Kriti Mehrotra
It was December 6, 1984, when the whole world turned upside down for the Pointer family of Cleveland, Ohio, as 14-year-old Gloria Pointer was horrifically assaulted and murdered. As carefully chronicled in NBC’s ‘Dateline: A Promise to Gloria,’ it sadly took nearly three decades for her killer to even be identified, but once he was, she was swiftly given the justice she deserved. However, her loss is something that still hangs over and affects her loved ones, especially her mother, Yvonne Pointer, but she has since done hard work to turn her pain and loss into something positive.
Yvonne Pointer Had a Premonition on the Fateful Day
As a native of Cleveland, Ohio, and the fourth of ten children, Yvonne Pointer knows the significance of hard work and determination, along with how important it is to always have a little precaution. Therefore, when she woke up on the morning of December 6, 1984, after a terrible nightmare that had blood everywhere, she was a little out of sorts and cautious. However, she didn’t let it take control over her because her eldest, 14-year-old Gloria, was to get an award in school that day for perfect attendance. So, she was supportive and went about her day as usual.
It was around 7 am when Yvonne left home alongside her son and her husband, Gloria’s stepdad, to do some chores, only to find her daughter taking a shortcut towards school. She rolled the car’s windows down to tell her to take the long way around, as she didn’t like the alleyway route, which her daughter knew, but she still continued down the path. Little did either of them know that the teenager would never reach school; instead, she would be found dead in the basement of a nearby apartment complex mere hours later. By this point, Yvonne had been contacted by school officials to find out why her daughter hadn’t shown up, so she was already in a panic, but she never expected her to have been killed.
Yvonne Pointer Took Her Pain and Turned It Into Activism
Although Yvonne had promised her daughter to find her killer and bring him to justice, the lack of evidence and DNA advancements at the time had left her hands tied. She did contact some suspects herself in the hopes of finding answers, but even they led nowhere, so she turned her focus to maybe changing the system. She knew her daughter was taken away from her in an act of violence, so she evolved into an anti-violence activist as well as a philanthropist, focusing on projects that help troubled youth. She knew sports were a good outlet, so in 1991, she worked alongside the mayor to bring the Midnight Basketball Program to her city. This program engages troubled youth in basketball from 10 pm to 2 am, and all of her efforts did work out since crime rates involving youths did indeed drop in Cleveland.
The impact of Yvonne’s work was such that she was not only asked to appear on the Oprah Winfrey Show but also inducted into the Ohio Women’s Hall of Fame. Later on, she was also honored with the Point of Light tribute by then-President George Bush, the FBI Director’s Community Leadership Award, and the National Council of Negro Women’s Tribute to Black Women Community Leaders Award. As if that’s not enough, with her gradually taking on the role of a public speaker, author, and philanthropic entrepreneur, she kept on gaining further traction, which in turn, helped her daughter’s case get attention too.
Yvonne is actually a co-founder of Parents Against Child Killing (PACK), the founder of Positive Plus Women’s Support Group, and an active member of Parents of Murdered Children (POMC). She even has a prayer room by the name of Hope Heaven because she credits her faith for helping her through dark times. Therefore, the majority of her work revolves around anti-violence and helping others who have been through what she has to ensure they themselves don’t go down the dark path. Honestly, though, it was during the sentencing of her daughter’s killer, Hernandez Warren, in 2014, that really brought her integrity to light as she made it clear that despite all the hurt he caused, she has forgiven him. So, today, Yvonne is simply keeping the memories and legacy of her daughter alive by being an activist, public speaker, philanthropist, and mentor in schools.
Read More: Gloria Pointer Murder Details and Investigation Timeline
