Sadiqa Reynolds | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | January 30, 1972 |
| Nationality | American |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Education | |
| Occupation(s) | Lawyer, CEO |
Sadiqa Reynolds is an American attorney and social justice advocate. She is the current CEO of the Perception Institute, and the former president of the Louisville Urban League. Reynolds served as the first African American Inspector General for the state of Kentucky.
Reynolds was born in the Bronx, New York, in 1972. She grew up in the South Bronx. She moved to Kentucky with her mother when she was 5. Her mother worked at GTE as a telephone operator. According to Reynolds, "I would just dial zero and ask to speak to my mother.” [1]
Reynolds earned her bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Louisville in 1993 and later earned her Juris Doctor degree from the University of Kentucky. [2] She is also a member of Delta Sigma Theta. [3]
Reynolds was named Inspector General for Kentucky in 2008. Prior to that, she ran a private law practice. In 2009, Reynolds was appointed a District Judge in Jefferson County by Governor Steve Beshear. [3] Reynolds was also the first African American women to clerk for the Kentucky Supreme Court. [4]
Reynolds became president and CEO of the Louisville Urban League in 2015. [1] She was the first female to serve as president across the organization's 101-year history. [5] Reynolds is credited with increasing the League's budget and staff, helping with development of the Louisville Urban Sports and Learning Campus, and championing Black-owned businesses. [6]
In 2022, Reynolds became CEO of the Perception Institute, a company focused on combating bias and discrimination. [7]
During her time as a lawyer, Reynolds provided pro bono hours representing "domestic violence victims and other disadvantaged citizens". [8]
In 2020, following the fatal shooting of David McAtee by the Kentucky Army National Guard in Louisville during nationwide protests following the murder of George Floyd and the killing of Breonna Taylor, Reynolds recruited a local gospel singer to sing "Amazing Grace" after the coroner removed McAtee's body. [9] Reynolds helped by distributing masks and assisting teenagers involved in the protest, saying: "I'm proud of these young people for doing what they need to do, and I'm proud of those in my generation, the 40-somethings ... that are here to protect [the younger generation]." [10]
Elaine Lan Chao is an American businesswoman and former government official who served as United States secretary of labor in the administration of George W. Bush from 2001 to 2009 and as United States Secretary of Transportation in the administration of Donald Trump from 2017 to 2021. A member of the Republican Party, Chao was the first Asian American woman to serve in a presidential cabinet or as secretary of transportation. She resigned as transportation secretary after the January 6 United States Capitol attack.
Bellarmine University is a private Catholic university in Louisville, Kentucky. It opened on October 3, 1950, as Bellarmine College, established by Archbishop John A. Floersh of the Archdiocese of Louisville and named after Saint Robert Bellarmine. In 2000, it became Bellarmine University. The university is organized into seven colleges and schools and confers bachelor's and master's degrees in more than 50 academic majors, along with seven doctoral degrees; it is classified among "D/PU: Doctoral/Professional Universities".
The Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) began operations on January 6, 2003, as part of the creation of the consolidated city-county government in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. It was formed by the merger of the Jefferson County Police Department and the Louisville Division of Police. The Louisville Metro Police Department has been headed by Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel since January 2, 2023. LMPD divides Jefferson County into eight patrol divisions and operates a number of special investigative and support units. The LMPD is currently negotiating a consent decree with the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) subsequent to a 2023 investigation by the DOJ that concluded that the LMPD engaged in a decades long pattern of civil rights abuses.
Since it earliest days, the economy of Louisville, Kentucky, has been underpinned by the shipping and cargo industries. Today, Louisville is home to dozens of companies and organizations across several industrial classifications.
Suzan Denise Johnson Cook is a U.S. presidential advisor, pastor, theologian, author, activist, and academic who served as the United States Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom from April 2011 to October 2013. She has served as a policy advisor to President Bill Clinton and later to the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Henry Cisneros, a dean and professor of communications at Harvard University, a professor of theology at New York Theological Seminary, a pastor at a number of churches, a television producer, and the author of nearly a dozen books. She was the first female senior pastor in the 200-year history of the Mariners Temple Baptist Church in NYC part of the American Baptist Churches USA and a close friend of Coretta Scott King. She is an honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority.
Leigh Ann Fetter, later known by her married name Leigh Ann Witt, is an American former competition swimmer and accomplished coach who represented the United States at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea.
Gregory Edward Fischer is an American businessman and entrepreneur who served as the second mayor of Louisville Metro from 2011 to 2023. In 2019, he was elected vice president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and in 2020, he served as its president.
