The Greene County Democrat

Category: history

  • Newswire: Russia’s extensive military sales in Africa, buy silence on critical U.N. vote on Ukraine

    Russian made Su-30K fighter jets sold to Ethiopia

    Mar. 7, 2022 (GIN) – “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
     
    Those were the prophetic words of the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu, recalled now by influencers on social media pressing South Africa to cut or reduce old “friendly ties” with Russia.
     
    But backing away from a long political and economic relationship with Moscow will not be easy. The eastern European nuclear power has already begun to call in the debt earned from years of anti-colonial and anti-apartheid support.
     
    Writing recently on the South African news site, iol.co.za, the Embassy of the Russian Federation in South Africa extolled the “traditionally friendly ties between our countries which date back to the struggle against apartheid.” They cited visits to the USSR in the 1920-30s by prominent ANC members, stalwarts of revolution such as Josiah Gumede, Moses Kotane and John Beaver Marks.
    Similarly in Ghana, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a personal letter to President Nana Akufo Addo congratulating him on the country’s 65th independence anniversary.
     
    “Please accept my sincere congratulations on the occasion of the National Holiday of the Republic of Ghana!” Putin addressed the Ghanaian leader. “The relations between Russia and Ghana are traditionally of a friendly nature. I am convinced that further development of a constructive bilateral dialogue and partnership meets the interests of our peoples, contributing to the peace and security on the African continent.”
     
    Africa’s hesitation to speak out at a recent U.N. vote against Russia’s unprovoked invading and bombing of Ukraine, may be linked to their Cold War ties. A more significant factor is Russia’s huge military footprint on the continent,” writes Will Brown, Senior Associate at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC. 
     
    More than half of African nations have military cooperation agreements with Russia – the largest exporter of arms to sub-Saharan Africa. All Ethiopia’s jetfighters were supplied by Russia while Uganda’s combined force of five Mig21s and Sukhoi30s were also Russian supplied. Fifteen of Uganda’s 20-strong fleet of combat helicopters were also Russian supplied. Sudan has 35 Russian jetfighters and 67 helicopters.
     
    In the U.N. vote, 17 African countries refused to condemn Russia’s imperial ambitions in Ukraine. Another seven African countries refused to vote at all. Their leaders are all authoritarian or dictatorial with little regard for human rights abuses by their security forces. 
     
    But openly collaborating with Russia for the near future will carry significant reputational costs, warns Joseph Siegle, research director for the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies at the National Defense University in Washington. “As the human costs from Russia’s unprovoked war mount, ties with Russia will become even more problematic.” 

  • Newswire: Autherine Lucy Foster, first Black student
    to attend the University of Alabama, dies at 92

    Autherine Lucy Foster in wheelchair at recent ribbon cutting at naming of building at UA for her and Autherine Lucy in 1952


    By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
    Her desire for a second undergraduate degree was cut short after just three days when a mob of racists assaulted her with food, rocks, and other items when she attempted to enter the University of Alabama.

    Autherine Lucy Foster, who earned a bachelor’s degree in English from historically Black Miles College in 1952, and whose legal battle with the University of Alabama concluded two years after the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, has died at 92.

    A critical, but sometimes overlooked figure in the civil rights movement, Foster’s case became the first to challenge the Brown ruling that allowed federal judges to implement the historic decision.

    In 1992, Foster recalled her experience in a New York Times interview. “It felt somewhat like you were not really a human being. But had it not been for some at the university, my life might not have been spared at all,” Foster said.

    “I did expect to find isolation. I thought I could survive that. But I did not expect it to go as far as it did. There were students behind me saying, ‘Let’s kill her! Let’s kill her!’”

    Foster visited Tuscaloosa a week before her death, cutting the ribbon on the newly named College of Education building, where she took refuge from the racist mob.
    Previously known as Bibb Graves Hall, the university’s building adopted a new name called Autherine Lucy Hall.

    “My staff was proud to celebrate the courage and sacrifice of Dr. Autherine Lucy Foster by presenting her with a Congressional Record,” Alabama Democratic Rep. Terri Sewell stated.
    “The naming of the University of Alabama’s Autherine Lucy Hall will stand as a powerful reminder of her sacrifice in the name of justice and equity for all.”

