Good Citizens Rhodes Funeral Home

Rhodes, who just turned 18 earlier this month, was set to graduate from Morgan County High School (MCHS) this May. Smith, 19, graduated from MCHS last year and was currently a freshman at the University of North Georgia. Tracey Rhodes, Michael’s mother was driving a Jeep Grand Cherokee, which also carried her other son, Adam, 14. Tracey Rhodes was headed north towards Madison when the car hydroplaned and crossed over the centerline into the south lane of oncoming traffic, colliding head on with a Jeep Compass driven by Kaitlyn Black, 24, of Bethlehem. Tracey, Adam, and Kaitlyn were transported to Athens Regional Hospital. Tracey was reported to be in critical condition. The condition of Adam and Kaitlyn are unknown as of press time on Tuesday, April 25. According to Putnam County officials, the accident is still under investigation.Michael and Brittany were pronounced dead at the scene. Their loss has sent shock waves of grief through MCHS, as students mourn and share fond memories of the popular couple. Michael was an athlete who played on both the football and wrestling teams. Brittany played on the MCHS Softball team and was also a dancer with the Pointe of Grace Dance Academy. The MCHS Athletic Department released a statement honoring Michael and Brittany. “Tonight we join the Smith and Rhodes families in mourning the loss of two outstanding young people. Brittany Smith and Michael Rhodes were wonderful souls who always lifted up those around them. Their bright smiles and genuine, caring natures made everyone around them feel good about themselves. Brittany and Michael- we are all better off for having had you impact our lives.”MCHS brought in grief counselors Monday, April 24 to assist mourning students throughout the day. Students and faculty also held an informal memorial on campus to honor Michael and Brittany. “Today our students were surrounded by their teachers, coaches, school system counselors, and community members and clergy as they began mourning the loss of senior Michael Rhodes and 2016... (Morgan County Citizen)

Wire-rimmed glasses rested over a perpetually furrowed brow on his narrow, thoughtful, frequently smiling face. A faint white mustache grazed his upper lip. In welcoming the attendees of the Neighborhood Funders Group Conference, a convening of grantmaking institutions, Mayor Lumumba was conversational and at ease, as he tended to be with microphone in hand. His friends had long teased him for his loquaciousness in front of a crowd. Lumumba informed the room that on the car ride over he’d decided he would tell them a story. He explained that big things were happening in Jackson—or, were about to happen—and his story would offer some context. It was one he had recounted many times. Polished smooth, the story was like an object he kept in his pocket and worried with his thumb until it took on the sheen of something from a fable, though the people and events were real. “It was March of 1971 when I first came to the state of Mississippi,” Lumumba began. “It was several months after the students at Jackson State had been murdered,” he said, referring to the tragedy at the city’s predominantly black college, which left two dead and twelve injured after police opened fire on a campus dormitory in May 1970, less than two weeks after the Kent State shootings. Lumumba had traveled to Mississippi with a group called the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika. He was twenty-three at the time and was taking a break from his second year of law school in Detroit. He had put his training on hold for the work of new-society building. After the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Lumumba had been increasingly drawn to what he considered the radical humanism of the Provisional Government’s plan to create a new, majority-black nation in the Deep South. The PG-RNA planned to peacefully petition the United States government for the five states where the concentration of black population was largest: Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina. Leaders framed their demand for this transfer a... (Oxford American)