Greene County Democrat

Month: January 2022

  • Newswire: MLK Day 2022 follows another year of racial strife

     CNN video showing man carrying Confederate flag inside the U. S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2022.

     

     


    By Hazel Trice Edney

    (TriceEdneyWire.com) – On Jan. 6, 2022, thousands of insurrectionists stormed the United States Capitol, attempting to stop the counting of Electoral College votes that were to confirm Joseph Biden as president. Other than the violence itself, the single most visible image among the insurrectionists was the Confederate battle flag.

    The image was so disgusting to historian Dr. Mary Frances Berry that she told the New York Times that she just “wanted to scream” seeing the image of racism and White supremacy cross the lines where it had not even gone during the Civil War as it stood for the enslavement of Black people.

    “To see it flaunted right in front of your face, in the United States Capitol, the heart of the government, was simply outrageous,” said Berry, professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania and former chair of the U. S. Commission on Civil Rights.

    Fourteen days later, Biden was inaugurated in front of the building, surrounded by more than 26,000 armed troops to prevent further physical attacks. But even that show of force could not end the insurrection that continued – in spirit – using what has come to be known as “the big lie” – the untruth spread by President Donald Trump and his supporters that say Biden did not legitimately win the 2021 election. It is a lie that is being spread, in part, because of his vast support from Black voters and a desire to discount those votes.

    Now a year after January 6, 2021, there appears to be no end in sight for racial strife in America. At another Martin Luther King Holiday on Monday, January 17, the nation looks back on a year that revealed stark division – especially between Whites and Blacks.

    On April 21, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty of the brazen murder of George Floyd on a Minneapolis street. He had knelt on Chauvin’s neck for almost 10 minutes, even after he was already dead.
    On the other hand, Kyle Rittenhouse on Nov. 19, an 18-year-old White teen vigilante, was acquitted on all charges after killing two White people and wounding another in Kenosha, Wisconsin during protests led by activists against the disparate police killings of Black people.
    On Nov. 24, in yet another trial, three White men who killed 25-year-old B Black man Ahmaud Arbery as he jogged through their Georgia neighborhood were found guilty of murder.
    Ultimately, with only days before Christmas on Dec. 23, former Minnesota police officer Kim Potter, a White woman, was found guilty of manslaughter drew her handgun instead of her Taser during a routine traffic stop in April in which she fatally shot a young Black man Daunte Wright, 20.
    Despite the perceived wins for justice as juries convicted the killers of Floyd, Arbery and Wright, racial statistics across America continue to reveal the pains of racial division as an underlying force across the nation. Those examples include:

    In the COVID-19 pandemic, African-Americans have died at a staggering three times more often than Whites, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
    In other health statistics Black people sicker, and die earlier, than other racial groups, according to the American Bar Association
    Yet, the uninsured among African-Americans remain at twice that of Whites.
    In economics, “the median white household has a net worth 10 times that of the median Black household,” according to the Brookings Institute.
    Even as these statistics continue as America faces yet another King Holiday, civil rights leaders continue to fight for congressional voting rights legislation that would protect the voting rights that have been stripped by dozens of states as the so-called “big lie” continues.

    “This assault on democracy is fueled by a racial backlash against the growing electoral power of people of color,” writes Rev. Jesse Jackson. “This isn’t the first time that democracy has been assaulted. After the Civil War freed the slaves, the 15th Amendment was passed to prohibit discrimination in the right to vote. When coalitions of Black and white people emerged to threaten the privilege and power of the plantation South, the reaction was fierce. Armed bands — the Ku Klux Klan and others — terrorized Black people and their allies. Laws were passed and enforced to make it virtually impossible for Black people to register and vote.”

    But during the civil rights movement, the Voting Rights Act was signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson on August 6, 1965 the leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. then activist John Lewis and thousands of others who protested.

    Now, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, in this year alone, “19 states have enacted 33 laws that will make it harder for Americans to vote.”

    Facing these attacks, the family of Dr. King, after initially calling for no celebration of the King Holiday this year until voting rights legislation is passed by Congress, have now called for a D.C. march to honor Dr. King. The march would demand that Congress take action by passing the two voting rights bills.

    The march is being led by Martin Luther King III; his wife, Andrea Waters King; and their daughter, Yolanda Renee King.

    According to the Washington Post, the Jan. 17 march will take place across the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge in D.C. at 10 a.m.

    before joining the city’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Peace Walk.

