ATLANTA — The chairman of the Morehouse College History Department is spearheading an effort to disentangle a former honor student of his from legal problems that have kept him behind bars since his arrest last December.
Atlanta prosecutors contend Hajj Womack was not just a brilliant student, but a willing participant in a series of crimes intended, ultimately, to overthrow the government.
Dr. Alton Hornsby Jr., chairman of the Morehouse History Department and editor of the Journal of Negro History, leads a group — comprised of college faculty, students and alumni; as well as community residents — that contends what is happening to Womack is nothing more than a political persecution.
Hornsby, who taught and mentored Womack at Morehouse College, called the case, which has attracted national attention, “one of the most disgusting travesties of justice I have ever seen…. I believe in Hajj. I have no doubt he did not commit these crimes. This is incongruous with what a scholar would do.”
