Quanell X facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Quanell X
Quanell X at Joe Horn protest, December 2, 2007
Born	Quanell Ralph Evans (1970-12-07) December 7, 1970 (age 53) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Activist
Organization	Nation of Islam, New Black Panther Nation

Quanell X (born Quanell Ralph Evans; December 7, 1970) is an activist and leader of the New Black Panther Nation in Houston, Texas.

Early life

Quanell Ralph Evans was born in Los Angeles, California. Both his mother and father were members of the Nation of Islam. After his parents divorced, Evans moved to Houston, where he lived with his grandmother, mother and younger brother in the South Acres neighborhood, where he attended Worthing High School.

Entry and ejection from the Nation of Islam

In September 1990, after listening to Louis Farrakhan at the Sam Houston Coliseum, Evans decided to join the Nation of Islam and became a student of Farrakhan. Evans, who would later be more commonly known by his pseudonym, Quanell X, was recognised by his peers for his intellect, and he was later chosen to be a spokesman for the organization.

In July 1992, Quanell X found his brother Quinten Evans dead in his apartment. Quinten and three other people were victims of a homicide in Houston, Texas. In August 2009, three incarcerated men were charged with capital murder in the killings. It was around the same time that Quanell X met State Representative Ron Wilson (D-Houston) and was offered a job working for Representative Wilson as an aide.

On January 28, 2008, Quanell X toured the Holocaust Museum Houston. He gave a statement requesting forgiveness regarding questionable comments he had made about Jews and their plight.

Quanell X stated: “I seek the forgiveness of every survivor who has heard the words I've said. I did not say them in the proper manner to make the point I was trying to get across. I can see and understand how they might be utterly paranoid (of) a person such as myself."

Before becoming the National Chairman of the New Black Panther Nation, X gave time to M.F.O.I. (Mental Freedom Obtains Independence) and The New Black Panther Party under the leadership of Khalid Abdul Muhammad and was appointed as the leader of the organization.

The People's New Black Panther Party in Houston has since split from Quanell X amid ongoing allegations that he has not delivered services to families he was paid to represent.

Community activist

In 1999 Quanell X attended the trial of John William King for the 1998 dragging murder of James Byrd, Jr. He challenged Judge Joe Bob Golden's order barring demonstrations.

Jeffrey Battle is noted as one of the Portland Seven and served as a bodyguard for Quanell X in Houston during the late 1990s. In October 2002 Quanell X traveled to Portland, Oregon, to attend a court hearing for October Lewis, Battle's ex-wife. Lewis was released at the hearing but Battle was convicted of sedition, and is currently serving an 18-year prison sentence

On March 30, 2004, Quanell X took the podium at a Houston City Council meeting and demanded that reparations for slavery be added to the council agenda, which had previously been denied by mayor Bill White. The exchange escalated enough that the Houston Police department was called and Quanell X was escorted from the chamber.

In June 2004 Quanell X was charged with evading arrest, which was later dismissed on appeal and the record was expunged with a letter of apology from the Houston Police Department. He was on the phone with a Houston Police Department assistant police chief (Charles R. McClelland – HPD chief 2010–2016) when arranging the surrender of cop shooter Derrick Forney.

Quanell X is credited with bringing closure to the March 2007 investigation murder of Texas A&M University student Tynesha Stewart He was the only person who was able to get a confession from Timothy Wayne Shepherd, the suspect in the murder. He also criticized the Harris County sheriff's decision not to search for Stewart's body in a Humble, Texas, area landfill. Shepherd made a full confession to Quanell X and Stewart's body was later discovered to be unrecoverable due to the suspect's burning of her remains in two barbecue pits.

Joe Horn protest

Quanell X led a rally in front of the Pasadena, Texas, home of Joe Horn on December 2, 2007. Horn had shot and killed two men, Hernando Riascos Torres (AKA Miguel Antonio DeJesus) and Diego Ortiz, illegal immigrants and members of a burglary and fake ID ring from Colombia. The pair had broken into a neighbor's house. Horn, against repeated requests of the 911 operator not to confront the burglars, exited his home to confront them. On the 911 tapes Horn exclaims, "Move, and you're dead", followed by three shotgun blasts.

