Greene County Democrat

Tag: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

  • Newswire : AFL-CIO remembers legendary Civil Rights Leader, the Rev. Jesse Jackson

    Newswire : AFL-CIO remembers legendary Civil Rights Leader, the Rev. Jesse Jackson

    Rev. Jesse Jackson at march for jobs and justice

    by AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler and AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond 

    America’s unions mourn the passing of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, a towering moral force whose lifelong commitment to justice reshaped both the labor and civil rights movements and left a lasting mark on the nation.
    Jackson was a full-time organizer for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference before being appointed national director of Operation Breadbasket by his mentor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In this role, Jackson led boycotts and campaigns that secured thousands of new jobs for Black workers.
    His two presidential campaigns would break barriers and expand the political imagination of our country. Through Operation PUSH and the National Rainbow Coalition—later united as Rainbow PUSH Coalition—he brought communities together with a simple, powerful truth: economic justice and civil rights are inseparable.
    Throughout his life, Rev. Jackson fought tirelessly for workers, both at home and around the world. He upheld the labor movement’s highest ideals—walking picket lines, supporting workers at the bargaining table, and insisting that women and people of color be fully included in union protections. He stood with the AFL-CIO at major mobilizations and worker rallies, from the coalfields to campaigns for janitors and public-sector workers. In 2002, he joined the AFL-CIO and local unions in organizing laid-off Enron workers to secure fair severance pay. On the international stage, he  to defend the dignity and rights of workers across supply chains. He confronted global corporations at every turn, he reminded us that the fight for good jobs, living wages, and union rights is inseparable from the fight for justice and equality.
    As we honor the Rev. Jackson’s memory, we reaffirm his belief that “the American worker is not asking for welfare, he’s asking for a fair share—not for charity but for parity.”
    Our hearts are with the Jackson family, his loved ones and all those who are mourning this immeasurable loss. May he rest in power

  • Newswire : Former President Obama has spoken with Rev. Jesse Jackson, who remains in a Chicago hospital

    President Obama and  Rev. Jesse Jackson

    By April Ryan, NNPA White House Correspondent

     

    Several sources have confirmed that former President Barack Obama phoned Reverend Jesse Jackson over the weekend, who is in Stable Condition at a Chicago Hospital. President Obama is said to have been coordinating with the family for several days before the 44th president reached the civil rights icon.
    There have been family connections spanning decades between the Jackson family and the Obamas. In 2008, Jesse Jackson Jr. served as the national co-chair of the Obama Presidential campaign.
    On Sunday, Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. also received a FaceTime call from Rev. Amos Brown, another Civil Rights pioneer who worked with Jackson. In the 1950s and 1960s, they marched and labored alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the fight for first-class citizenship for African Americans. In the 1970s, the two lieutenants of Dr. King separated and served in different parts of the country.
    Brown told this reporter that Jackson recognized him during the FaceTime communication “by his expression and countenance.” The San Francisco Pastor of former Vice President Kamala Harris also says the elder Jackson did not speak, but Brown “encouraged him to fight on as we had fought in the struggle as friends and freedom fighters.”
    In a matter of days, politicians, former staffers, and others have also gone to Jackson’s bedside to encourage him during his illness. Some of those include Reverend Al Sharpton.
    In a recent written statement, the Jackson family said that Reverend Jackson was diagnosed with Parkinson’s syndrome in 2013. In April, the diagnosis changed to supranuclear palsy (PSP), a neurological disorder.
    The family that is constantly by Reverend Jackson’s side in the hospital says, “We believe in the power of prayer, and we are grateful for the overwhelming outreach and prayers of the faithful.
    Our father is alert and continues to share his vision for churches and pastors to come together and reduce malnutrition during this period. He is enlisting 2,000 churches and pastors to distribute 2,000 baskets of food, to feed four million families this season,” said son and family spokesperson, Yusef Jackson.

  • Newswire : King Family seeks review of files on MLK Assassination, Bernice King addresses public disrespect

    Bernice King

    By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

    The family of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has expressed it’s hope to review records related to his assassination before they are made public. King’s family’s statement came after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to declassify records surrounding the assassinations of the civil rights icon, President John F. Kennedy, and Senator Robert F. Kennedy.

