Milledgeville Mayor responds after deleted Facebook video draws criticism

Parham-Copelan says her message was about voting and remembering history.

MILLEDGEVILLE, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Milledgeville Mayor Mary Parham-Copelan is speaking out for the first time after a now-deleted Facebook video sparked attention online and drew criticism from some community members.  Some say they feel the mayor is bringing racism into politics.

It’s been a week since Mayor Mary Parham-Copelan recorded the now viral video. The video was deleted the same day, but before that happened, someone recorded and edited a 90-second version that is now circulating online.

Parham-Copelan says the original purpose and intent was stripped away to the shorter version circulating online.

“Nothing I said brought racism or division to the table,” she said. “It brought awareness. It brought the understanding of knowing where we’ve been and bringing us to where we are and carrying us to where we’re going to be.”

“Never, ever is it my intent to divide or separate and bring racism into anything that’s not in my character, in my content,” she added.

The mayor’s opponent in the race, Walter Reynolds, also commented on the video.

“I do want to make it clear that what’s stirring around on social media right now is not reflective of who we are as a community,” he said. “It’s not reflective of anyone. And I mean anyone, including the mayor, anyone that’s stepping up to serve this community in this race.”

The mayor says the original 15-minute video was meant to highlight the importance of voting.  She says she was talking about her own experiences and what is happening on levels of government. In the video, and for us, she recounted an experience she remembered while a little girl in Milledgeville. 

“At one point my father took me into a restaurant, and going in that restaurant, we had to go in the back of the door,” she said. “We couldn’t go to the front of the building. So as a child, you can imagine what thought process was going through my mind to see me on one side of the podium and somebody else on the other. I can remember when our courthouse here had White only, colored only fountains.”

She says her responsibility as a Black woman mayor is something she won’t shy away from.

“When we look at the city of Milledgeville, and growing up through the times that I grew up in, we have to remember where we were,” she said. “If you can’t remember where you’ve been, you can’t go where you need to go. And so in moving forward, that’s the only thing that I want to do, is just to broaden that knowledge that this, listen, lets not go back 50 years ago, let’s continue to move forward.”

Monday, Lemuel Brown, the president of the Macon-Bibb Southern Christian Leadership Conference, encouraged the community to support the Mayor at City Hall on Tuesday. A work session begins at 5 p.m. followed by the city council meeting at 6.

Election day is set for Tuesday, November 4.