    Foster “was the embodiment of courage,” said Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, who chairs the organization. “As the first Black student to attend the University of Alabama, her trailblazing determination paved the way for a more inclusive and equitable higher education system in Alabama. Her life was a testament to the power of compassion and grace in the face of unyielding adversity. We are all made better by her example.”

    Many others tweeted and offered statements of condolences. Foster’s family asked for privacy, but they did release a statement about the trailblazer.

    “She was known, honored, and respected around the world after she broke the color barrier at the University of Alabama,” her daughter Chrystal Foster said in a statement. “She passed away at home, surrounded by family. We are deeply saddened, yet we realize she left a proud legacy.”

  • Newswire: Nikole Hannah-Jones wins Social Justice Award at NAACP Image Awards, speaks on ‘Critical Race Theory’

    Nikole Hannah-Jones

    By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Contributor

    The 53rd Annual NAACP Image Awards, which were held in person this year on February 26 at the Pasadena Civic Center, honor African Americans in entertainment and culture.
    Established in 1909, the NAACP is the oldest civil rights organization in the U.S. and was formed by W. E. B. Du Bois, Mary White Ovington, Moorfield Storey and Ida B. Wells.
    Jennifer Hudson won for Entertainer of the Year and outstanding actress for her portrayal of legendary singer Aretha Franklin in “Respect.” Outstanding Actor was won by Will Smith in “King Richard” and Daniel Kaluuya of “Judas and the Black Messiah,” who won for outstanding supporting actor.
    The President’s award, given in recognition of special achievement in public service, was awarded to Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.
    But a special moment arrived in the ceremony as Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones of The New York Times Magazine was awarded the Social Justice Impact Award.
    Hannah-Jones, creator of “The 1619 Project,” told the audience, “As a student of history, I know that the work that I do and the life I live would not be possible without the decades-long efforts of the NAACP to force this country to live up to its highest ideals. I decided to use my pen as my weapon to fight. I’m grateful for the community that built me… But this award is not really about me. I’m being recognized for The 1619 Project.”
    “As of now, some 36 states have passed or are considering bills to make it harder to teach about racism and inequality. Politicians are using the power of the state to whitewash an already whitewashed history. Books and ideas about the Black experience, about the LGBTQ community, are being banned. These anti-history laws go hand in hand with regressive policies that aim to restrict our civil and voting rights. A healthy society does not ban ideas, and attacks on books are an attack on democracy,” Hannah-Jones added.
    Hannah-Jones was referring to the recent Republican focus on stopping programs that attempt to promote “equity’ and/or discussions on the historic impact of 400 years of anti-Black polices has gripped the GOP in many red states.
    Hannah-Jones’s book “The 1619 Project” has been on the New York Times bestseller list for 14 weeks.

    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 : Senate passes Anti-Lynching Bill and sends Federal hate crime legislation to Biden

    Congressman Bobby Rush, a major sponsor of the legislation, poses with photo of Emmett Till

