JEFFERSON CO. GA. SCLC

By Carol McLeod
Staff Writer

About 100 people attended a Mass Unity Rally sponsored the Jefferson County chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference held on the courthouse lawn in Louisville on Saturday, Sept. 27.

Officers of the local chapter were sworn in by Superior Court Judge Bobby Reeves.

Reeves also spoke to the group, praising the SCLC’s origins and positive impact on the civil rights movement. “I am honored to participate in this meeting of this great organization, with its roots deeply embedded in the hard clay of the civil rights struggles of the 1950s, and its branches extending into every area of the 21st century,” Reeves said.

Reeves mentioned the founding of the SCLC by people he called great leaders. Those founders included the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph David Abernathy and Ella Baker.

“(T)he Southern Christian Leadership Conference has been at the forefront in promoting spiritual principles within its membership and local communities; educating youth and adults in the areas of personal responsibility, leadership potential and community service; ensuring economic justice and civil rights in the areas of discrimination and affirmative action; and eradicating environmental classism and racism wherever it exists,” the judge said.

“We need this sort of leadership now just as much as ever. In that connection, I need, and ask for, your help,” he said.

Reeves said he often sees young defendants with no direction, no goals and no options.

He said he, with the help of others, has planned and is implementing initiatives to create options, provide incentives, provide mentoring and change lives of young people who come to his court room as defendants.

At that time, Reeves said, the defendants have either worked out a plea bargain or they are appearing before a jury.

“I think you’ll agree with me that what we’re doing now is not working,” he said. “They give me a detention center. They give me a prison and that’s all I have.”

The judge said the community, the district attorneys and the defense attorneys can work together to provide alternatives to young people to help lead them from a life of crime.

“Then, together, you, with them, can meet with the judge to chart a plan of action. I want more options. But I have to have someone standing with the young defendant willing to help. This can, and will, work,” he said.

“So it is time for a bold initiative to change the way we encounter these young people. What better organization than this one to embark on a bold initiative? Look at what it has done in the past. I submit there is more work to be done, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference is the perfect organization to make this change happen. Together we can make a difference. I am ready to go to work if you will join me,” Reeves said.

Hayward Altman, the district attorney elect, gave a financial appeal and asked for community support.

“Like the judge pointed out, it is up to you to help us to help them,” he said.

“The best place to go for inspiration is the Bible,” Altman said and talked about the Biblical story where Jesus took five loaves of bread and some fish and fed a multitude.

He encouraged people to support the SCLC and their work in whatever way they could.

“They will do great in the community,” he said.

Dexter Wimbish, general counsel for the SCLC, said Jefferson County’s chapter is the 63rd chapter of the SCLC and that the organization has chapters around the world.

“SCLC is a non-violent, direct action organization,” he said. “Understand that for black folks having nothing is nothing new.”

He talked about the recent crisis in the financial industry and asked how companies could post record profits a year ago and be filing bankruptcy this year.

“We might have no money but we can count,” he said. “Did anybody get a phone call in the middle of the night from Dick Cheney? Did Barack Obama call anybody?” he said of the recently considered $700 billion bail out for the industry.

He talked about companies that make shoes for $4 in another country and then sell those shoes for $150 in the United States.

“Mama and Daddy were making the shoes so they got a cut; they bought the shoes and part of the sales went into their paychecks,” he said. “Now we’ve been cut out.

“We can’t blame white people because we can’t raise our kids,” he said. “Everybody wants to blame everybody else. When you send your kids out there without the tools they need, don’t be surprised when they come (to trial). Economic unity is no longer an alternative, it’s a necessity.”

“We can only have unity if we tell the truth,” said Malcolm Cash, a college professor in Ohio.

“How can black colleges graduate thousands of black people every year and then Katrina happens and we start begging?” he asked.

“I’d rather have Hillary Clinton for president than Clarence Thomas,” he said.

He spoke about the importance of educating young people and asked them, “How many of you have read a book by Martin Luther King? We have the responsibility to educate our young people.

“I’ve never heard a DA like yours. I’ve never heard a judge like yours. If you don’t want them, send them to us. We need them,” he said.

Ricky Watson Jr., a 17-year-old, spoke to the group about breaking the system.

“You can’t let people tell you, ‘You can only be this because your mama was this. You can only be this because your father was this,’” he said. “It’s time to break the system. This is the life you’re living because you let someone else deal with it.”

Jefferson County Sheriff’s Maj. Charles Gibbons said unity is essential and important.

“We must have remorse and forgiveness,” he said, adding the Bible states how to treat people.

“I walk the streets and I ride the roads every day and people turn their heads,” he said.

Gibbons said he speaks to people in the grocery stores and they won’t talk to him.

“But they come to my office with an $800 ticket. They’ll talk to me then,” he said. “Unity. We must have it to survive.”

He said the Bible says for people to be kind to each other.

“I’m kind to people every day. To my left is a man who’s kind every day,” he said, indicating Jefferson County Sheriff Gary Hutchins.

Gibbons said people come to the JCSO when they’re in trouble and he tells them to talk with the sheriff.

“People don’t want to talk to him. Who are you going to talk to?”

Gibbons said he tells young people to come to him before they get in trouble and he’ll try to get them help.

“After you get in trouble, what can I do?” he asked.

“If something doesn’t change in Jefferson County, our worst day’s ahead of us,” Gibbons said.

“A good cop will never steer you wrong. We’re all in this together. You can overcome the system. We must help our youth. We must tighten up on them,” he said.

“Let this be the beginning,” Gibbons said. “Let’s make Jefferson County work for all of us. This is our community.”