Allen Iverson

Last Saturday 150 protesters marched through Hampton, chanting, "Free the Hampton Four" and "No justice, no peace," and singing, "Which Side Are You On?"… The moving force behind the demonstrations is a group called SWIS, an acronym for Simmons, Wynn, Iverson, and Stephens. To a large degree, the group is responsible for turning the case into a national cause celebre. Tom Brokaw, USA Today, The Washington Post—they've all gone down, as have the SCLC and the NAACP, which set up a local office to monitor the case…. Some SWIS supporters—and there are more than 3,000 throughout the country—describe the case as a "judicial lynching" of "uppity" blacks by the white establishment. "Let's be honest," says Joyce Hopson, the Hampton teacher who heads the SWIS, "if this weren't Allen Iverson, these kids don't go to jail. That's it."

Source: Sports Illustrated 79 (October 25, 1993): 46.