City honors hero mom for fiery freeway rescue

Keenia Williams was driving her daughter to school at 5 in the morning. She’s already a hero.

So the 22-year-old San Franciscan didn’t have to drag an unconscious truck driver from alongside his flipped big rig before flames engulfed the wreck on 101 in The City. But she did. And Thursday, The City and Mayor Ed Lee honored her for it. Williams got a “good samaritan” plaque, a City Hall ceremony, and a really, really, long, heartfelt hug from Michael Finerty, the driver whose life she saved.

Williams told Finerty:

“I prayed the whole time I was getting you, please, just nothing else happen. And I’m glad you’re standing, I’m just really grateful.”

And, from the Everything That’s Wrong With America And The Internet department: As this article is being written, Keenia Williams has seven results on Google News. Deborah Bradley, the white Missouri mom who was drunk when her baby “disappeared,” has 2,410.

The Black Youth Project aptly asks the right question: Where is the media coverage for this young black hero?

Jesse Garnier

Jesse Garnier is the editor and founder of SFBay. A Mission District native, he also teaches journalism as associate professor at San Francisco State University.