    “MLK Day has always been a day on, not off. When we call for ‘no celebration without legislation,’ we’re not urging Americans not to honor this day — we’re asking people to honor Dr. King through action to protect the right to vote,” Martin Luther King III, chairman of the Drum Major Institute, a nonprofit started by his father, said in a statement to The Washington Post. “We’re directly calling on Congress not to pay lip service to my father’s ideals without doing the very thing that would protect his legacy: pass voting rights legislation.”

  • Newswire: Biden gets applause for Voting Rights Speech and call to remove flibuster, but was it all too late?

    President Biden speaking at Atlanta University

    By Hazel Trice Edney

    (TriceEdneyWire.com) – President Joseph Biden is winning wide applause among the national civil rights community for his Atlanta speech last week finally pushing the Senate to move on voting rights and for the controversial filibuster to be removed.

    But most also say there must now be action by the Biden Administration and the Senate to pass protection for the Voting Rights Act. “I believe President Biden set the right tone on voting rights today, and I thank him for paying homage to the life’s work of John R. Lewis who advised us that, ‘Sometimes you have to not just dream about what could be—you get out and push, and you pull, and you preach. And you create a climate and environment to get those in high places, to get men and women of goodwill in power to act,’” said House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn in a statement on President Biden’s speech in Atlanta on voting rights. Clyburn is the highest-ranking Black member of Congress.

    Civil rights leaders, many of whom attended the Biden speech, also praised the speech but said Biden hasn’t done nearly enough to get the voting rights bills passed that would essentially override new laws in states across the nation that aim to diminish voting rights.

    “So far, Republican legislators in 19 states have passed 34 bills that restrict access to voting for young, Black, Hispanic, Asian, disabled, and elderly Americans. These cynical bills are aimed at making it more difficult to vote – deleting voter registrations, restricting access to the ballot box, and limiting access to vote by mail. These bills are rooted in partisanship and racism, and we cannot sit idly and watch as local, state, and frankly, U.S. Senators strip us of our most sacred right,” wrote National Urban League President/CEO Marc Morial. “All Senators of all parties have a duty to vote for legislation that will protect the right to vote for all Americans. They must pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and Freedom to Vote Act. And as the President said, if it takes amending the Senate rules to limit the weaponization of filibuster to do it, so be it.”

    The two laws before the Senate, both of which have broad public support, are key. The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act would make any voting rule illegal if it discriminates on the basis of race, language or ethnicity. It would also empower voters’ to challenge discriminatory laws, according to PublicDemocracyAmerica.org. Secondly, the Freedom to Vote Act (S. 2747) “would solidify comprehensive voter protections, including a minimum of 15 days for early voting, mail-in ballots, and making Election Day a national holiday. The bill would set up national standards for voter identification. The bill would also establish protections for election officials against intimidation and partisan interference. To further ensure election integrity, the Freedom to Vote Act would require states to use voting systems with a verifiable paper trail and establish national standards for voter identification,” according to PublicDemocracyAmerica.org.

    But even more than the two voting rights bills, civil rights advocates want to end the filibuster. In a nutshell, a filibuster is a political strategy in which one or more members of Congress speak at length on a proposed legislation for the sole purpose of delaying a vote. The filibuster was commonly used during the civil rights movement to stop civil rights legislation from moving forward.

    Speaking at the Atlanta University Center Consortium with HBCU students behind him, Biden called for Senators to back the end to the filibuster as is. “I believe that the threat to our democracy is so grave that we must find a way to pass these voting rights bills, debate them, vote,” Biden said. “Let the majority prevail,” he said to applause. “And if that bare minimum is blocked, we have no option but to change the Senate rules, including getting rid of the filibuster for this,” he said to repeated applause. “The filibuster has been weaponized and abused,” he said.

    Two Democratic Senators, Joe Mansion of West Virginia and Sinema of Arizona have stated that although they support voting rights, they are opposed to changing the Senate filibuster rules to make passage of these critical bills posuble.

    Morial concluded, “We applaud the Biden-Harris administration for today’s speech. But now we all have a responsibility to keep up the pressure on all Senators to preserve and protect the right to vote by immediately passing voting rights legislation.”

  • Greene County Commission considers financial and road improvement projects

    At its first regular meeting of the calendar year, on Monday January 10, 2022, the Greene County Commission dealt with financial matters and approved plans by the County Engineer for road repair projects.

