A service of remembrance will be held 12:00 p.m. Wednesday, May 29, 2024, at Temple of Truth, Light and Life, 2166 Kent Street.  Visitation will be 5:30 pm Tuesday, May 28, 2024, at the funeral home.

Willie Earl Vereen, son of the late William R. and Carolyn E. Vereen was born December 5, 1953.  He departed this earthly life on May 25, 2024.  Willie Earl was educated in the New Hanover County School System.  He was a drummer as a member of the New Hanover High School Band. He loved to play the drums.  Not only was he a drum major for justice; he was one of the best musical drummers the world has ever known. "Give the drummer some".  He was also trained as a chef and worked in numerous restaurants in the Wilmington area. Fifty-three years ago, The Wilmington Ten were wrongfully convicted of arson and conspiracy. By 1978, the Wilmington Ten were released from prison, but it wouldn't be until December of 2012 that the Wilmington Ten would receive a full pardon from Governor Beverly Perdue.  Willie Earl was the youngest member of the Wilmington TEN.  The Wilmington TEN were nine young men and a woman who were wrongfully convicted in 1971 in Wilmington, North Carolina.  The Wilmington TEN became the International Face of Racial Tensions in the United States during the fraught decade of their incarceration.  The case was taken up by Amnesty International who recognized them as the first group of political prisoners in the U.S. and their conviction was overturned in 1980.  His uplifting autobiography, "Wilmington Ten Willie", is one of a survivor who endured false imprisonment, joblessness, homelessness, alcohol and drug abuse, recovery, redemption, and finally pardon of innocence and compensation. It took 40 years, but the stain of a false conviction has finally been lifted. Willie Earl and the Wilmington Ten, justice activists who became political prisoners in North Carolina in 1972 for a crime they didn't commit, got their pardon from the state's governor.

Long Live the Life and Legacy of Willie Earl Vereen

Willie Earl leaves to cherish his memories: his daughter, Atiya Z. Nixon; grandchildren, Torie,

Trinity and David; great-grandchildren, Brielle and Zalaya; two sisters, Wanda V. Lundy

and Carol D. Lawrence; two brothers, Donald (Janice) Vereen and Frank Vereen, and a

host of nieces, nephews, other relatives and friends.