    By: Peter Granitz/NPR
    The Senate unanimously passed a bill on Monday that criminalizes lynching and make it punishable by up to 30 years in prison. It sailed through the House of Representatives last month, and President Biden is expected to sign it.
    While it eased through both chambers of Congress this time with virtually no opposition, the path to passage took more than 100 years and 200 failed attempts.
    Under the bill, named the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act after the 14-year-old boy from Chicago who was lynched while visiting family in Mississippi, a crime can be prosecuted as a lynching when a hate crime results in a death or injury, said Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., a longtime sponsor of the legislation.
    “Lynching is a longstanding and uniquely American weapon of racial terror that has for decades been used to maintain the white hierarchy,” Rush said in a statement Monday evening. “Unanimous Senate passage of the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act sends a clear and emphatic message that our nation will no longer ignore this shameful chapter of our history and that the full force of the U.S. federal government will always be brought to bear against those who commit this heinous act.”
    Unanimous consent in the Senate allows a bill to pass without a roll call, so long as there’s no senator present to object.
    “Tonight the Senate passed my anti-lynching legislation, taking a necessary and long-overdue step toward a more unified and just America,” Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., wrote on Twitter. “After working on this issue for years, I am glad to have partnered with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to finally get this done.”
    The scale of the crime is staggering: The Equal Justice Initiative documented 4,081 lynchings in 12 Southern states from 1877 to 1950. The report advocates for the erection of monuments and memorials to lynching victims to begin to “correct our distorted national narrative about this period of racial terror in American history while directly addressing the harms borne by the African American community, particularly survivors who lived through the lynching era.”
    Congress failed to pass legislation for more than a century. The first anti-lynching legislation was introduced in 1900 by Rep. George Henry White of North Carolina — then the body’s only Black lawmaker. His bill failed to advance out of committee. The Senate passed a resolution in 2005 expressing remorse for failing to pass anti-lynching legislation; but Congress never passed a bill out of both chambers before Monday. The effort to pass an anti-lynching bill gained momentum after the murder of George Floyd in 2020.
    The bill’s passage marks a career-defining achievement for Rush, who has represented a Chicago-area district since 1993. He announced in January that he’ll retire at the end of this Congress. Before politics, he was a longtime civil rights activist.
    On Monday, he said he looked “forward to President Biden signing the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act into law very, very soon.

  • Girl Scouts host Black History Program featuring Alabama ‘s Poet Laureate, Ashley Jones

    L to R: April Ellis, London Hutton, Malia Leftwich, Zamoria Hutton, Madison Ellis
    Back Row: Erica Hudson and Poet Laureate Ashley Jones
    Miriam Leftwich with Alabama’s first
    Black Poet Laureate, Ashley Jones.

    The Greene County Girl Scout Troop 408 sponsored a Black History Program, Saturday, February 26, 2022, featuring Alabama’s first Black Poet Laureate, Ashley Jones.  Ms. Jones gave a brief overview of her desire to be a poet from an early age and also rendered a reading from her works. 

        Poet Laureate Jones currently lives in Birmingham, AL, where she is founding director of the Magic City Poetry Festival, board member of the Alabama Writers Cooperative and the Alabama Writers Forum, co-director of PEN Birmingham, and a faculty member in the Creative Writing Department of the Alabama School of Fine Arts.  Jones received her Master of Fine Arts in Poetry from Florida International University where she was a John S. And James L. Knight Foundation Fellow. She has three published books: Magic City Gospel (2017); Dark //Thing (2019); Reparations Now! (2021 as well as an audio book, If They Come for Us.

        The Black History Program also featured the Girl Scouts’ individual presentations of noted African Americans and their special contributions.  Other presenters at the Black History Program included the following: Ms. Mollie Rowe gave meditation and invocation; Ms. Felicia Smith led everyone in singing the Black National Anthem; Ms. Alaina Edison shared a reading; Michael Gill, Jr. shared a reading; Dr. Carol Zippert lifted the first Black officials to hold office in Greene County; Mr. Jerome Eason rendered a song; Miriam Leftwich shared a reading on what this country would be like without Black people; Ms. Shelia Henderson read a poem; Ms. Felecia Smith sang a medley of Negro Spirituals.

      

  • Newswire: Africans in the Ukraine plead for help
    as Poland says ‘Ukrainians first’

    Nana Arthur Hochman, a Nigerian medical student in the Ukraine, describes the difficulty for African students trying to leave the country as Ukrainians block their way, saying Ukrainians must leave first.

     


    (TriceEdneyWire.com/Global Information Network) – Thousands of African students are among the tens of thousands of Ukrainians seeking shelter from a barrage of Russian airstrikes against its southern neighbor in what has been called an unprovoked and unjustified effort to remove and replace the Ukrainian government by the President of Russia.

    The students, using Twitter and other social media platforms, have been pleading with their governments for help to escape the war-hit nation. The students say they have been prevented from crossing to Poland due to a ‘Ukrainians’ first’ policy.