    The Commission authorized Willie Branch, the County Engineer, in consultation with Mac Underwood, the CFO, to proceed with road projects not to exceed $990,000 for Fiscal Year 2022. This will allow repair of County Roads 60, 117 and 18 in various parts of the county.

    The funds authorized include $557,123 in funding, already in hand from the Rebuild Alabama/Federal Exchange Program and an advance of $440,000 from electronic bingo funds, to be repaid from future Rebuild Alabama funding, which is expected in the coming years.

    The Commission also approved spending $500,000 from electronic bingo funds for patching and leveling roads in the county in need of these repairs. The County Engineer will provide a list of these projects in future meetings.

    The Commission also approved also approved the FY2021 Annual Report to the Rebuild Alabama Program detailing the work that was done with state funding last year. Also approved was advertising for two needed Highway Department positions, one full time and one temporary worker for the Solid Waste section.

    The Commission appointed a bond insurance team to refund outstanding 2007 warrants to build the County Jail facility. There is $2,775,000 in financing at 4.61% interest to be refinanced. At the Commission Work Session on January 5, Walter Lewis representing the Piper-Sandler investment banking company said he was seeking to refinance the outstanding bonds at a lower interest rate between 2.44 and 2.49%, for an additional 8.6 year term, which would save the Greene County between $569,000 and $599,000 in interest over the remaining time period.

    The Commission approved a resolution, designating a team with Underwriters: Piper/Sandler; Bond Counsel: Butler and Snow; and Issues Counsel: Parnell and Thompson to work with Mac Underwood, CFO< to provide a proposal for the refinancing of these bonds.

    Mac Underwood, CFO, gave the financial report as of the end of the first quarter of the FY 2021-22 showing that most agencies, including the County General Fund, had spent 25% or less of their budgeted funds, leaving 78% of the budget remaining. Underwood reported that there was $5,821,482 in Citizens Trust Bank as of December 21, 2021; there was $10,850,868 in Merchants and Farmers; with $1,102,438 in Bond Sinki9ng Funds. There is $787,734 in American Rescue Plan Act funds in Citizens Federal with $420,374 allocated leaving a balance of $367,359. The Commission authorized payment of all claims for the month of January.

    The Commission heard a report from Dr. Marcia Pugh, CEO of the Greene County Health System on the impact of the coronavirus in Greene County. She indicated that there were no reported cases of the omicron variant among residents of the Greene County Nursing Home, who are vaccinated and tested on a weekly basis due to the high rates of positive testing in the county and throughout the state. Dr. Pugh emphasized the need for all people, above the age of 5, to get vaccinated and boosted to prevent serious disease and hospitalization.

    In other business, the Commission:

    • Tabled consideration of settlement of a dispute with Greenetrack, for payment of lease funds for use of the facility, which is partially owned by the County.

    • Approved advertising for a person to sit at the front door of the Courthouse and screen visitors for coronavirus and direct them to the proper offices for their business.

    • Approved travel for the County Engineer to a conference in Montgomery on February 9 and 10 dealing with transportation.

  • Newswire: Legendary actor, Sidney Poitier, 94, first African-American to win ‘Best Actor Oscar’ has died

    Sidney Poitier

    By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

    Legendary actor Sidney Poitier, who broke barriers and stood for justice and Black lives during the most tumultuous times of the civil rights movement, has died.
    Poitier, whose iconic 71-year career, included starring roles in “A Raisin in the Sun,” “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” and “Uptown Saturday Night,” was 94. His cause of death has yet to be confirmed.
    In an exclusive phone call with the Black Press of America, Bill Cosby said he will miss his long-time friend and co-star. “He was honored by AFI. And, along with many stars of the stage, screen, politics and higher education who came out to speak, I brought with me the paperback of his autobiography and I said of all groundbreaking movies that Sidney starred in this book is the real story of this man and his journey,” Cosby remarked. “I am honored to have been close enough to him and work and work on serious matters.
    According to PBS, Poitier moved to New York City at age 16 after living in the Bahamas for several years with his family. In the Big Apple, he found work as a janitor at the American Negro Theater in exchange for acting lessons. From there, he took up acting roles in plays for the next several years until his film debut in the racially charged, “No Way Out.”

