Woman, I told you before: we are not bringing any children into this horrible world,” Alton shouted. “And if I have to beat every one of them out of you, I will,” he threatened angrily.
Alton refused to bring a child into this cruel world to endure what he had barely survived. After his beating that night at the hands of those white boys in Nashville, all his dreams were dashed away—medical school, a pro-basketball career, being prosperous in this world—everything was gone as a result of the beating he received on that fateful night.
And every time he struck Maybelle on this day, in his mind he hit Fletcher or one of his buddies in a way he wished he could have struck out that night nearly five years ago. Alton had never felt as helpless as he had felt that night …
Fletcher Conroy and his friends beat Alton mercilessly. His knees were their main concern. The young thugs reasoned that if his knees were destroyed, he could not play basketball or any other sport ever again. Fletcher exacted revenge against Alton because Alton was better than he was at every sport—basketball, baseball, football, everything.
Fletcher hated Alton with pure hatred. He poured out that hatred on Alton as he and his friends beat him. Fletcher derived great pleasure in hearing Alton’s knees give way. As Fletcher swung the sledgehammer for the first blow, Alton screamed like a little girl. That scream inspired Fletcher to bury all his frustration and anger in his victim.
The beating the six young men meted out to Alton prior to the arrival of the police kept Alton in Intensive Care for six months. The staff and students of Fisk University were in an uproar—how could this have happened?
Nashville had long accepted the colored students of Fisk. The Nashville residents looked on them as success stories of the time. The lingering racial tension was all kept at bay because of the townspeople and the schools. What happened to Alton Johnson set race relations back at least a hundred years as everyone tried to understand how this could have transpired and escalated in such a fashion.
When he finally regained consciousness, Alton was moved from Fisk Medical Center to Charlotte General Hospital so his parents and family could care for him. Friends, family, and church family rallied around Alton’s family to help out as much as possible. Prayer was continually lifted up as their community came together to bring this outstanding young man back to his feet.
Unfortunately, Fletcher’s father was a top attorney in Chattanooga. He very carefully constructed Fletcher and his cohorts’ defenses so they were able to serve no time other than the time they spent in the county lockup—forty-five days. They were able to go on with their lives as basketball players for TSU. They had gotten the revenge they sought with Alton.
Because the trials were held in Nashville, Mr. Conroy was able to equip the jury with his own people so the boys he represented would be favored. Alton’s attorneys were impotent against the cadre of lawyers representing his opponents. Not only did Alton consider himself defeated by the boys who had beaten him but also by life itself.
Unable to walk, much less play basketball, Alton sat bitterly in his wheelchair for over a year before he could make himself get up and start the rehabilitative process. Alton despised the fact that Maybelle was able to go on with school while he sat at home, unable to do anything but grow more and more hateful to those around him.
Maybelle went home every chance she could to see him. She was more in love with him than ever, assuring him that she didn’t want anyone else in her life. He was the only one for her. He didn’t believe her—didn’t, couldn’t, and wouldn’t. He was miserable.
Although Alton could no longer play basketball as a result of the beating, he had other options. Because of his grades, Fisk counselors advised him to switch to an academic scholarship. Alton didn’t see any reason to do that. Stuck in a wheelchair and not wanting anyone’s sympathy, Alton allowed himself to wallow in self-pity, disappointing everyone around him …
Slap!
Alton hit Maybelle on the face again. He attempted to get to her stomach. Maybelle fiercely guarded the baby who should have been conceived in love. Instead, this child was conceived because her husband had brutally violated her body when she was at her most vulnerable.
After Alton’s unpleasant incident, Maybelle completed two years of college and was awarded an Associate’s degree in English with a 4.0 grade point average. By the end of her second year, with Alton working on her love and sympathy for him, Maybelle quit school and came home to help care for him. Before that, he cried when she came home for the weekend and sobbed when it was time for her to return to Fisk.
“Don’t you love me, Maybelle?” he pleaded. “Please stay with me. I need you,” he begged.
