‘Lady in the Lake’: A look at the exclusive coverage in the AFRO Archives

The archives of the AFRO-American Newspapers are a trove of information related to the death of Shirley Parker. The paper was the only publication that extensively covered the disappearance of the Baltimore woman week after week, leading to the exclusive coverage used to create the Apple TV+ series, “Lady in the Lake.” Credit: AFRO Archives by D. Kevin McNeir Special to the& AFRO While the disappearance of a beautiful, popular Black woman in Baltimore may not have made front page news in the city’s White-owned publications, the& AFRO-American Newspapers–following the mission of the Black Press– deployed its reporters week after week asking the question: Where is Shirley Parker? Eventually the body of Shirley Lee Wigeon Parker, 35, a divorcee and mother of two sons, would be found months after her April 1969 disappearance. On June 2, 1969 an electrical company crew was dispatched to repair two lights in the fountain at the center of Druid Hill Park Lake.& There, they found an answer to the question being asked throughout the Baltimore’s Black community: The body of a woman floating face down, subsequently identified as Parker.& & Despite their best efforts, neither reporters nor the police were able to determine whether...