    “For us, the assassination of our father is a deeply personal family loss that we have endured over the last 56 years,” the family stated in a message shared by King’s daughter, Bernice King. “We hope to be provided the opportunity to review the files as a family prior to its public release.” The family also noted not granting interviews as they await further information.

    The release of the documents hasn’t been the only moment in the news this week for King’s family.

    The nation observed Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which fell on the same Monday as Trump’s inauguration this year. Bernice King, the youngest of King’s four children, told MSNBC that the overlap provided an opportunity to recall her father’s legacy while the country transitions to a new administration.

    “It’s wonderful that this occurs on the King holiday, the inauguration, because it reminds us of King,” said King, who was five years old when her father was assassinated in 1968. “It points us back to King. It says, ‘When we move forward, we’ve got to do it in the spirit of King.’”

    She called on Americans to remain steadfast in the values her father championed, particularly nonviolence. “We have to strategize. We’ve been missing the strategy. We’ve been missing the spirit of Dr. King,” she said. “The spirit of Dr. King is nonviolence. And nonviolence is not just a posture; it’s a mindset. It’s a love-centered way of thinking, speaking, acting, and engaging that leads to personal, cultural, and societal transformation.”

    This year marked just the third time that Martin Luther King Jr. Day coincided with a presidential inauguration, the first during President Bill Clinton’s second term in 1997 and the second during President Barack Obama’s second term in 2013. Obama took his oath of office using a Bible that once belonged to King.

    In yet another incident this week that stirred controversy surrounding the King family, rapper Sexyy Red posted an AI-generated image of herself and Dr. King at a nightclub on social media on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The image showed the rapper holding hands with King in a crowded setting. The post, which lacked a caption, was widely criticized and later deleted following a request from Bernice King.

    “This is intentionally distasteful, dishonoring, deplorable, and disrespectful to my family and my father, who is not here to respond himself because he was assassinated for working for your civil and human rights,” Bernice King wrote in response.
    Despite calling out the post, King also addressed negative comments directed at the rapper, writing, “I don’t believe Sexyy Red to be a ‘degenerate,’ ‘ghetto,’ or ‘trash,’” King stated. “I have spoken out in the past about the use of and comparison to either of my parents to denigrate other people.”

    Sexyy Red immediately apologized, saying, “You ain’t wrong; I never meant to disrespect your family. My apologies. Just reposted something I saw that I thought was innocent.”
    King accepted the apology. “I value you as a human being,” King responded. “I know that my father has become a bit of a caricature to the world and that his image is often used with no regard to his family, his sacrificial work, or the tragic, unjust way in which he died (a state-sanctioned assassination). Unfortunately, I regularly challenge the disregard.”
     

  • Newswire : Rep. Sewell celebrates passage of her legislation to rename the Marion Post Office in Perry Co. Alabama, after Civil Rights Legend Albert Turner, Sr.


    Rep. Sewell celebrates passage of her legislation to rename the Marion Post Office in Perry Co. Alabama, after Civil Rights Legend Albert Turner, Sr. 


    Washington, D.C. —U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell (AL-07) celebrated the passage of her legislation to rename the Marion Post Office after the late civil rights leader Albert Turner, Sr. H.R. 7893 passed the Senate unanimously on December 19th. The bill previously passed the House of Representatives in the summer. It was signed into law by President Biden on January 4, 2025..
     
    The bill was supported by every member of Alabama’s congressional delegation.
     
    “Albert Turner Sr. was a civil rights legend whose enormous contributions to Perry County, the State of Alabama, and our nation should never be forgotten,” said Rep. Sewell. “I am thrilled that Congress has passed my bill to honor his legacy by officially renaming the Marion Post Office after him. I thank my colleagues of the Alabama Delegation for their help getting this important legislation across the finish line.”
     