Maybelle finally relented amid protests from her family. She told her parents she would return to school later and finish what she had started. Just right now, though, she felt that the Lord was calling her back home for a while to help Alton get back on his feet.
Within a year of dropping out of Fisk, Alton convinced Maybelle to marry him. Emmaline and Stanley Carter were reluctant and uneasy about allowing their daughter to marry Alton. It wasn’t because he was crippled, though. Since his accident, many changes had come over him. Everyone had faith that Alton would eventually recover the ability to walk. But something inside him had changed. He now acted very strangely toward everyone.
Once a very loving boy, Alton now acted as though he hated people and hated being around anyone. When Emmaline and Stanley spoke with Alton’s parents, Henry and Annie, they were told how sad it was to see their boy change so much.
The oldest of six strapping boys, Alton was the hope of his family. Always an encouragement to his younger brothers, in the past, Alton had tried to keep them on the straight path so they could accomplish something with their lives.
“He’s always been the first to speak positively over any situation,” said his mom, Annie. “Now,” she told the Carters, “he’s completely opposite.”
The two sets of parents came together often to pray for Alton and Maybelle. They wanted to see their children married to each other. But they also wanted them to wait until Alton was not only on his feet again but also moving out of the slump the tragic incident had placed him in. That didn’t happen.
Alton and Maybelle married on Tuesday, February 14, 1956 to the chagrin and dismay of their parents. Finally walking after almost two years in the wheelchair, Alton looked very handsome as he stood with a white walking cane to match his white tuxedo at the front of their church. The doctors had diagnosed that he would never be able to walk again. Sheer determination and bitterness caused Alton to come out of the wheelchair.
Maybelle was very proud of him and happily married him. After their brief honeymoon, she started up a campaign to get him to return to school. Maybelle was ready to return to school and had been accepted with a full scholarship to Johnson C. Smith University nearby in Charlotte. Changing her major from law to education, Maybelle decided to become a school teacher so she could make a difference in the lives of the children in her community.
Fisk University extended an invitation to Alton to return under an academic scholarship. He decided he wanted no part of Nashville. After his parents spoke with the counselors at Fisk, they took it upon themselves to work with Alton because of his special circumstances.
The Fisk Dean of Admissions was able to open the door for him to attend Winston-Salem State University. He was also able to transfer his scholarship and arrange for other scholarships and stipends as well.
In spite of all the assistance being given, Alton wanted no part of college. He bitterly maintained that college was only a pipedream and not meant for him. His dreams of becoming a doctor were over. He was equally determined not to allow Maybelle to achieve her dreams either. His bitterness caused him to strike out at those around him who loved him and wanted better for him.
As Alton raised his hand to hit Maybelle again, a sharp contraction hit her. She yelped with the pain. It was worse than any pain Alton could inflict upon her.
Maybelle began praying inwardly, The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want …
Slap!
Alton’s hand made contact with the back of her head. The sound reverberated through the room and through Maybelle’s head.
“I will kill you and your child, woman!” Alton’s voice took on an otherworldly quality.
Right before he hit her shoulder with the largest encyclopedia he could lay his hands on, Maybelle looked up just in time to observe a monstrous look on Alton’s face. Almost unconscious, Maybelle continued with her prayer.
Lord, if it be Thy will, please let this cup pass from me, she pleaded in her mind. God, please let Jimmy and Florina get here before it’s too late.
Bent over double to protect her baby, Maybelle’s body ached from the brutal beating her husband was administering to her.
“God, please help me,” she murmured faintly, fighting to remain conscious.
The call came for angels Hazmar, Kangor, and Eliasa to quickly attend to the pregnant young woman. The three of them deflected as many of the blows as they could so that pre-born Emmaline would not be harmed during the assault.
These same three had helped the pre-born’s Earth-father when he was assaulted by the six men in Nashville. They knew that Almighty God had heard the woman’s cry. He had released them to come now. It was a matter of urgency as three other pre-borns had not made it to Earth-life from the brutality the man meted out to the woman during her previous pregnancies.
