THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 15, 1996 TAG: 9606150320
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE KNEPLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 87 lines
This week, Dorothy Brown cried again for her son, Robert, the victim of an unsolved murder nearly two years ago.
Then she moved ahead with plans for Friday's cookout for neighborhood children.
``I do it because of Robert and all the other young men,'' she said. ``I don't want what's happened to Robert to happen to the other young men out here.''
The cookout, held in the courtyard behind Brown's apartment in the Diggs Town neighborhood, celebrated the end of the school year. It drew about 50 children.
Music blared. Blue, pink and yellow streamers curled from a fence. Children, from toddlers to teens, leaped for candy tossed into the air by Angela Willoughby, a neighbor of Brown's.
Willoughby, like Brown, said it's important for communities to create fun activities for children. She supplied much of the food, which included hot dogs, hamburgers, corn on the cob, tuna salad, shrimp, beans, cake and potato chips.
Last spring, she treated children to ice cream if they showed her good report cards, Willoughby said.
``I am proud, very proud, to see what's going on,'' Brown said. ``I've been out here 38 years. I've seen the ups and downs in this community.''
She's also had her ups and downs, and recalls times when the community helped her family.
``When Robert was killed, I did not know I had so many friends out in Diggs Town. They came to me in droves,'' she said.
Brown helped organize Friday's cookout, in part, to repay the community, but also to promote the idea that neighbors reap long-term rewards by working together.
The cookout, neighbors said, was the first of several summer events being planned for children.
On Monday, Gloria Baldwin will launch a summer reading and math program in her apartment.
In the works is a July outing, possibly to the beach in Ocean View or another courtyard cookout. Baldwin would like families from all 27 adjacent apartments to provide food to promote ``mingling'' and a sense of community.
``It's important for everybody to come together,'' she said. She hopes for similar efforts among residents of other courtyards in Diggs Town.
A few years ago, Diggs Town, with more than 400 apartments, underwent massive renovation, funded by a $17 million federal public-housing modernization grant.
One change realigned Diggs Town into ``village'' areas to foster strong bonds among neighbors who shared the same courtyards.
Baldwin was elected captain of ``Village 12,'' as her courtyard is known. Brown is co-captain. Each touts the other's skills.
They're both well known in Diggs Town for their involvement, said Arlene Barber, president of the tenant management corporation.
Baldwin, said Barber, prepares Christmas baskets for the most needy, while Brown is president of the senior-citizens club and is considered one of the most resourceful and dependable residents.
Barber said Brown helped a tenant-led program to console parents who lost children to drugs and violence. That was before Brown's son was killed.
While she acknowledges her activism, Brown said she felt the need to rededicate herself after her son's death in September 1994. Robert L. Brown Jr. was 20 and had been trying to overcome a history of drug dealing and other troubles.
In 1992, Brown's life seemed on the upswing. His grades were improving and he spent much of his spare time at the nearby Campostella Boys & Girls Club. The club honored him as boy of the year.
Dorothy Brown still doesn't know what led to her son's murder, and there's been no arrest. ``I call the Chesapeake Police Department . . . once a month,'' she said. ``They say they don't think it was drug involvement, though.''
Now, Brown said, she tries to steer young men from trouble.
``Nobody needs to take nobody's life,'' she said. ``Then I talk to young men out here and tell them they need to get out of this business, whatever they're in, because you see what happened to Robert.''
But more activities like Friday's cookout, Brown said, are needed. ``It's something good, something positive,'' she said, ``something that shows them that someone cares.'' ILLUSTRATION: L. TODD SPENCER
Rudy Williams touches base with Dorothy Brown at a party behind her
Diggs Town apartment Friday to celebrate the end of the school year.
Brown helped organize the cookout to repay neighbors for their
support when her son was slain in 1994 and to promote community
activism.
KEYWORDS: UNSOLVED MURDER by CNB