    While the Africans are feeling the Russian boot against its southern neighbor, President Vladimir Putin’s invasion has so far been met with diplomatic silence on the continent except for an acid-tipped comment from Kenya’s ambassador at the UN earlier this week. While rebuking Russia’s move into eastern Ukraine, he compared the experience of African nation-states and their colonial borders with the crisis in Eastern Europe, calling the current conflict ”just one more symptom of a pathology spawned by the Western colonial tradition.”

    Ambassador Martin Kimani faulted a “pathological nostalgia for the enforced order of the old Soviet Union,” adding that Kenya “strongly condemn[s] the trend in the last decades of powerful states, including members of this Security Council, breaching international law with little regard.”

    “Multilateralism lies on its deathbed tonight,” Kimani declared. “It has been assaulted today as it has been by other powerful states in the recent past.”

    Separately, South Africa issued a statement Wednesday urging Ukraine and Russia to find a way to de-escalate tensions.

    Dr. Araba Maame Arkoah of Ghana, a medical doctor speaking with the Accra-based Starr FM, said Ghanaians living or studying in the Ukraine were waiting for a rescue plan from the Ghanaian government following the surprise attack launched by the Russians.

    “We are asking ourselves, has the government of Ghana heard what is happening here? We really need the help of the government. As it stands now, we need to come home. I’m scared, very scared, everybody around me is scared,” Dr. Arkoah said.

    On Thursday, Feb. 24, a train carrying Ghanaian students was reportedly attacked by Russians, according to Member of Parliament for North Tongu constituency, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, speaking in a TV interview.

    According to the ministry, over a thousand Ghanaian nationals are currently studying or working in Ukraine, adding that the ministry is “gravely concerned” for their safety.

    “There are about 900 students and in total, we have about 1,500 Ghanaians in Ukraine,” said Kwasi Mintah who was home when he heard a number of explosions. “The Ghanaians here are panicking, they are afraid”.

    Similarly, some 4,000 Nigerians studying in tertiary institutions have been sending distress calls for their evacuation from the theatre of war. A special flight operation was announced by Nigeria’s foreign affairs minister Geoffrey Onyeama.

    Ismail Adedolapo, a 23-year-old Nigerian studying in Kyiv, Ukraine, heard explosions starting around 5 a.m. Thursday morning as Russia began its invasion. “[It’s a] pretty grim situation, to be honest,” Adedolapo says. “And it’s a lot worse for a lot of young international students without a reliable embassy or exit plan.”

    A statement released by the embassy simply urged Nigerian nationals to “remain calm but be very vigilant and be responsible for their personal security and safety”.

    Aanu Adeoyo of the London-based Mo Ibrahim Foundation Academy at Chatham House was among the Africans who faulted the response of African leaders on the continent. “Even something as basic as having a functional website” was lacking, he said. “That just shows a lack of strategy.”

    Some 200 Zambians are studying in Ukraine and have reportedly been told to move towards Poland and find a plane stationed in Warsaw waiting to take them home.

    Over the last two decades, Ukraine has emerged as a choice destination for African students from Ghana, Nigeria, Zambia, and South Africa, especially in the fields of medicine and engineering. According to Ukraine’s
    Ministry of Education and Science, some 80,000 international students study in Ukraine with the largest number from India, followed by Morocco, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Nigeria.

    Abuja resident Paul Enyim fears the consequences will be felt well beyond Ukraine.”The whole world is going to feel the heat. What is going to be the fate for Africa? How is business going to be?” he asked.

  • Newswire: President Biden nominates Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for the U.S. Supreme Court

    Judge Katanji Brown Jackson introduced at the White House, flanked by President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris

     

     