Quanell X, who thought the shootings may have been racially motivated, approached Horn's house to speak to the media. There were several hundred counter-protesters present as well. The crowd of counter-protesters included bikers revving their motorcycles, many of them chanting, "USA", "Go home", and "We love our country; what do you love?" while waving placards, Texas flags, and US flags. Quanell X, while using a bullhorn, could not be heard over the noise.  After more supporters arrived, the counter-protests continued and riot police were readied in case of violence between the two groups. Quanell X believed that due to the systemic oppression of black and brown people coupled with white privilege, Horn was not prosecuted. On June 25, 2008, the case was sent to a grand jury to decide whether or not Horn should go to trial. On June 30, 2008, Horn was cleared by a Harris County grand jury in the deaths of Ortiz and Diego after two weeks of testimony. Quanell X eventually made a speech on another street away from Horn's house. The speech included chants of "black power" and the exhortation for blacks to realize that "white laws" were written to protect white people especially when committing crimes against black and brown people.

2008 to 2010

On January 24, 2008, Quanell X called for Chuck Rosenthal's resignation following the email scandal that showed that he had sent and received racist messages while working in his official capacity. Quanell X organized a rally to take place outside the county courthouse. In October 2008, KTRK-TV reported that Quanell X received $20,000 for “consultation fees” to facilitate protests on their behalf to bring awareness to the public and to generate publicity during the related Iberra trial.

After being in police custody for several days, Murder suspect, Randy Sylvester Sr., would only confess to Quanell X and revealed the location of his missing children. Initially, Quanell X gave Sylvester the benefit of the doubt, but he was convinced otherwise when he went with Pasadena police to Sylvester’s  "dog house" (an apartment he maintained separately from his family's.) Quanell X would not go into detail, but other things he learned in that apartment changed his mind about Sylvester. Quanell X convinced the suspect to "Do the right thing". With the Pasadena Police on site Sylvester led Quanell X  to a location just outside of Pasadena, Texas in Houston, where the charred remains of the children were located.

After 2010

In March 2011 Quanell X traveled to Cleveland, Texas to sound the alarm in the community citing the men and women of the community need to reengage with their own community, raising awareness of how this type of crime could have been committed against a child at 3am and no one reported it, not even the child’s parents. Quanell X was empathetic as he questioned how a child could be out at 3am and not in the safety of her own home under the guidance and protection of her parents citing “Where was the mother? Where was the father?" The Parents should be accountable for the safety and well-being of the child.

On August 1, 2011, Quanell X pleaded with the residents of inner city neighborhoods to stop the "No Snitching" policy that institutes a bias of those who provide information to police after a series of crimes and murders have plagued the Third Ward area in recent weeks. He said, "The no-snitch policy does not work when you are forcing [sic] our elders and our women and our children live like hostages."

In July 2013, Quanell and others protested and effectively blocked Texas State Highway 288 over the acquittal in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. Not only did protesters successfully shut down Highway 288 but a large protest was also held in the affluent River Oaks neighborhood. Reports varied as to whether there were just under 1,000, or more than 1,000 or more than 1,000 people attended the River Oaks demonstration and a counter-demonstration drew an estimated crowd of 80 people. Despite potential threats of violence, both sides kept their peace.

Over the past three decades, Quanell X has been influential in turning in several suspects to the police without incident. He alone has gotten confessions from suspects in high profile cases where the police department could not. On many occasions, while in custody, the suspects directly asked for Quanell X and refused to speak to anyone other than him [Quanell X] therefore the police departments were forced to call him in, in order to resolve the cases.

2023

..... Quanell X also held press conferences, criticizing what he saw as a lack of immediate response by the Houston Police Department to the case. He further alleged incompetence and accused them of attempting to hide the facts after they contradicted his statements.

See also

• History of African-Americans in Houston