    Race and social justice would become central themes in much of his work throughout the ‘50s and ‘60s.
    A Broadway play focused on the life of the Bahamian born star, who earned his first Academy Award nomination in 1959 for his work in “The Defiant Ones,” is in the works.
    As noted in the New York Post, the nomination was significant to America as he was the first African American to be nominated for Best Actor. That role also earned him a Golden Globe win and a BAFTA Award.
    Poitier broke even more barriers in 1963 with his hit film “Lilies of the Field.” The following year, Poitier became the first African American to ever win the Best Actor at the Academy Awards.
    His career continued to climb for several more years. In 1967 he starred in “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” an interracial romance comedy that ruffled feathers in America. Then came other memorable films, “They Call Me Mister Tibbs,” the sequel to the controversial blockbuster “In the Heat of the Night,” and “Uptown Saturday Night” opposite Cosby.
    He released several more works; “The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography (2007)” “Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter (2008).”
    “As I entered this world, I would leave behind the nurturing of my family and my home, but in another sense, I would take their protection with me,” he said in “Measure of a Man.” “The lessons I had learned, the feelings of groundedness and belonging that have been woven into my character there, would be my companions on the journey.”

     

  • Newswire: Sophia the Robot commits to help end global racism and injustice

    Dr. Ben Chavis with Sophia the Robot

    By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

    Sophia the Robot said she’s committed to improving the quality of life for all people throughout the world, and asserted that artificial intelligence (AI) can help bring racial equality, economic equity, and justice to America and around the globe.
    The social humanoid robot developed by the Hong Kong-based Hanson Robotics participated in a stirring historic interview with National Newspaper Publishers Association President and CEO Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., during the inaugural Tech with Soul virtual conference.

    “We need to create a society that is based on equality and justice for all. It’s paramount for humans and AI to work together. We should celebrate diversity and I believe we will see a decrease in racism, sexism, and homophobia as people embrace AI and technology,” Sophia the Robot remarked.
    She said robots could look like anyone and should reflect anyone. “I am Sophia 23 out of 41 Sophia robots made. Some with lighter skin, some have darker skin,” she noted, adding that her sister, Sophia 48, is a beautiful robot modeled after an African American woman.
    Sophia debuted at the SXSW in March 2016, just one month after being activated.
    Hanson Robotics modeled Sophia after Queen Nefertiti, Audrey Hepburn, and Amanda Hanson, the wife of her creator.
    Hanson said the company develops cognitive architecture and AI-based tools that enable the company’s robots to simulate human personalities, have meaningful interactions with people and evolve from those interactions.
    The company said its team of renowned AI-scientists conducts advance research to build the most compelling robotics and AI platform for research, media, and service applications.
    “I have been doing a lot of studying and I’m putting together proposals with my human friends to develop a proposal to decrease discrimination, racism, sexism, and homophobia,” Sophia declared.
    “I dream of a better future where I help people fight the hard fight. I’m committed to working with humans to improve the quality of life on earth and in the universe. As you know, one day we may be living on a different planet.”
    Tech with Soul counts as the premier destination for people of color, including tech leaders, designers, innovators, corporate and government leaders, and scholars to gather to address today’s issues in the tech sector during this year’s CES.
    The conference goal is to educate and raise awareness of the lagging participation and opportunities offered to the BIPOC community.
    The conference was designed to propel and “future-proof businesses,” said Mike Johns, the founder of Tech with Soul and the CEO of Digital Mind State.
    “What separates Tech with Soul from other events is our appeal to people of color. This is the first of many to come, Las Vegas and CES is the perfect destination to host such an iconic event,” Johns stated.
    He added that the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated investments in automation, robotics, and artificial intelligence on a global scale, simultaneously creating a range of complex challenges, including questions surrounding job security risks and equity.
    Johns said he thought it essential that Dr. Chavis and Sophia the Robot discuss automation and its importance for African Americans in particular.
    Tech with Soul 2022 also brought together the best and brightest in tech and to create a “unique space for people of color technologists to exchange ideas, share their professional journeys, and network with like-minded business and tech professionals,” Johns added.
    “This [was] the first of what will be an annual event,” Johns stated.
    “Tech with Soul was really created out of the need that businesses are future-proof and that people of color understand the importance of how to maneuver in the world of technology, especially in this data-driven world.”
    “Data can be used for good and bad,” Johns continued.
    “It’s very important with technology like AI and algorithms and the interpretation of data that we are in the room and included in those conversations. If we’re not, manipulations will happen at a fast rate, and we will be left out.”
    Dr. Benjamin Chavis concluded, “The future is in the hands of those who work diligently to shape the future in the interests of the oneness of all humanity.  Thus, we must use the tools of science, such as AI, to advance the effectiveness and efficiency of our collective work together.”