    “I and my family are deeply honored that the United States Congress saw fit to recognize my father and the significant contributions he made to the civil rights of Americans,” said Perry County Commissioner Albert Turner, Jr. “I personally want to thank the entire Alabama delegation, both Democratic and Republicans, who made this idea into law. More specifically, I want to thank the sponsor, my Congresswoman, Terri Sewell, for leading the charge of honoring my hero, my father, Albert Turner, Sr.”    
     
    Albert Turner, Sr. was born in Perry County, Alabama in 1936. He devoted his life to the Civil Rights Movement, fighting to ensure equal access to the ballot box for African Americans. Turner worked closely with prominent leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., served as the Alabama Field Secretary for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and founded the Perry County Civic League to organize protests and boycotts for the racial integration of public facilities and schools.

    Turner also served as Manager of the Southwest Alabama Farmers Cooperative (SWAFCA), a ten county association of farmers in the Alabama Black Belt, to market cucumbers, okra and other vegetable products. Turner also worked to involve the cooperative in producing alcohol fuel from agricultural waste – which was a forward-looking plan to produce renewable fuel to combat climate change.

    In 1985, Turner, his wife Evelyn and Spencer Hoage were indicted on over 200 counts of “voter fraud” by then U. S. Attorney Jeff Sessions, for their work to help people in Perry County to use the absentee ballot. A Federal jury acquitted the three of all charges at a trial that was designed to intimate Back voters but failed.

    Turner passed away on April 13, 2000, at the age of 64.

    Plans for an official ceremony for the post office re-naming are pending. H.R. 7893 will officially rename the Marion Post Office, located at 306 Pickens Street, as the “Albert Turner, Sr. Post Office Building.”
     
    Bill text is available  from Congresswoman Sewell’s office and website.

     

     

  • June 9, 2024, program to commemorate 60thanniversary of ‘Bloody Tuesday’ in Tuscaloosa

    Tuscaloosa Police arrest a protestor on ‘Blood Tuesday’

    On Sunday, June 9, 2024, civil rights organizations in Tuscaloosa, Alabama will hold a commemoration of the 60th anniversary of ‘Bloody Tuesday’ when in 1964, police, state troopers and Klansmen beat 300 Black people gathered at the First African Baptist Church. The people, guided by the leadership of church pastor Rev. T. Y. Rogers of SCLC, were preparing to march to the Tuscaloosa County Courthouse to integrate the facility.

    Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had recruited and trained Rev. T. Y. Rogers for a major role in the Civil Rights Movement and sent him to Tuscaloosa to lead the movement. ‘Bloody Tuesday’ occurred eight months before the ‘Bloody Sunday March’ in Selma, Alabama, but did not receive the same news coverage and national attention, although there was more violence and arrests, against more people in Tuscaloosa. ’Bloody Tuesday’ was the largest assault and invasion of a Black church by law enforcement during the Civil Rights Movement.

    The 60h anniversary commemoration will feature Congresswoman Terri Sewell of the 7th. Congressional District speaking on the importance of voting and revitalizing the protections of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which have been diluted b y Supreme Court decisions and state voter suppression laws. Charles Steele, President of SCLC and a former Tuscaloosa City Councilman and State Senator will make remarks. Steele and his brother, both teenagers at the time, were present at the church on ‘Bloody Tuesday’.

    Other surviving movement foot soldiers, who were present at the church, like Maxie Thomas and others, will present greetings. There will also be a re-enactment of the march to the Tuscaloosa County Courthouse.

    History Professor, John Geggie, of the University of Alabama, who has written a new book on ‘Bloody Tuesday’ will be at the program to give remarks and sign copies of the book.

    The program will he held on Sunday, June 9, 2024, from 3:00 to 6:00 PM at the First African Baptist Church of Tuscaloosa, 2621 Stillman Boulevard, Tuscaloosa, AL 35404. The public is invited to share in this important civil rights commemoration and recommitment to restoring voting rights for Black and poor people.

