Milledgeville Mayor Mary Parham-Copelan is facing backlash after releasing a 25-minute Facebook livestream, hours after qualifying for her third term, discussing the state of Milledgeville and her mayoral election competition.
“We will be knocking door-to-door not just in my neighborhood, because I am bold enough to go to the enemies’ camp because my story has significance,” Parham-Copelan said in the livestream. “I don’t mind saying it at this point in the game. There are many that look like us that have already sold out. When I tell you they’ve sold out because they don’t care about it, a dollar means more to some people than people doing the right thing and being upfront, fair, and honest.”
She received backlash for making it a “racial race” and speaking “derogatory” towards citizens choosing not to vote or to vote for “the enemy.” Some residents took her words to suggest that Milledgeville wanted to return to days of segregation.
“Do we want to go back to that in the city of Milledgeville? No, but we have a group of people determined to move us back and we do not want to go back to sometimes when we couldn’t even have a voice,” said Parham-Copelan in the video, referring to the Milledgeville of her childhood.
Due to the comments that followed the livestream, Reynolds released a public statement to his campaign Facebook noting Parham-Copelan’s words as “deeply concerning” and alluded to problems with municipal leadership, stating a leader should “respect every resident, value every voice, and seek to bring people together.”
“Suggesting that people who choose not to vote a certain way have “sold out,” or that parts of our community are “the enemy,” only drives us further apart. Words matter — especially from those in leadership — and this type of rhetoric creates division when what we need is unity,” wrote Reynolds. “Milledgeville’s future depends on us working side by side, not on tearing each other down.”
Since the video’s release, Parham-Copelan has deleted it, though excerpts are still posted online.
According to 13WMAZ, she deleted the video because her campaign manager told her to.
She released a public statement Aug. 20 on her personal Facebook defending the history she spoke of and stating excerpts “changed the narrative.”
“As a citizen born and raised here in Milledgeville, my comments were directed at a time when I lived through some dark times. History is history which unfortunately, is uncomfortable, yet I’m proud that as time evolved, we see a more progressive time,” wrote Parham-Copelan. “I have a question, was the original post not educational, and informed people about how political elections have turned for the worse?”
Parham-Copelan states her goal was never to divide citizens and has always been to unite the public together, citing her own blended family and her work with former Baldwin County Commissioner Henry Craig as examples.
“I can’t be prouder of my tenure and leadership over the last eight years. I’m the mayor of all people,” she wrote. “For those of you who have not gotten to know me, please consider getting to know me. I’m that same lady who was elected eight years ago.”
On Aug. 26, Parham-Copelan sat down with 41WMGT to give her perspective a week following the posted video.
“Nothing I said brought racism or division to the table. It brought awareness, the understanding of where we have been to where we are and carrying us to where we are going to be,” she said in the interview. “When we look at the city of the Milledgeville and the times I grew up in, we have to remember where we were. I wanted to broaden that knowledge to help us to continue to move forward.”
Since being elected in 2018, Parham-Copelan has worked on addressing many issues, including the city’s water problems, downtown development, anti-crime programs, and youth outreach initiatives. She has also spoken on bringing the city and county together to partner on issues that affect both the city and county residents.
At the conclusion of her statement, Parham-Copelan said she will be hosting public forums next month to lay out her goals and plans. Reynolds has made no further comments on the video.
To stay up to date on either candidate, refer to their campaign Facebook pages Elect Mayor Mary-Parham Copelan; Milledgeville Mayor and Walter Reynolds for Milledgeville.