On February 28, Khaila Wilks (Czereda), a young African mother fighting to find her daughter, Iris Crum, was arrested after a disappointing family court proceeding in a San Diego courthouse. Over the last four years, Khaila has been victimized by a legal system that claims that it is fair and just. While that may seem true for the white North American family that has weaponized it against Khaila, it isn’t true for African mothers. Khaila is in custody awaiting extradition to Tennessee in one of the most outrageous attacks against black motherhood that we have ever seen. This case exemplifies how the colonial legal system protects white power and its interests while punishing African women who dare to fight for their children’s safety.
A mother’s fight for her child
In 2020, Khaila was awarded sole permanent custody of her daughter, Iris. However, during a visit with her father, Anthony Crum—a white man with ties to the KKK—he abducted Iris and never returned her. Over the next three years, Anthony moved Iris between multiple states, evading Khaila’s efforts and exposing Iris to a dangerous and unstable environment. Despite Khaila’s persistent efforts to get help, law enforcement and the colonial courts ignored her pleas.
In May 2023, after years of silence, Iris was abandoned at school by Anthony, who later resurfaced to give custody to her maternal grandmother, Christina Laster.
Ignored evidence of abuse
Upon receiving Iris into her home, Christina observed cigarette burns on Iris’s body, missing patches of hair, and she was visibly malnourished. In a recorded conversation, Iris confirmed that Anthony was responsible for her injuries. Khaila immediately reported the abuse to California Child Protective Services (CPS) and Tennessee’s Department of Children’s Services (DCS), but both agencies failed to take action. Instead of holding Anthony accountable, authorities hid the evidence and refused to intervene.
Retaliation against a black mother
Rather than ensuring Iris’s safety, the colonial State followed the lead of Anthony Crum. He used a 2018 custody order—which had long been overturned by a 2020 ruling granting Khaila sole permanent custody—to falsely claim that Khaila had kidnapped her own child.
California’s Child Abduction Unit (CAU) and Tennessee law enforcement worked together to hunt Khaila down. The child endangerment alert was picked up by local news and some people on social media, which further amplified the case. Anthony Crum appeared on the news appealing to the public to help find his kidnapped daughter.
This resulted in Khaila’s arrest and extradition from Tennessee to California, where she was held for months on a staggering $1.1 million bail. She was five months pregnant at the time. While the media painted her as a criminal, the same system allowed the KKK-connected Crum family to retain control over Iris.
The slave master narrative
When tensions were not yet high between Khaila and Anthony, Khaila’s mother, Christina, recalls several conversations in which Anthony openly admitted that his family was affiliated with the KKK and deeply rooted in white nationalist ideology.
Although Anthony claimed that he didn’t subscribe to these beliefs using his relationship with Khaila as proof, he simultaneously made it clear that Khaila would never be welcomed into his family and that his relatives would never accept Iris completely.
This was an open admission that Iris, as a black child, would be hated by her own father’s family.
This is the same environment Anthony took little Iris into when he kidnapped her in 2020, refusing to return her to her mother. This is where she has been raised, where she was abandoned and where she suffered horrific abuse.
Colonial violence and control of black bodies
Khaila was only 19 years old when she met 30-year-old Anthony Crum online in 2015. Anthony openly sought younger women and quickly established control over Khaila’s movements and friendships, isolating her from support. Within weeks, his temper turned violent and verbally abusive, but Khaila blamed herself, hoping he would change.
In early 2016, when Khaila discovered she was pregnant, she believed it might soften Anthony’s cruelty. Instead, the abuse escalated.
At just three months pregnant, Anthony choked her into unconsciousness during one of his rages. From then on, he regularly punched, slapped and shoved her, forcing her to endure months of brutal violence while carrying their unborn child.
His cruelty had no limits. Once, he forced Khaila outside in freezing temperatures wearing only underwear for over an hour, refusing to let her back in. She developed hypothermia and was hospitalized, but still, she blamed herself.