Unable to hold onto consciousness any longer, Maybelle slid to the floor just as the front door of their little house flung open. Fearing the worst, her brother Jimmy broke through the frame. Outraged to see what was going on, he tackled Alton. Jimmy threw Alton against the wall away from his sister just as Alton’s foot swung to kick Maybelle’s still body yet again.
“Man, what’s wrong with you?” Jimmy shouted questioningly at his brother-in-law.
As he held Alton down, Florina ran to her sister-in-law to see if she was alive.
“My God, Jimmy. My God,” she uttered, horrified at the appearance of her sister-in-law.
Maybelle looked as though she had been beaten by Joe Louis. She couldn’t believe what she saw. Florina couldn’t comprehend that Alton had beaten his wife, the woman he supposedly loved so much, as badly as he had beaten Maybelle.
Even in an unconscious state, Maybelle had her arms wrapped around her torso in an attempt to protect her precious cargo as best she could.
Florina checked her pulse. Weak and thready, she was thankful Maybelle still had a pulse. She and Jimmy had made two calls before they left their home two miles away—for the police and an ambulance. Thank God they heard both pulling into the driveway right behind them. And not a moment too soon. An LPN, Florina knew they would have to hurry if they were to save both these battered victims.
As the policemen ran through the front door, guns drawn, Florina quickly let them know who was who.
“Officers, please. That’s my husband, this woman’s brother, holding her husband down on the floor. He’s the one who beat this woman, my sister-in-law,” she quickly explained, tearfully.
Upon hearing that, the policemen quickly took over and handcuffed a struggling Alton then took him to their waiting squad car. As they took Alton out, the paramedics came in to assess the situation. Recognizing Florina from the hospital, they quickly asked what was going on.
She urged them to hurry. Not only was Maybelle brutally beaten, the baby was severely traumatized from being knocked around inside the mother. They quickly moved Maybelle to the gurney after beginning an IV in her arm. She moaned as they moved her. Florina noticed that the baby had not moved since she had arrived.
“Please hurry! Don’t let her lose the baby! Please!” Florina begged the ambulance driver. They moved quickly because of her tone of voice. Nurse Carter was one of the best at Charlotte General. If she was moving them urgently out the door, there was good reason.
“Jimmy, I’ll ride with Maybelle. Call your and Alton’s parents. Have them meet us at the hospital,” she said as they closed the doors of the ambulance.
Jimmy went back into the house. Taking in the mess around him for the first time, he couldn’t believe his eyes! It looked as though a barroom brawl had broken out in his sister’s home. Why hadn’t she let her family know it had gotten this bad with Alton? Couldn’t she see how much they all loved her and would not allow this jerk to mistreat her?
Jimmy called his parents first. Even though he tried to be strong, he choked when his mother answered the phone.
“Mom, Maybelle’s on the way to the hospital. Mama,” he said in a little boy voice of long ago. “Mama, he beat her, Mama,” he cried.
“Jimmy? Jimmy-Dee, is that you?” Emmaline Carter shouted, fear causing her to quake in her innermost being. “Jimmy-Dee (she hadn’t called him that since he was a toddler), calm down, son. Tell Mama what happened.” She signaled to her husband Stanley to pick up the extension.
“Mama,” Jimmy got out through his sobs. “Maybelle called Florina and me to take her to the hospital to have the baby. By the time we got here, Alton had beaten her so bad, Mama.” He sobbed again as he thought of the spectacle he had just witnessed as he broke through the front door.
“Mama, Daddy, just go to the hospital. Florina is with her. Hurry,” Jimmy pleaded with his parents as he hung up the phone. He hung his head down in his hands. Oh, how he loved his little sister! Didn’t she know her family would have never allowed this to happen if only she had called?
“Oh, God, please help my baby sister. Please don’t let her die! Don’t let her lose the baby. Please, Lord,” Jimmy whispered in his anguish, praying God would hear his cry.