A Black family from Georgia is fighting for the return of their five young children from the custody of the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services after a traffic stop in Manchester, Tennessee, last month.
Bianca Clayborne and Deonte Williams were on Interstate 24 heading to a family funeral in Chicago — the children asleep in the back of the car.
A Tennessee Highway Patrol officer pulled them over for “dark tint and traveling in the left lane while not actively passing,” according to Feb. 17 citations issued to the couple.
The trooper searched the family’s Dodge Durango and then arrested Williams for possession of five grams of marijuana, a misdemeanor in Tennessee. Clayborne was cited but not arrested.
Clayborne said she was told she was free to leave with the children and could follow a THP car to find her way to the Coffee County Justice Center in order to bond Williams out.