This story was originally published by MLK50: Justice Through Journalism. Subscribe to their newsletter at bit.ly/mlk50subscribe.
Dre Jones remembers watching his wife cry in the passenger seat of his GMC Envoy as they drove their 4-year-old son the 70 miles from their Dyersburg, Tennessee, home to Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis.
He can still see the inside of the emergency department and smell the alcohol swab the nurse used to prepare his son’s hand for an IV.
“I had to hold him to keep him still while they were doing it because he was fighting and crying,” Jones said.