Finding Kendrick Johnson
Kendrick Johnson’s mother visits her son’s grave in Valdosta, GA.
Directed by Jason Pollock
Rating: 🏆 most excellent
Kendrick Johnson was only 17 years old when his dead body was found at his high school, rolled up in a wrestling mat in the gymnasium. Everything about this case, including the police almost instantly declaring his death accidental, doesn’t add up. But when you zoom out and look at the hundreds of years of deeply rooted racism in the Georgia town, and the only persons of interests’ connections to the FBI, this convoluted case starts to make more sense.
If you’re obsessed with true crime like I am, you will recognize this case instantly. I’ve listened to hundreds of hours of true crime podcasts, but the tragic death of Kendrick Johnson is one of those cases that I’ve never been able to stop thinking about. The official story just doesn’t make sense! But after watching this documentary I was able to gain perspective on the bigger picture and get a clearer idea of what’s really going on in the historically segregated Deep South.
You might think that all true crime documentaries are the same, which I would argue isn’t true at all, but it’s especially untrue of this one. Finding Kendrick Johnson is equal parts criminal investigation and historical, woven in with the vulnerably personal story of what happens when you lose a loved one. Kendrick’s life puts into perspective what it means to be young and black in America. This is the documentary that you never saw in history class, and it’s a must-watch for every American. This isn’t just the Johnson family’s fight for justice, this is on all of us to unstitch the complicated threads of colonial racism that were sewn into America before we were even a country. Finding Kendrick Johnson is available to rent now on Amazon Prime Video, and it will be coming to theaters this fall. In the meantime if you’d like to familiarize yourself with Kendrick’s story, both @crimejunkiepodcast and @generationwhypodcast did excellent episodes on this case. And get excited for Finding Kendrick Johnson, because they uncovered new evidence that even the detectives on this case never saw.
Written by Zianna Weston
Portrait of Kendrick Johnson, by Nikkolas Smith.