    By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Contributor


    For the first time in American history, a Black woman has been nominated to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.
    By selecting Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson on Feb. 25, President Joe Biden completed his pledge to select a Black woman for the court for the first time in history.
    A Black woman has never served on the U.S. Supreme Court since it was created in 1789 — over 232 years ago. Since then, only two other Black persons have served on the Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall, who was appointed by President Lyndon Johnson in 1967, and Clarence Thomas, who was appointed by President George H. W. Bush in 1991 amid significant controversy.
    In over two centuries, 114 justices have served on the Supreme Court and 108 of them have been white men.
    Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, 51, currently serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. That federal court is seen as a feeder for nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court.
    Judge Jackson was born in Washington, D.C., and raised in Miami, Florida.  She attended Harvard University for college and law school and was the editor of the Harvard Law Review. She began her legal career as a clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen Breyer.
    In what may have been a clue that Judge Jackson would be nominated, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia broke with tradition on Feb. 24 and issued an opinion on a Thursday.  That scheduling change was noted by the media since the court typically only issues opinions on Tuesdays and Fridays.
    Only one other woman of color has served on the Supreme Court, Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor of New York, who was appointed by President Barack Obama in 2009. Three other women have served on the Supreme Court: Sandra Day O’Connor, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981; Ruth Bader Ginsberg, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1993; Associate Justice Elena Kagan, who was appointed by President Obama in 2010; and Associate Justice Amy Barrett who was appointed by President Donald Trump in 2020.
    In 1958, just 3 percent of law school students were women. In 2020, women made up 54 percent of law students in the United States.
    The 51-year-old District native, who shares two children with her husband Patrick Jackson, worked in civil and criminal appellate litigation in both state and federal courts for Morrison & Foerster LLP.
    Judge Brown Jackson also served as an assistant federal public defender in the appeals division of the Office of the Public Defender in D.C. She will be the first public defender to serve on the Supreme Court. She will also be the first defense attorney since Thurgood Marshall to serve on the high court.
    Though the selection represents a historic moment in American history, the court will maintain its 6-3 conservative edge as it tackles high-profile and controversial cases, including gun rights, religious liberty, and abortion.
    “Judge Katanji Brown Jackson will fight for African Americans and other communities of color. We haven’t had this on the Supreme Court since Justice Thurgood Marshall,” said National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) President and CEO Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr.
    With a 50-50 Senate, Democrats do not need Republican help to confirm Judge Jackson. Democrats can accomplish the historic confirmation with their 50 votes and Vice President Harris breaking a deadlock.
    Three Republican senators – Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and Susan Collins of Maine – supported Judge Jackson when the jurist earned confirmation to the appellate court.

  • Newswire: Vice President Kamala Harris to speak at the Bridge this Sunday, March 6th, in Selma 

    TOPSHOT – Vice President-elect Kamala Harris delivers remarks in Wilmington, Delaware, on November 7, 2020, after being declared the winners of the presidential election. (Photo by Andrew Harnik / POOL / AFP) (Photo by ANDREW HARNIK/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

    Cabinet Secretaries to Join Her in Pilgrimage to Selma

    Selma, AL – Vice President Kamala Harris is confirmed to speak in Selma at the Annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge this Sunday afternoon, March 6th. Harris is the first woman elected Vice President, the first African American elected Vice President, and the first Asian American elected Vice President. Vice President Harris has been to Selma in the past as a U.S. Senator and was the keynote speaker at the 2018 Martin & Coretta King Unity Breakfast at Wallace Community College Selma. 
     
    “When U.S. Senator Harris spoke at the Martin & Coretta King Unity Breakfast in 2018, I introduced her and predicted she would be our first woman President. She is our first woman Vice President,” said Hank Sanders, Co-Founder of the Bridge Crossing Jubilee and Co-Founder and Board Member of the Selma to Montgomery March Foundation. 
     
    Harris, who is the Biden Administration’s lead on voting rights, will be speaking during the 57th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday and the Selma to Montgomery March, which led to the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. “These are critical times for democracy in these United States. This is a critical year because of the extensive attacks on the right to vote throughout the country. This year is more important for voting rights than any previous year since 1965,” said Sanders. 
     
    Vice President Harris will be joined by members of President Joe Biden’s cabinet, including Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Marcia Fudge, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan, and Deputy Secretary of Veteran Affairs Donald Remy. 
     
