Bring Maurquon & Marques Carter Home!
Protest DCFS and reunite the Carter boys with Watts!
Meet the Boys
Maurquon (11) & Marques (7) are brothers from Watts, CA who've been raised by their loving guardian and local community leader, Cynthia 'Sista Soulja' Mendenhall, for the past 2+ years. Maurquon & Marques were introduced to SJL & Terance Mann for mentorship through a community service led by Sista.
MEET SISTA SOULJA
Watts Community Leader | Social Activist
Cynthia Mendenhall, better known as ‘Sista Soulja’ or ‘Big Mama’, has been a known and respected voice throughout Los Angeles for many years. Further, while her work remains local to LA, her impact has earned national attention.
Sista can be seen featured in New York Times articles, heard on social justice panels, and her influence reaches everyone from at-risk youth in the projects to powerful officials like Maxine Waters. Her impressive list of accomplishments reflects a career in impact that deserves to be recognized and awarded as the gold standard for community service.
Born & raised in Watts, Sista intimately understands the needs of her community. Often times her effectiveness in helping others face challenges, comes from her experience living through them herself.
After tragically losing 2 sons to gang violence within a 60 day period, Sista demonstrated her strength and resilience when she responded by successfully calling for a ceasefire. Her actions undoubtedly prevented further loss for families in warring LA neighborhoods. Since then, Sista has committed her life to ending gang violence and elevating her communities.
Watts families, organizations, and volunteers continuously benefit from all of the time, effort, sacrifice and love that Sista puts into her community on a daily basis. Leading by example, Sista emphasizes the importance of expanding beyond the individual, into service for the entire family. “A lot of people come into these communities and get attached to the kids, but what they don’t realize is in order to help the kids you need to connect with the whole family.”
Sista earned the respect of the community, officers, politicians, and many athletes and entertainers; because anyone who meets her knows she will give everything to help improve the circumstances of those around her. The Social Justice League is committed to continuing to find ways of amplifying, supporting, investing, and capturing the incredible work that Sista continues to do.
There is no question that Sista has a gift for uplifting others, but it’s her unconditional love, unrelenting commitment, and unselfish action that make her the amazing woman so many across Los Angeles know and love. On behalf of the entire SJL team, we love you Sista!
Send Love to Sista:
HOW CAN YOU HELP?
Sign Our Petition
Sign our petition to demand justice for Maurquan and Marques and bring them home back to their community!
Donate to the WOC fund
Support Sista along with other women of color who have been impacted by DCFS misconduct.
March With Us
Wednesday, May 26th @ 10 AM || 425 Shatto Place. Los Angeles, CA
March alongside Sista, SJL, and the Watt’s community this Wednesday to demand the return of the Carter brothers.
Email Direct Demands
Email the Carson DCFS office and demand the removal of Lori Speights, the supervisor of Maurquan and Marques’ case.
Contact the SJL
Contact us with any feedback, questions, ideas or concerns that you might have as you navigate our SJL Website.
