On the morning of December, 21, 2007 as many in the Texas town of Arlington prepared for the Christmas holiday, a local black contractor named Broderick Gamble was horrified to discover that someone had used a can of red spray paint to deface the brand new white garage doors of the dream home he'd been building since 2006.
The words "KILL" and "DIE NIGGER" (see photo above left) cast a dark shadow on the neighborhood and indeed the town itself.
Just two days earlier, Gamble's fiancee Etha Kay "Silk" Littlejohn had been assaulted with a two-by-four and subjected to racial slurs by Grace Head; a 66-year-old white neighbor who lives four blocks from the Gamble home.
Head was indicted on charges of aggravated assault and criminal mischief, both charges carry additional weight because it was classified as a hate crime.
But the town, and the two victims became embroiled in a controversy after Gamble repeatedly refused orders to remove the offensive graffiti and pledged to leave it up to demonstrate the scope of racism he claims to have been subjected to since breaking ground on his dream home.
The story got quite a bit of local media attention, there's even a 2 minute 41 second clip on youtube. Good amount of blogging too. The spirit of the holidays won out though as strangers pooled together friends to contact Gamble and his fiancee and bring them Christmas gifts.
Nice to see human nature and goodwill win out over ignorance and fear.
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