On a recent weekday at Black Coffee in historic Lakewood, a group of Black women gathered at noon for 45 minutes of coffee and conversation.
The topic? District Attorney Fani Willis and her potential disqualification from the Trump election interference trial.
Willis has been at the center of court proceedings to determine if her hiring of Nathan Wade, special prosecutor on the Trump case, and their consensual romantic relationship violated conflict of interest laws.
Judge Scott McAfee is expected to issue a decision by March 15. In the interim, Willis has been under continued scrutiny. A Georgia Senate committee and the U.S. House Judiciary Committee are investigating her actions and a new prosecutors oversight board could launch an investigation.
But it was the previous hearings that offered the kind of courtroom drama that gets people talking — in chats, in threads and in a cafe on Atlanta’s southeast side while sipping iced coffees named “The Dirty South” and “Light Skin Keisha.”
The conversation wasn’t focused solely on politics, the law, or even the outcome of the Willis proceedings – that will be whatever it will be. This conversation was salve for the myriad of feelings that have felt all too familiar for so many Black women watching the case unfold.
The attendees were an eclectic group: Andra Gillespie, political science professor at Emory University; Najja Parker, video and news correspondent for the AJC’s Black culture team; Nedra Rhone, AJC Lifestyle Columnist; Shanequa Gay, a multi-disciplinary artist and Sybil Vaughn, co-owner of The Circuit Salon.
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