POWERGRAMS

15 with Coretta Scott King and Juanita Abernathy, the two older women reminisced about a backyard cookout where they made ice cream from "a very special recipe." As it turned out, that was the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s last meal before leaving the next morning to go to Memphis, where he was assassinated. "I've wondered if the Kings and the Abernathys, over homemade ice cream, envisioned a world where hate and racism would still exist 52 years later," Sanders said. "Have we progressed? Yes, but not enough. Let's not be content with our progress until it becomes commonplace. "I'm thankful that our company has and continues to focus on injustices of discrimination," she said. "Imagine what we can do together when we respect and value and appreciate the differences of one another. Because with privilege comes responsibility." MYLA CALHOUN Birmingham Division vice president Calhoun said employees were isolated when they witnessed the most brutal act of racism – murder – against Blacks "in the middle of this global pandemic that is deadly, and it's robbed us of all the markers we know from spring and summer, prom, graduations, March Madness, opening day." "What I thought about that was this: The acts that we witnessed were really just extreme extensions of the systems of racism that have diminished us all for decades. And what were we going to do about that? What can we do about that?" Calhoun said the answer begins with difficult conversations that help us "see in one another what is good and what is right." There will be hard questions, and imperfect answers. "But there's power in having them. So I ask you all, as I ask myself, to give grace and latitude when talking with people about difficult things like this," she said. "Because that's what it will take to move us through this time." JIM HEILBRON Senior vice president and senior production officer Heilbron grew up in south Miami in a culturally diverse neighborhood. His earliest memories are of playing with friends, "many of whom did not look like me." The same was true as he grew older and found two major passions: athletics and music. "In both pursuits, I was surrounded by diversity in every situation." Fast-forward to this year's senseless killings of Arbery, Taylor and Floyd, which motivated Heilbron to reach out to friends and seek to understand. He listened and learned – about micro-aggression, the concept of privilege "and the mere fact that my Black friends don't necessarily experience our society the way I do. I was disappointed that I was learning new things about old friends." One said something to him "and I'll never forget it. 'Just because you know us doesn't mean you know what it's like to walk in our shoes.' And he was so right." Heilbron said he will not stop seeking to understand, and "now more than ever I'm committed to standing up for racial equality and inclusion within our workplace and the communities we serve." JEFF PEOPLES Executive vice president of Customer and Employee Services Peoples' video showcases one of the ways the company is responding to social injustice: by creating jobs and increasing representation by people of color among company employees. "Alabama Power was created to elevate the state of Alabama, and that's what we're going to do," he said. Peoples interviewed Dr. Reginald Sykes, president of Bishop State Community College in Mobile, and two new Alabama Power utility assistants, Hillie Sykes and Jarrett Mason, to highlight a lineman apprentice program Peoples Calhoun Heilbron

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