William Hershell Moon
Photograph of William Hershell Moon, obtained from Community Funeral Home.
On June 2, 2020, William Hershell Moon bookended his 74 years lived vibrantly in Alabama. Born on January 17, 1946 in Sylacauga, Alabama, William was part of a large and loving family. He leaves behind a daughter, four sons, two step-sons, six sisters, three brothers, and countless other relatives and friends.
William graduated from R.R. Moton High School in Leeds, Alabama in 1964. A post on the school’s alumni Facebook page after his death yielded a vast show of support from his former classmates. One wrote, “My sincere condolences to the Moon family, Hershell and I were classmates, C/O 64.” Another commented, “Praying for the Family may god strengthen you all, he was my Classmate 🙏🏾💯.” Religion was also an important part of William’s identity; he belonged to Harper Springs Missionary Baptist Church in Sylacauga, Alabama.
After high school, Willam enlisted in the U.S. army and served in the Vietnam War. Following his discharge, he married Janet Moon, with whom he had two children. “He was a good person, a real good person,” Janet told WBHM.
William was incarcerated at St. Clair County Correctional Facility from 2000 until his untimely death during the pandemic. He and his family grew increasingly frustrated when the Alabama criminal justice system refused to give William proper medical treatment. In 2013 and 2014, William submitted a series of letters to the court about his declining digestive and heart health. He wrote, “I hope that someone that read[s] this will understand what [is] going on with me and would get me release[d] so that I can save myself. I am at you all [sic] mercy.” His parole request, however, was denied in December 2013 after he submitted this letter. In a subsequent letter, he declared, “I am just here doing nothing but suffering.”
Photograph of William in high school, obtained from Community Funeral Home.
Some time after 2014, William suffered a stroke and struggled thereafter to walk and write without assistance. He was denied parole again in June 2019. William’s older sister, Magdalene Brazier — who had become Williiam’s anchor to the outside world during his incarceration — had to bear witness to her brother’s situation. She said after his 2019 hearing, “I think if a person is in there, whether they’re in there for two days or life, if he’s sick or something’s wrong with him, and he can come home where his family can take care of him, let him out of there.”
Magdalene’s statement remained unfortunately relevant in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the beginning of April 2020, Alabama prisons housed more than 1,100 people over the age of 65, 133 of whom lived with William at St. Clair. In a process criticized for its lack of transparency, the parole board released only 15 people out of 160 hearings in May. The majority of those released were white, although the majority of those who applied for parole were Black.
By any measure, William certainly should have been among those released. Having been exhibiting symptoms for COVID-19 and housed in the prison’s infirmary since May 14, William was hospitalized at Brookwood Medical Center in Montgomery, AL on May 27, and he subsequently tested positive for the virus. On June 2, he became the second person incarcerated in Alabama to die from COVID-19. Magdalene spoke to him over Facetime on the day of his death, having been kept largely in the dark up until that point about her brother’s condition. He was experiencing tremendous difficulty breathing, she recalled, and hospital workers had to remove his breathing apparatus just so that he could see her properly. “He just couldn’t make it,” Magdalene told the Southern Poverty Law Center, referring to her brother being medically compromised in St. Clair during the pandemic. In an interview with WBHM, she added,“That’s my brother. Regardless of what he done, I love him.”
Photograph of Magdalene Brazier holding a photograph of William, courtesy of Mary Scott Hodgin, by way of WBHM.
William’s large family will continue to grieve his loss for a long time. They wish he had had the chance to be released from prison and to come under their loving care. That, Magdalene promises, would have saved his precious life.
This memorial was written by MOL team member Eliza Kravitz with information from an obituary published by Community Funeral Home, R.R. Moton High School Alumni Association on Facebook, and reporting by Kathryn Casteel and Will Tucker of Southern Poverty Law Center, Stephen Gallien of ABC, Carol Robinson of AL.com, and Mary Scott Hodgin of WBHM.