    Following her speech, the Vice President will march across the Bridge with Foot Soldiers from 1965’s Bloody Sunday and the 1965 Selma to Montgomery March as well as national Civil Rights and Voting Rights leaders. These events are part of the Annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee, which is the largest annual civil rights/voting rights gathering in the nation and possibly the world. Tens of thousands attend every year with more than 100,000 attending on one Bloody Sunday. It is a pilgrimage for so many from throughout the nation and across the world. 
     
    National leaders attending this year’s Jubilee and Martin & Coretta King Unity Breakfast will also be participating in the full Selma to Montgomery March to conclude with an 11:00 a.m. rally at the Alabama Capitol on Friday, March 11th. These leaders are each taking a day of the March and include: 
     
    ▪  SCLC President and CEO Dr. Charles Steele (Sunday)
     
    ▪  Repairers of the Breach President and Co-Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign Bishop William Barber and Co-Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis (Monday)
     
    ▪  Rainbow PUSH Coalition  Founder and President Rev. Jesse Jackson (Monday)
     
    ▪  The Transformative Justice Coalition Founder and President Barbara Arnwine, Esq. (Monday)
     
    ▪  National Action Network Founder and President Rev. Al Sharpton (Tuesday)
     
    ▪  Black Voters Matter Co-Founders LaTosha Brown and Cliff Albright (Wednesday)
     
    ▪  National AFL-CIO President Liz Schuler and AFSCME President Lee Saunders (Thursday)
     
    ▪  The NAACP Legal Defense Fund President and Director-Counsel Sherilynn Ifill (Friday)
     
    ▪  President and CEO of National Coalition on Black Civic Participation and Convener of the Black Women’s Roundtable Melanie Campbell (Friday)
     
    Other organizations from across the country will be joining these groups during part or all of the 2022 Selma-to-Montgomery March. The theme of the 2022 Selma Bridge Crossing Jubilee is “Return to the Bridge! Fight for the Vote!” and the theme of the 2022 Selma to Montgomery March is “Fight for the Vote!” 

  • Merriweather is candidate for County Commission District 4

    My name is Malcom Thomas Merriweather, Sr. and I am a candidate for District 4 County Commissioner here in Greene County, Alabama. I’ve lived, worked, and farmed here in the Forkland community for the past 40 years. My wife and I, along with our two sons Malcom (Jr.) and Tyler, are all active members of the Lloyd Chapel Missionary Baptist Church.
    One question that people typically ask when you are a candidate in my position is, “why run for county commissioner?” The answer is straightforward. I was born and raised by both of my parents. I was married here, raised my family here, farm here, and plan to stay here long enough to see my grandchildren grow up in this part of the county. That’s four generations of the Merriweather bloodline in the Greene County Community. I am running for county commissioner because I want to see a difference in my community for future generations to come. 
     My Experience: My 35 years in the paper industry have granted me countless opportunities to manage and work alongside a diverse group of people in the public and private sector that stretches from Forkland, Alabama to Portland, Oregon. My years of experience with these groups of people have exposed me to the various challenges and obstacles that different demographics face keeping their businesses, counties, and state infrastructures in place. The plan would be to work together and implement knowledge as well as new technology for our community. This new technology will be focused on helping the citizens of Greene County understand the means and methods of creating/writing grants as well as sourcing outside funds for the community. With these measures, we aim to create new opportunities to reconstruct/revamp roads, bridges, schools, and hospitals.
      I want to see this county grow and upgrade in ways that we have not seen before. My proposal is to maintain the same small-town community feel, but have better roads, schools, and health care facilities for the people who are rooted here in Greene County. My vision is to also clean up the overall appearance of the county by putting a stop to the illegal dumping of trash/littering on the roadways.
    As a member of this community, I take pride in where I am from. Let’s work together to make our district beautiful, safe, and clean for ourselves and the future generations to come. A new beginning for Greene County, Alabama starts here, and it starts with us. Let’s make a difference together now, so we have something to be proud of.
     I am asking you for your vote and trust. I will work hard for everyone here in District 4 to keep this community a place we can be proud to call home.
    Your candidate for County Commissioner District 4 Greene County Alabama,
    Malcom Thomas Merriweather, Sr.