By the time Khaila was eight months pregnant, she feared Anthony would kill her and their baby. With her mother Christina’s help, she finally escaped. When he found out, he stalked and terrorized her, pounding on doors and circling the house in his car for weeks.
Christina stood guard with a baseball bat, ensuring his threats didn’t escalate further. His arrest for drunken disorderly conduct gave them temporary relief, but Anthony never stopped his campaign of control.
The colonizer dies
On January 12, 2025, Anthony Crum was killed in a car accident after the motorcycle he was riding with Iris on the back, was hit by an SUV. Iris survived and was taken to a local hospital and placed with Anthony Crum’s father, Dale Crum, temporarily. Her medical status is unknown to Khaila or the courts.
When Khaila was notified, a few days after the accident, she went to the court to get paperwork confirming her custody. According to California Family Code 3010 (b): “If one parent is dead, is unable or refuses to take custody, or has abandoned the child, the other parent is entitled to custody of the child.”
Immediately following the court visit, she set about going to the Crum compound located in an area of El Cajon known to be where many white nationalists live.
Undisturbed about going into redneck territory, Khaila and African National Women’s Organization (ANWO) members Nicole and Zayi went to rescue Iris. However, they were stonewalled by Dale’s brother. Even when Khaila called law enforcement for help, as the court suggested, the deputy wouldn’t render any aid and didn’t even implement a welfare check on Iris at Khaila’s behest.
California drops criminal charges, but Tennessee reopens case
Things began to look up for Khaila who impatiently waited for her day in court. On February 24, California dropped its criminal case against her, something Tennessee had already done months before. There were now no barriers, and Khaila looked forward to picking Iris up on February 26.
However, after a disappointing hearing in which Anthony’s father and uncle told the black judge Charles E. Bell Jr. that they could not return Iris to her mother because she was in and out of surgery, the judge allowed this to delay reunification without any documentation or proof of care. Khaila left the courtroom deflated.
She was met by deputies executing a warrant from Tennessee who had reopened the criminal case by convening a grand jury the night before she was scheduled to appear in court to get Iris. The Crums who have ties to law enforcement, no doubt contacted the prosecutor who initiated this backhanded ploy to keep Iris in hiding.
Khaila is now awaiting extradition to Tennessee. Iris’ whereabouts and condition are still unknown.
ANWO stands with Khaila and Iris
ANWO has been on the front lines of this struggle, fighting for Khaila’s and Iris’s safety as part of its mission to defend African women and children against the violence of colonial terror. ANWO members stood with Khaila in the courtroom, demanding justice when her fraudulent criminal charges were finally dropped.
We were with her when she was arrested, again, but were able to intervene to ensure Khaila’s two other children would not be taken to DCFS as they were at the court when their mother was arrested.
ANWO understands that Khaila’s case is not an anomaly. It is a direct result of domestic colonialism, where African women are denied the right to self-determination and the ability to protect their families. Under parasitic capitalism, black mothers like Khaila are treated as criminals for simply exercising their right to raise and protect their children, while the State shields white men with a history of abuse.
We are working with family members and other organizations and legal experts to bring Khaila and Iris home.
A parasitic system protects the colonizer
This case exemplifies a long history of black mothers being criminalized while the system protects the colonizers. The courts have chosen to believe the Crum family’s lies over documented evidence of abuse. They have failed to hold them accountable while actively punishing Khaila for trying to protect her child.
The fact that Iris remains in the custody of her abusers, even after suffering horrific abuse, is a testament to how deeply anti-black colonial attitudes and bias shape the legal system’s treatment of black families.
Khaila should be free. Iris should be safe. The people responsible for this injustice must be held accountable. Follow the campaign on our social media. Sign up to our newsletter and stay tuned for updates and ways for you to get involved.
Contact ANWO at info@anwouhuru.org or (240) 303-2862 to offer assistance and/or join the fightback!
