LaWanda Russell, a 17-year-old Black student from Birmingham, was killed on August 11, 2008, when gunfire tore through the West End neighborhood. She had just registered to be an 11th-grader at Wenonah High School and was active in Rising Star AME Zion Church’s youth choir and praise dance team. Family and friends remembered her as happy and down-to-earth.

Accounts of the shooting differ on details but agree she was not the intended target. Her death quickly became a focal point for community grief and renewed calls for tougher youth curfew enforcement in Birmingham.