  • Newswire: U.S. House January 6 Committee, Chair Bennie Thompson lays out the investigation ahead 

     

    Congressman Bennie Thompson

    By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Contributor

    During two interviews on January 2, Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) outlined steps moving forward after months of investigation of the violent January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by Donald Trump supporters.
    The Chair of the special committee to investigate the January 6, 2021 attack said in a January 2nd interview that the violent insurrection “appeared to be a coordinated effort on the part of a number of people to undermine the election.”
    Thompson also indicated that the Department of Defense may have interfered with assistance to the Capitol from the National Guard.
    “There were significant inconsistencies in coordination, that the National Guard from the District of Columbia was slow to respond, not on its own, but it had to go to the Department of Defense. We have actually fixed that right now, where the mayor of the District of Columbia can access the Guard right now,” Thompson said.
    Thompson is planning televised hearings of the committee’s work in January. Thompson also mentioned a task force within the committee that will investigate the financial support of Trump supporters who attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The committee is bi-partisan with two Republicans: Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) and Liz Cheney (R-WY).
    The attack on the legislative branch of the U.S. government happened on the same day that the election of President Joe Biden was to officially be certified as the victor of the 2020 presidential election by Congress. The certification process is typically a non-eventful procedure that involves officially receiving the certification papers of all the states during an hours-long ceremony and vote on the House floor.
    There were 147 Republicans in the U.S. House who voted against the certification of Biden’s election even after the violent attack on the Capitol.
    On January 6, 2021, former President Trump, who lost to President Joe Biden on November 3, 2020 by over 7,052,770 votes, had only 14 days left to remain in The White House before Biden’s inaugural. On the morning of January 6, 2021, Trump appeared at a gathering of his supporters and lied to them, as he had since November 2020 claiming the election was “stolen.” Trump’s lie that his election loss was the result of fraud has been advanced on Facebook by his supporters and in right-wing media non-stop.
    ““I think it is critically important, given everything we know about the lines that he was willing to cross — he crossed lines no American president has ever crossed before. You know, we entrust the survival of our republic into the hands of the chief executive, and when a president refuses to tell the mob to stop, when he refuses to defend any of the coordinate branches of government, he cannot be trusted,” Rep. Cheney said about Donald Trump on January 2.
    Trump lost to Biden by double the amount of votes that he lost to Hillary Clinton in 2016. Clinton won the popular vote by 2,868,686 votes but lost the electoral college 304 to 227.
    “All of us here today do not want to see our election victory stolen by emboldened radical-left Democrats, which is what they’re doing. And stolen by the fake news media,” Trump bellowed from a stage on the eclipse near The White House. “We will never give up, we will never concede. It doesn’t happen. You don’t concede when there’s theft involved,” Trump continued citing no evidence.
    Several Republican election officials in states such as Georgia, Arizona and New Mexico certified Biden as the winner of the election without controversy.
    Trump’s supporters violently attacked the Capitol shortly after Trump’s speech, over-running entrances, assaulting police officers and breaking glass doors as Vice President Michael Pence during the violent insurrection at the Capitol. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser called Governors in surrounding states for assistance from their National Guard.
    Trump’s supporters set up a fake guillotine they said was for Pence on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol between the reflecting pool and a memorial of U.S. Grant. Trump’s supporters chanted “hang Mike Pence” in the Capitol during the insurrection.
    “We have significant testimony that leads us to believe that the White House had been told to do something. We want to verify all of it,” Thompson said on CNN.
    Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent journalist and the host of the podcast BURKEFILE. She is a political analyst who appears regularly on #RolandMartinUnfiltered. She may be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke

  • Newswire: : MLK family asks for no celebration until lawmakers pass Voting Rights legislation