  • Newswire : Dexter Scott King, champion of civil rights and son of MLK Jr., succumbs to prostate cancer at 62

    By Stacy M. Brown
    NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

    Dexter Scott King, the youngest son of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., has died at 62. The King Center, along with statements from the family, confirmed Dexter’s death on Monday, January 22, just one week after the nation observed his father’s holiday. King’s family said he died after a valiant battle against prostate cancer.
    Family members claimed that King, a tenacious civil rights activist in his own right, passed away peacefully in his sleep at his Malibu home while spending time with his loved ones. Leah Weber King, Dexter’s wife since 2013, shared the news through a statement from the King Center. “He transitioned peacefully in his sleep at home with me in Malibu,” she said. “He gave it everything and battled this terrible disease until the end. As with all the challenges in his life, he faced this hurdle with bravery and might.”
    Martin Luther King III, Dexter’s older brother, also expressed deep sorrow, urging everyone to keep the entire King family, especially Dexter’s wife, Leah Weber, in their thoughts and prayers.
    Reverend Al Sharpton, a prominent figure in the civil rights movement, later shared his condolences. “I am heartbroken to hear that Dexter King left us this morning, but I was comforted by the knowledge that he is reunited with his parents and sister,” Sharpton stated.
    Dexter’s mother, Coretta Scott King, died in 2006, and his sister, Yolanda Denise King, died in 2007. Dexter, born on January 30, 1961, carried his father’s legacy forward. According to a King Center bio, he attended Morehouse College, majoring in business administration, and in 2005, he took on the roles of chairman, president, and chief executive officer of the King Center.
    Dexter’s vision for his father’s legacy was clear: to educate the public about and perpetuate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s message of nonviolence globally. Beyond his activism, Dexter made significant contributions to media and entertainment. He starred in and produced films, records, and television specials focused on the civil rights movement. His animated movie, “Our Friend Martin,” received an Emmy Award nomination, and he authored the intimate memoir “Growing Up King” in 2003.
    Recognized as one of Ebony magazine’s “100 Most Influential Black Americans,” Dexter Scott King worked along with his family to keep his parents’ legacy alive.
    “On behalf of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), representing the Black Press of America, we pause to mourn and to celebrate the life of Dexter King, who in his own way strived to exemplify the outstanding legacy of his father, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,” said NNPA President and CEO Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., a civil rights legend who worked under Dr. King in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. “We express our sympathy to the King family, and we rededicate the Black Press to keep Dr. King’s dream alive, not only for all Americans but for people throughout the world

