Yvonne Nelson, a community advocate and former journalist, was shot and killed Saturday night in Raleigh. 

Memphis Police Department reported the slaying and shared photos of a person of interest. Community members believe that it was a carjacking, though MPD has not officially named it one. According to MPD, a suspect fled the scene in a black Infiniti sedan. Nelson had recently purchased a black Infiniti. 

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Nelson was best known for her work around social and environmental justice in Whitehaven, where she’d been active since purchasing her first home there in 1993. She also worked as editor of the Whitehaven Appeal and was president of the Whitehaven Community Development Corporation, formerly known as the McCorkle Road Neighborhood Development Association for the area south of Brooks where she lived.

Nelson was a graduate of LeMoyne-Owen College, American InterContinental University and Capella University. She earned a Ph.D. in organization and management with an emphasis in leadership and was the mother of two adult children.

Recently, Nelson took up two major fights. In 2019, she fought against Waste Connections, which attempted to expand its facility on Brooks Road. In 2020, she also fought against a proposed two-story manufacturing facility on the property of the former Graves Elementary School in her Whitehaven neighborhood. 

“I never did what I was doing for self-gratification. It’s been all about my community and people coming in my community trying to destroy it,” Nelson said at a ceremony in her honor earlier this year.

In that ceremony, the state of Tennessee recognized her for her advocacy with a proclamation, naming her “a philanthropist who fights tirelessly for improving conditions for all,” and “a humanitarian and community advocate committed to challenging racial, economic and environmental injustice and protecting the basic human rights of the most vulnerable people in our American society.”

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At the time of the ceremony, Nelson was making her return to the public eye after battling illness.

Jason Sharif, founder of Respect the Haven CDC, officially met Nelson at that ceremony, he said, but he had long been aware of her and the work she did in their community. 

Sharif said Nelson considered him a mentee.

“She had a tremendous impact, just for her years of environmental and community work in Whitehaven,” Sharif said. 

He said she should be remembered in death as she was in life: as a fighter. 

“She was very vibrant. She was very feisty. She was going through a lot of health issues in the last months of her life but she was like ‘I’m still here. I’m still fighting. I’m still kicking.’ She was looking forward to her 61st birthday,” Sharif said. 

Pearl Walker, founder and president of the I Love Whitehaven Neighborhood and Business Association, worked closely with Nelson over the years. 

Walker admired Nelson for her multifaceted approaches to galvanizing communities and her ability to use technology as a tool in making a compelling argument. 

“She was an advocate. She was a community stakeholder. She was a leader, a writer, a journalist, a researcher,” Walker said. “She was a beacon in our community. She was my shero.”

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Her killing draws some similarities to last month’s shooting death of Rev. Autura Eason-Williams, who was carjacked and killed outside her home in Whitehaven. Eason-Williams also drove an Infiniti and was a leader in the United Methodist Church. Two teenagers and a 20-year-old man have been charged with first-degree murder in her killing. 

“It hurts,” Sharif said. “We already had one Whitehaven community leader to be killed and then we have another one, and for both of them to be women. I’m speechless. It’s just a tremendous loss.”