Harold Cleveland Branch is a brilliant and incredible young man. He survives his mother, Michelle Lee Shirley, a gifted and bright soul. In addition to raising her son, she graduated from Loyola Law School, and worked with the “It’s Up to Us” campaign to help raise awareness for people with mental illnesses; people such as herself. 


Michelle Lee Shirley was the eldest of 7 children. Her birthday came recently, May 20th, a day on which she would have turned 43 years old were she still alive today. 

My sister Michelle was shot and killed by the police in Torrance California on October 31st 2016, a date that will forever haunt our family as a very personal example of the injustice against the Black community that is being fought to this day.  

Despite suffering from bipolar disorder – a mental illness which she battled with to the day of her death - she was a loving and gifted soul. In her cruelly short time on this Earth she managed great things. She graduated high school a year early despite helping take care of her six siblings, she worked with the “It’s Up to Us” campaign to help raise awareness for people with mental illness, and graduated from Loyola Law School with aspirations of becoming a lawyer. But by far her greatest achievement was giving birth to and raising a brilliant and incredible young man named Harold Cleveland Branch.

Harold more than survives his mother; he honors her. A 2020 graduate of Crystal Lake Central high school, Harold earned a 1400 SAT score and achieved the Illinois State Scholar award this year for his excellence in academics. Like his mother before him, Harold is poised to attend Loyola University in Chicago, where he intends to follow in his mother’s footsteps with his own aspirations of becoming a lawyer. We are asking that you please help us ensure that this beautiful boy, who has overcome so much adversity in his young life, be given a proper chance to pursue his dreams; the chance that his mother, my sister, had ripped away from her. 

Harold earned a $20,000 academic scholarship from school, but this unfortunately does not cover even half of the cost it will take for him to attend and finish school. As a family, we wish only to provide him with the best possible chance to succeed. If possible please donate whatever you can as well as share this campaign. Thank You All From The Shirley and Branch Family!