  • Newswire: Civil Rights Leaders 2024 insights on Martin Luther King’s courage

    Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at 1963 March on Washington

    By Stacy M. Brown
 NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

    During his short life, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stepped on all kinds of powerful toes in his fight for civil rights, and he was a courageous and determined leader who refused to let prison or violence sway his end mission. He also never lost sight of the fact that civil rights—addressing racial and economic injustice—were inextricable from liberation, freedom, equality, and world peace.
    As the founding leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Dr. King led a nonviolent movement to abolish the triple evils crippling American society: racism, poverty, and militarism. Associates said he believed those forces were contrary to God’s will for humanity and that they could only be effectively opposed by a interfaith-inspired nonviolent, multiracial social change movement.
    On April 4, 1967, King spoke publicly and eloquently against the tragedies of the U.S.-led war in Vietnam. Today, as the nation observes Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, civil rights leaders, including those who knew the slain leader, offered their thoughts on what his position might be on conflicts in the Middle East and Russia and on the twice-impeached and four-times indicted former President Donald Trump.
    “At the March on Washington in 1964, Dr. King talked about Alabama Gov. George Wallace having his lips dripping with interposition and nullification,” said the Rev. Peter Johnson, who began working for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in Plaquemine, La., and later was recruited by Andrew Young to work for King in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta. “What’s the difference between George Wallace and Donald Trump? You’re not going to hear Trump publicly say the n-word, that’s the only difference,” Johnson remarked. “King would easily have seen that Trump is a bigot in the true sense of the word who actually believes he is superior to people of color.”
    Johnson, Rev. Dr. Jesse Jackson Sr, Rev. Dr. Benjamin Chavis Jr, and others said that the wars between Israel and Hamas and Russia and Ukraine would have stirred Dr. King courageously to declare in King’s own words that “An injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”  Dr. King would again say, “Peace is not just the absence of war; it is the presence of peace.”
    Rev. Jesse Jackson noted that King spoke of a deeper malady in American society. His view was that presidential administrations have been embroiling themselves in conflicts across the globe for the wrong reasons.
    “Dr. King was outspokenly anti-war and anti-racism,” said Rev. Mark Thompson, a civil rights leader who recently joined the National Newspaper Publishers Association as the trade association’s global digital transformation director. “There’s no question King would oppose the war in Ukraine and seek diplomatic solutions. I believe he would also call for a ceasefire in Gaza.”
    “I believe his posture on Congress’s dysfunction would be consistent with the words he used to describe segregationist intransigence in his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech—interposition and nullification,” Thompson declared.
    NNPA President and CEO Rev. Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., also an SCLC youth coordinator alum back in the 1960s, concurred. “Dr. King was a nonviolent freedom fighter who believed that we all members of one humanity. His concept of the ‘beloved community’ was all-inclusive and not discriminatory to anyone,” Chavis insisted. “Today’s world realities of racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, oppression, war, hatred, and bigotry are void of love for one another. We need Dr. King’s wisdom, inclusive theology, and leadership courage today more than ever before.”
    Johnson said there’s little doubt about where King would stand on today’s issues because the icon never wavered. “I don’t think he would have changed his position fundamentally,” Johnson determined.
    “The Black Press of America, through the NNPA, salutes and pays an eternal salute to the wisdom, vision, and courage of The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,” Chavis declared.  “May the 2024 Martin Luther King National Holiday be a day of reflection, action, freedom movement building, and constructive social change for all people in America and throughout the world.”

  • Greene County honors the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on his birthday holiday

    The Alabama Civil Rights Museum Movement held several programs this past weekend in Greene County to honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the paramount civil rights and moral leader of the American Civil Rights Movement.

    Dr. King was assassinated in 1968 at the age of 39. Had he lived this would have been his 94th birthday.

    Spiver W. Gordon, President of the Greene County based museum, held several programs and a march over the weekend marking Dr. King’s actual birthday on January 15th. and the National Holiday celebration on January 16th. The theme of all three programs was ‘Same Dream – Different Strategies’.

    On Sunday at 3:00 PM there was a County-wide Freedom Rally at the New Generation Baptist Church, with a sermon by Rev. Marcus Wright, Pastor of the Mt. Hebron Baptist Church of Aliceville who spoke on God’s promise to Joshua, “that I will be with you, if you are strong and of good courage”.

    On Monday morning there was a Unity Breakfast at the Eutaw Activity Center featuring Rev. Kendrick Howell, Pastor of First Baptist Church of Union, who preached on the Gospel of John.

    After the breakfast, a group marched uptown from the Eutaw Activity Center to the William M. Branch County Courthouse. The marchers were followed by a long line of cars with people participating but unable to walk the distance. The march was led by Gus Richardson in his wheelchair, as it has been for two decades.

    At the Courthouse, a packed courtroom, took part in another Freedom Rally with Attorney John Stamps, III, of Bessemer, Alabama, giving the keynote address. Stamps stressed the importance of personal responsibility and discipline as a way forward for Black people and families.

    At each of the rallies there was great music, mostly gospel songs sung by the choirs with strong support and rhythmic clapping from the rally participants. On Sunday, there was section to memorialize the community leaders and foot soldiers, who contributed to change in the county but have passed on in the past year. Family members of the remembered were given a chance to speak and recall the lives of their loved ones.

    At each of the programs, Spiver Gordon gave out numerous awards to participants for their service, great and small, to the civil rights movement and struggles in the county over the years.

    At the Unity Breakfast, Dr. Carol P. Zippert, former school board member and Co-Publisher of the Democrat in addressing the occasion of the MLK celebration said, “We, we are the occasion, it is up to us to continue the movement Dr. King led and make a commitment to service and helping others, especially our children.”

