Singer Bobby Brown is turning his tradgedy into something positive in hopes to save lives. The father and husband received a proclamation to build a domestic violence shelter in Atlanta in honor of his late daughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown.
City of South Fulton Mayor Bill Edwards and other officials presented Brown and his wife a proclamation on Monday in acknowledgment to build the Bobbi Kristina Brown Serenity House. The shelter will also offer a 24-hour crisis intervention line and emergency transitional shelter.
It’s been three years since Bobbi Kristina, 22, was found unresponsive in a bathtub in 2015 and died six months later in a coma.
The Brown estate sued her boyfriend, Nick Gordon, for wrongful death, accusing him of assault and other offenses. An attorney for Gordon called the charges baseless, but after Gordon failed to defend himself in the civil case, a judge ruled against him in 2016 and ordered him to pay $36 million.
Bobbi Kristina Brown’s mother, Houston, died in 2012 after she drowned in a bathtub. Coroner’s officials ruled Houston’s death accidental and said heart disease and cocaine were contributing factors.
This new shelter is not just for his daughter. Brown says that he knows the effects of domestic violence first hand.
“I grew up in a domestic violence home,” he told reporters. “I’ve seen it firsthand. It stopped after my mom was not going to have it anymore. They both would do it to each other. I’m happy that part of my life is over. I’m ready to move on. I’m becoming a better man, father and brother. This is all about being there for someone else, so they won’t have to go through it by themselves.”
This shelter couldn’t come at a better time. According to the Status of Black Women in the United States:
– More than four in ten Black women experience physical violence from an intimate partner during their lifetimes. White women, Latinas, and Asian/Pacific Islander women report lower rates.
– Black women also experience significantly higher rates of psychological abuse—including humiliation, insults, name-calling, and coercive control—than do women overall.
– Sexual violence affects Black women at high rates. More than 20 percent of Black women are raped during their lifetimes—a higher share than among women overall.
– Black women face a particularly high risk of being killed at the hands of a man. A 2015 Violence Policy Center study finds that Black women were two and a half times more likely to be…
… murdered by men than their White counterparts. More than nine in ten Black female victims knew their killers.
Brown said he felt overwhelmed by all of the support to bring this shelter a reality.
“I’m one of the happiest men on the planet earth right now,” Brown said. “It’s just beautiful that the mayor and city council have stepped up in support of my daughter’s passing.”
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