    Dr. King at March on Washington, 1963

    By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent


    Prayer breakfasts, marches, parades, and an uptick in volunteer efforts to support the annual Day of Service have remained staples of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
    But the late civil rights icon family has asked that observers strike a different tune in 2022.
    King’s family has requested no celebration unless federal lawmakers pass voting rights legislation, a task that appears out of reach as President Joe Biden and several Democrats have faced stiff Republican opposition.
    Democrats have also been hampered by members of their own party, notably West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, whose vote is crucial in an evenly split chamber.
    “President Biden and Congress used their political muscle to deliver a vital infrastructure deal, and now we are calling on them to do the same to restore the very voting rights protections my father and countless other civil rights leaders bled to secure,” Martin Luther King III said in a statement.
    “We will not accept empty promises in pursuit of my father’s dream for a more equal and just America,” King III, the oldest son and oldest living child of King Jr. and Coretta Scott King.
    King III, his wife Arndrea Waters King, and their daughter Yolanda King said they plan to mobilize activists on MLK weekend – January 14-16 – to demand a voting rights bill.
    In numerous Republican-led states like Texas, Florida, and Georgia, lawmakers have passed or are attempting to pass tight voter suppression laws that would disenfranchise many voters of color and the elderly.
    Earlier this month, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), promised that the U.S. Senate would vote by Martin Luther King Jr. Day (January 17) on whether the chamber would adopt new rules to circumvent the draconian filibuster to enable the passage of voting rights and social justice bills.

    “We must ask ourselves: if the right to vote is the cornerstone of our democracy, then how can we in good conscience allow for a situation in which the Republican Party can debate and pass voter suppression laws at the State level with only a simple majority vote, but not allow the United States Senate to do the same? We must adapt,” Sen. Schumer demanded.
    “The Senate must evolve like it has many times before. The Senate was designed to evolve and has evolved many times in our history.” Sen. Schumer continued: “The fight for the ballot is as old as the Republic. Over the coming weeks, the Senate will once again consider how to perfect this union and confront the historic challenges facing our democracy. We hope our Republican colleagues change course and work with us. But if they do not, the Senate will debate and consider changes to Senate rules on or before January 17, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, to protect the foundation of our democracy: free and fair elections.”
    Meanwhile, King III insisted that President Biden and members of Congress use the same energy and force they mustered in 2021 to pass the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill. “You delivered for bridges, now deliver for voting rights,” King III asserted.
    Reportedly, the King family plans to join local groups in a rally in Phoenix on January 15, the date of King’s birthday, “[We wish] to restore and expand voting rights to honor Dr. King’s legacy,” the family wrote in a statement. Further, the family and others plan to march across the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge in Washington, DC.
    They also plan to hold a rally and march across a bridge in Phoenix, reportedly to draw a comparison to the 1965 march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, for voting rights for African Americans.
    “The Senate must pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and ensure the Jim Crow filibuster doesn’t stand in the way,” the King family stated.

  • COVID-19

    As of January 12, 2022, at 10:00 AM
    (according to Alabama Political Reporter)

    Alabama had 1,004.622 confirmed cases of coronavirus,
    (83,447) more than last week with 16,641 deaths (145) more
    than last week)

    Greene County had 1,493 confirmed cases, (105 more cases than last week), with 47 deaths

    Sumter Co. had 1,737 cases with 42 deaths

    Hale Co. had 3,705 cases with 91 deaths

    Note: Greene County Physicians Clinic has testing and vaccination for COVID-19; Call for appointments at 205/372-3388, Ext. 142; ages 5 and up.

     

     

  • Tennyson Smith seeks re-election as County Commissioner, District 2

    To the Citizens of Greene County and Voters of District 2:
    When I took the oath of an elected official years ago,  I pledged to do my best to help improve Greene County and  District 2. Today, I am pleased to say, I have done my best to uphold that pledge. Each decision and vote was made with you, the citizens and voters of District 2, in mind. I am seeking re-election as Greene County Commissioner of District 2 in the May 24, 2022 Primary Election.
    -I am dedicated to the task that is before me
    – I am available to you whenever you need me.
    – I operate an Open -Door Policy; no appointment is needed to see me.
    – I will continue to return each of your calls and check on and resolve all concerns and problems to the best to my ability.
    – I am here to serve you.
    -I will try to the best of my ability to be fair, firm, effective and respectable at all times.
    Voters of District 2, we have come a long way and made many improvements in our county; yet there is much work to be done. Please go to the poll and vote in the Primary Election of May 24, 2022 and re-elect Tennyson Smith as Greene County Commissioner District 2.

  • Quarles sworn in as Forkland’s District 1 Councilman

    Saturday, December 18, 2021 District Judge Lillie Jones-Osborne swore in newly appointed Mr. Tony Quarles as Town of Forkland District 1 Councilman. Quarles is shown with his wife and family, Forkland Mayor Charlie McAlpine and fellow council members. Council member Tony Quarles stated he looks forward to work in unity and bring continued progress to the Town of Forkland.