    People interested in learning more and supporting the Alabama Civil Rights Museum Movement, can contact Spiver W. Gordon at spiverwgordon@hotmail.com or call 205-372-3446.

  • Newswire :  Jefferson County, Alabama elects its first Black sheriff

     By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Correspondent @StacyBrownMedia

     

     Mark Pettway

    There’s a new sheriff in Jefferson County, Alabama. Democrat Mark Pettway defeated longtime Republican incumbent Mike Hale, making Pettway the first African-American sheriff in the county whose largest city is Birmingham. “We have a plan to fight crime and to make sure the cities are safe,” Pettway said after receiving a concession call from Hale. Pettway won more than 52 percent of the vote, according to unofficial tallies on Tuesday. In addition to his many supporters, Pettway credited for his historic victory to the help of the Purpose P.R. Firm in Alabama and its head, Andrew Wyatt, who helped spread Pettway’s message of freedom, justice, equality and inclusion and the importance of Jefferson County in the Civil Rights Era. Pettway also said he was grateful to the National Newspaper Publishers Association, whose member papers didn’t shy away from carrying his message. “Thank you,” Wyatt said to the Black Press on behalf of Pettway. The history of Jefferson County, particularly Birmingham, is unmistakable as the flashpoint of the Civil Rights Movement where the city saw much bloodshed and strife as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others fought for freedom, justice and equality. The Birmingham historical society notes that the city today offers a “sobering and reflective experience for anyone interested in this important era of American history.” Until last year, the sheriff’s department was under a federal consent decree because of its unfair hiring and promotion practices and Pettway, a longtime sergeant, said he’d seen a lot of discrimination and other problems during his 18-year tenure in the department. The consent decree was issued as part of a 1970s-era consolidated lawsuit that alleged the County, City of Birmingham, Sheriff’s Department, and the Personnel Board of Jefferson County discriminated against Blacks and women in their hiring and promotions. Birmingham and the Jefferson County Personnel Board, which provides employment services for the county and cities, were ultimately released from their decrees. Last year a U.S. District Judge finally released the Sheriff’s Department from the decree. “Still,” Pettway said, “not much has changed,” which counted as the primary reason he ran for sheriff. “It didn’t get any better. We’re still not where we should be and after watching other activists in action, I decided it was time for me to rise up and do something,” Pettway said. “That Birmingham, Alabama still resembles in some ways its racist history should be alarming to residents and voters,” Pettway said. Hale who transferred to the Sheriff’s Department in 1976, is expected to help make Pettway’s transition smooth. “I asked him to help with the transition,” Pettway said after receiving the congratulatory phone call from his opponent. “This is a very important and historical election and it’s an opportunity for change. It’s a chance for us to have a seat at the table where we can make those changes and where the hiring practices can be better for people of color and for women and where a [minority] can say, ‘hey, I can be Sheriff one day, too,’” Pettway said. A lifelong Jefferson County resident, Pettway grew up in a working-class neighborhood not far from Birmingham’s Legion Field Stadium. The son of the late Retired Army Sgt. First Class Officer Ed Pettway, and Jefferson County School Teacher Camilla Satisfield, Pettway said he began to realize his potential as his parents provided him with something far greater than material wealth. Specifically, they instilled in him strong moral principles, a robust work ethic and a burning desire to excel. Given his ability to implement this rare yet useful combination of gifts, many said it’s no surprise he learned the value of hard work and determination at an early age. Pettway began his professional career in 1991 at the Birmingham Police Department, where he served as a Correctional Specialist. In 1993, he joined the Fairfield Police Department as a police officer, where he helped to strengthen the law enforcement system by responding to calls, making arrests, issuing citations, and testifying in court cases. In 1999, he joined the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office as a deputy. In 2008, he was promoted to detective and has earned a number of commendations from Hale. He said community policing and criminal justice reform top his agenda. “We have to bridge the gap right now between law enforcement and the community. Right now, there’s no trust and we need body cameras and dashboard cameras and, under my watch, we will be transparent,” Pettway said. “I will implement accountability and the community will know their officers. The officers will get out of their cars and the community will know them by their names,” he said.