Rufus Shaw and Lynn Flint Shaw found dead Monday evening

What can you say but…..man. As I went through my morning routine checking news sites I saw a disturbing headline at DallasNews.com: Two found fatally shot at former DART chairwoman’s home.

The News reports that Rufus Shaw died of a self inflicted gun shot wound. The story by Dave Levinthal and Scott Goldstein says that “the body of a woman was also found.” Everyone that I’ve spoken with has confirmed that the woman is Mrs. Shaw.

I first met Mrs. Shaw during the 2006 Dallas Bond Campaign. She was one of those in charge of educating the citizens of Southern Dallas about the merits of the proposal. The measure very well received among black voters due in large part to the efforts of Mrs. Shaw.

She was later appointed chairwoman of the DART Board of Directors. She eventually resigned that post after she was accused of forging a letter on Dallas DA Craig Watkins’ letter head.

I never met Rufus Shaw, but in many ways he was my first blogging mentor. When I started Dallas South, I had no idea who else was out there in the black blog world. I found two people, Mike Davis at Dallas Progress and Rufus Shaw who was part of DallasBlog.com .

Rufus wrote many thoughtful columns/posts regarding the Dallas political landscape. He was as passionate about the pervasiveness of racism in Dallas politics as he was about the infighting among the African-American “leadership” in the city. I often left comments on Rufus’ posts and was impressed by how he was about to express his opinions at a mainstream forum like Dallas Blog.

Scott and Dave’s article pulls an excerpt of a January 13 post written by Rufus that lays it all out Rufus’ thoughts pretty clearly.

“I have often said in this column that being married to me is Lynn Flint-Shaw’s biggest political liability,” Mr. Shaw wrote. “As a writer, I have made a career out of exposing the corrupt, the inept, and the purveyors of hate and personal destruction in the black community. For my efforts, I have earned the hatred of a great many dysfunctional black political players as well as the scorn of a number of big business types who I have exposed for their broken promises to southern Dallas.

“The end result,” Mr. Shaw continued, “is that African-Americans who seek to work with the white community without race being a factor or those African-Americans who seek to do the job that is best for the whole city are demonized, set up, and destroyed.”

I am overcome with sadness for the way this has all unfolded. Our community needs more leaders like the Shaw’s and what they have stood for over the years. Regardless of the outcome of police investigations, we see the results of more black on black violence and two more deaths by gunfire. My prayers are with the family that has been impacted by this tragic loss.

Photo from ClassicalTexas.com