ALBANY — John White collected many stories during his 22 years as a representative in the Georgia House, but one of his most compelling stories is from his childhood. It’s a story that speaks volumes about who he is today.
“In 1957, there was a black couple on their way home from church in Montgomery, and they stopped to let their little girl play in a public park,” White said. “They were arrested for being black, and there were protests throughout the city. Public officials decided to close the park.
“Not long after that my daddy came home one day and said to my brothers and me ‘Come on, boys, we’re going to clear some of our land and build a park.’ We did, and that park is still open today.”
As he served what became a somewhat contentious tenure in the state House, the former educator and former television news reporter said he took another lesson he learned from his father to heart.
“I learned at home at an early age that if you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember it,” White said.
After leaving the House some 11 years ago, White has remained on the periphery of the political scene in the region. He says he hasn’t lost touch with old colleagues at the Capitol, and he’s remained active as a member of Albany Tomorrow Inc. and as chairman of the Unity Community political organization.
Now, with longtime state Sen. Michael Meyer von Bremen vacating his District 12 post to run for a seat on the Georgia Court of Appeals, White has decided to jump back into the political fray, challenging former state Rep. Freddie Powell Sims for the Senate seat.
“I used the time away (from politics) to get a lot of stress off the body,” White said. “I’ve maintained contact with folks in Atlanta, and I’ve been back to the Capitol every year during the legislative session. The people who get things done up there, the staff, are still in place, only the leadership has changed.
“In the last several years, I’ve gotten calls from (former) constituents who ask me what they can do about problems they have. They say they don’t have anyone to speak for them. That’s because people like (Sims) haven’t figured out the process up there. They don’t have the experience. She’s been up there, what, 120 days? I have more experience than all of our current legislative delegation combined.”
White says he’s drawn on that experience as he’s traveled the district that encompasses Clay, Randolph, parts of Mitchell, Dougherty, Terrell, Baker, Calhoun and Quitman counties.
“It’s quite a task, to cover all of the 12th district,” he said. “I’ve definitely put the miles on my car. But I’ve found people in the district who are happy to have someone willing to speak up for them. I’ve stopped at convenience stores, visited government offices of the 18 cities and towns in the district, stopped and talked to people sitting on their front porches.
“I talked with a 60-year-old lady in Clay County who said no candidate had ever visited her. I talked with four or five people in Fort Gaines who unloaded their concerns on me. I’ve gotten out there and talked one-on-one, reconnected with the voters, many of whom said they didn’t even know who their state senator was.”
During his tenure in the state House (1975-1997), White was one of the first legislators to support a statewide lottery, which when enacted in 1977 poured millions of dollars into education. His name was also on bills that provided sick leave for teachers, allowed the governor to succeed himself, required district rather than at-large elections in Dougherty County and made Ray Charles’ “Georgia on My Mind” the state song.
He says issues like education, housing, revamping the state prison system and economic development concerns that will help relieve some of the burden of high fuel prices and a sagging economy are vital to the 12th district and all of Georgia.
“What I think I bring to the table is forward thinking,” said White, who received master’s and B.S. degrees from Florida A&M University and studied in Georgia State University’s doctoral degree program. “I know the issues that affect the people of this region, and I have ideas about how to address them. I’ve never been a political insider in the legislature, but I know how to work with them.
“I read in the paper where my opponent is trying to take credit for getting funding for Albany State University’s fine arts center, which is not truthful. She actually hindered the process and almost lost that money. I think that’s a good example of how her inexperience reduces her strength and the strength of the region.”
White said he is delivering a message of change to the people he encounters.
“What I’m telling the voters is that I expect to be their new senator,” he said. “And I tell them I will be working with them and for them to address the issues most important to them.”