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Milwaukee County will not pay for a Sade Robinson memorial, a woman slain and dismembered in Milwaukee last year. This comes after county administrators passed a resolution to do so but then said they received “a flurry of racist emails” about the plan, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Robinson was on a first date in April last year with 33-year-old Maxwell S. Anderson when she disappeared. Robinson was Black and just 19 years old when she died, and her burned-out car and dismembered remains were later recovered in various places around Milwaukee. Anderson, a white man, is now charged with killing her.
In January, Milwaukee County supervisors approved a resolution to spend $7,000 on the Robinson memorial, a bench, at Warnimont Park in Cudahy, WI, a Milwaukee suburb, at the request of Robinson’s mother, Sheena Scarbrough.
However, at a recent county Parks and Culture committee meeting, officials said they received racist emails after announcing the resolution had passed and after it was announced that public money would be spent on the memorial.
According to one county supervisor, one asked, “Why should Black folks get this when white folks don’t get this?” Another supervisor called the response the received “despicable” and said it “crossed several lines.”
According to one Milwaukee County supervisor, “It is most unfortunate that we’re at this moment in our country’s history where, once again, we feel very comfortable being overt with our prejudices, with our racism and with just plain evil, hateful thoughts.”
Robinson’s family will now fundraise on their own
Amid the controversy, Robinson’s family has also received racist and harassing emails and social media responses about the memorial, and they have now requested the county drop the resolution for funding, according to Milwaukee’s TMJ4. Robinson’s family now says they will raise funds for the bench in a GoFundMe, which at this writing, has raised around $5,500 of the $7,000 previously earmarked by the county. Many members of the Milwaukee community have also stepped up to help.
Robinson’s cousin “Keke” told TMJ4 when the resolution was announced, “I thought it was cool at first because obviously it was a memorial for Sade. But then things instantly changed for the family. We started getting negative feedback from [the community] and people, and we just didn’t want that.”
Although the county will no longer help pay for the bench, “We’re still very much committed to working with the family and with the Milwaukee Parks Foundation and other partners to make this happen,” Milwaukee County Parks Director Guy Smith said.
Murder suspect Maxwell Anderson has pleaded not guilty and is still in custody on $5 million bail. He is charged with first-degree intentional homicide, mutilating a corpse, and arson of property other than a building. He’s expected to stand trial in May.
On the experience of losing her daughter in such a horrific murder, Robinson’s mother, Sheena Scarbrough, told Fox 6 Now, “We don’t have all of my baby’s remains, we don’t still have all of my baby’s remains. We don’t have a gravesite to go to. This is still the hardest thing I’ve ever done.” Scarborough said she simply asked the county for “A bench, a tree to represent her light, what she gave, a plaque, an honor.”