Suzanne Post was a civil rights activist in the struggle against discrimination and social injustice in Kentucky. She was born to Morris and Betty Kling in Louisville, Kentucky on March 19, 1933. She joined a student branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People while a student at Indiana University, and continued her student activism at the University of California Berkeley. In her long career, she advocated for social justice and led the way in the battle for civil rights, women's rights, LGBTQ rights, and equity in housing and education. Her Uncle Arthur Kling helped found the Kentucky Civil Liberties Union in 1955 and served on the Board of the Louisville Urban League. Michael Aldridge, a former ACLU director, in an article for the Louisville Courier Journal, wrote "the Kling family 's own personal experience with bigotry, and a shared memory of historic oppression and violence, made them fight all prejudice and restrictions on the civil liberties of others".
Attica Woodson Scott is an American politician who served as a member of the Kentucky House of Representatives from the 41st district from 2017 to 2023.
Alberta Odell Jones was an African-American attorney and civil rights icon. She was one of the first African-American women to pass the Kentucky bar and the first woman appointed city attorney in Jefferson County. She was murdered by an unknown person.
Daniel Jay Cameron is an American attorney and politician who served as the 51st attorney general of Kentucky from 2020 to 2024. A member of the Republican Party, Cameron was the first African American, and the first Republican since 1943, to be elected to the office. He was the Republican nominee in the 2023 Kentucky gubernatorial election, losing to incumbent Democrat Andy Beshear.
Breonna Taylor was an African-American woman who was shot and killed while unarmed in her Louisville, Kentucky home by three police officers who entered under the auspices of a "no-knock" search warrant. After Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) ex-detective Brett Hankison was acquitted of felony wanton endangerment of Taylor's neighbors at the state-level, Attorney-General Merrick Garland announced the Department of Justice was charging Hankison with the unconstitutional use of excessive force that violated Taylor's civil rights. Three other officers, who were not present at the shooting, were also federally charged with conspiracy in falsifying evidence to procure the search warrant, and then covering it up.
On March 13, 2020, Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old African-American woman, was fatally shot in her Louisville, Kentucky apartment when at least seven police officers forced entry into the apartment as part of an investigation into drug dealing operations. Three Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) officers—Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison, and Myles Cosgrove—were involved in the shooting. Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, was inside the apartment with her when the plainclothes officers knocked on the door and then forced entry. The officers said that they announced themselves as police before forcing entry, but Walker said he did not hear any announcement, thought the officers were intruders, and fired a warning shot at them. The shot hit Mattingly in the leg, and the officers fired 32 shots in return. Walker was unhurt but Taylor, who was behind Walker, was hit by six bullets and died. During the incident, Hankison moved to the side of the apartment and shot 10 bullets through a covered window and glass door. According to police, Taylor's home was never searched.
On June 1, 2020, David McAtee, a 53-year-old African-American man, was fatally shot by the Kentucky Army National Guard in Louisville during nationwide protests following the murder of George Floyd and the killing of Breonna Taylor. The Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) and National Guard were in the area to enforce a curfew. According to officials, the police and soldiers were fired upon by McAtee, and two Louisville officers and two National Guardsmen returned fire. McAtee was killed by a shot fired from a guardsman. The body cams of the police involved were deactivated during the shooting, in violation of department policy. Hours later, police chief Steve Conrad was fired by Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer.
This is a list of protests brought on by the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd in Kentucky, United States. In 2020, there were protests throughout Kentucky in reaction to the shooting of Breonna Taylor and murder of George Floyd by police, as well as the shooting of David McAtee by the Kentucky Army National Guard. The demonstrations happened regularly in the largest cities in Kentucky, including Louisville and Lexington. Many of the smaller cities had protests on at least one day.
The Breonna Taylor protests were a series of police brutality protests surrounding the killing of Breonna Taylor. Taylor was a 26-year-old African-American woman who was fatally shot by plainclothes officers of the Louisville Metro Police Department on March 13, 2020. Police were initially given "no-knock" search warrant, but orders were changed to "knock and announce" before the raid. Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, who was inside the apartment with her during the raid, said he thought the officers were intruders. He fired one shot, hitting officer Mattingly in the leg, and the officers fired 32 shots in return, killing Taylor.
The 2022 Louisville mayoral election was the sixth quadrennial Louisville Metro mayoral election, held on November 8, 2022. Incumbent Democratic mayor Greg Fischer is term-limited and cannot seek reelection to a fourth term in office.
Keturah Herron is an American politician from Kentucky. They are a Democrat and represent District 42 in the State House. When elected in 2022, they were the first out LGBTQ+ member in the Kentucky House of Representatives. They are only the second out member of the Kentucky General Assembly following Ernesto Scorsone, former state senator, who came out while in office in 2003. After Scorsone left the legislature in 2008, there was no LGBTQ+ representation in either chamber until Herron. Herron is also only the third Black woman to be in the Kentucky state legislature.