Vigil for Lexington's Michael Brown

I remember when 18-year-old Tony Sullivan was executed without due process for the crime of being black in the vicinity of a stone racist with a badge.  I remember the warnings from fat white cops about how the "blacks" were going to riot. I remember the peaceful march after Sullivan's murder and I remember how nobody rioted when his murderer walked free.

Linda B. Blackford at the Herald: 

Brown's shooting in Ferguson, Mo., and the subsequent unrest and police response reminded many of Sullivan's death, an event that provoked serious soul-searching about race relations in Lexington.

But so little has changed between police and the black community, organizers said, that several people wanted to honor Sullivan in the recent light of Brown's death, holding a vigil Sunday afternoon at Fifth and Race Streets.

"We have a responsibility ... we have to learn to police our own community," said Damon Muhammad of the Nation of Islam, who spoke to the crowd of 75 to 100 people. "We have to show more love and unity to one another."

Sullivan was shot the night of Oct. 25 when police entered an apartment in Bluegrass Aspendale looking for Sullivan on several felony warrants. A white officer, Phil Vogel, said his gun discharged accidentally, hitting Sullivan in the head. The shooting sparked simmering anger in the black community, sending a group of angry teens into downtown Lexington.

A grand jury decided not to indict Vogel in the shooting.

They held a vigil for Tony Sullivan in Lexington yesterday, 20 years after he was murdered. Yeah, there's a black chief of police in Lexington now, and he's running for mayor. But no, nothing has changed.