Huckleberries in the Hood |
Culture > Black-on-Black Crime
Huckleberries in the Hood
Why are so many young black men so quick to anger, to lash out and kill?
Sloan Oliver | March 6, 2026
In the movie Tombstone, after the famous shootout at the OK Corral, bad-guy Johnny Ringo went looking for Wyatt Earp. Ringo was going to kill him. Instead, Val Kilmer, playing the part of Doc Holliday and friend of Wyatt, met Ringo and delivered the movie’s most famous line: “I’m your huckleberry.” The phrase “I’m you huckleberry” was 19th-century slang for “I’m the guy you’re looking for,” “I’m your man,” or “Bring it on.” It was a macho, braggadocious expression used when confronting an adversary.
Macon, Georgia has lots of huckleberries. That’s unfortunate, because when two huckleberries meet, bad things usually happen. That’s exactly what occurred last week in the hoods of Macon. Over several days’ time, there were eight, maybe nine, shootings that left five dead and another nine injured.
The shootouts in and around Macon’s OK Corral (the Unionville neighborhood) began Saturday, Feb 21, at 12:30 A.M. (one man shot). Then Shaviz Adams was shot and killed at 6:58 P.M., and at 7:24 P.M., another man was shot. The day ended with three people shot at 11:59 P.M.; one victim was only seven years old.
Sunday picked up where Saturday left off. At 1:29 A.M., a seventeen-year-old male was shot and injured. Then the serious huckleberries came out at 3:35 A.M., on Moseley Ave, and three men were blasted into eternity. That was followed by a 6:30 A.M. shooting that left two more wounded. The weekend’s final shooting victim was a 55-year-old woman, shot at 2:37 P.M.
However, the huckleberries weren’t finished. On Wednesday, in south Macon, a 45-year-old man was shot and killed. If you’re counting, that’s five dead and nine........