrone Smith III, 6, and Tobias K. Smith, 4, and her boyfriend, Demontae Rhodes, on Dec. 20, 2014, when all four were shot to death.