King's non-violence message personal for councilman

The struggle for people to live out Martin Luther King Jr.'s message of nonviolence is all too real for Franklin City Councilman Eugene Foulcard and his family.
Foulcard was the guest speaker during a Martin Luther King Jr. Day Observance and March Monday at Zion Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Patterson. Patterson Civic Organization, a local community group, hosted the event.
What is most remarkable about King's push for civil rights is how he accomplished it, Foulcard said.
"Dr. King helped put nonviolence squarely in the center of the Civil Rights Movement," he said.
Foulcard's family has recently experienced the heartbreak of violence on a personal level.
His nephews, Braylen Foulcard, 16, and Alfred Hill Jr., 31, both of Franklin, were killed in shootings during late 2016.
Franklin police arrested a 15-year-old boy on a first-degree murder charge in connection with the Oct. 23, 2016, shooting death of Braylen Foulcard. Less than a month later, on Nov. 18, Hill was shot and killed in Harvey, The Times-Picayune reported.
For almost all of King's adult life, he "confronted ignorance, violence, hate with nothing but patience and an open hand and an open heart" while trying to overcome centuries of discrimination and oppression, Foulcard said.
King's "message of nonviolence resonates more than ever today," he said.
"Regrettably, there are those who still seek to impose their will through violence that has shaken us to our very core," he said.
People must resist the temptation to retaliate against others and not let anger and grief overtake them, he said.
During the family's tough times, Foulcard's mother stressed to the family "to keep your eye on God" to get through everything they were going through, he said.
"We cannot expect our children to love, if we don't teach them about God first," he said.
Foulcard questioned whether "black lives really matter" to people in their own communities.
In 2016, nearly 6,000 black people were killed by other black people in the country through some form of violence, he said.
"Black men and boys are being executed at an alarming rate among one another," he said.
"When a police officer shoots and kills a black individual, we start riots. We protest. When we kill each other ... nothing is said. No one wants to speak up," Foulcard said.
One of the issues facing the black community, in particular, is not enough fathers being involved in their children's lives, he said.
Before 1960, there were "many two-parent households," he said.
"There's a direct correlation to the spike in crime and black-on-black crime. But we're killing our seeds because of the gun violence and gun culture in America," Foulcard said.
Guns are readily available for teens and young adults in the community, Foulcard said. Foulcard praised President Barack Obama for advocating for "common sense gun control," he said.
A reason that some children are growing up without fathers is due to the high percentage of long-term incarceration among black men in the U.S. for non-violent drug offenses, which is a problem society needs to address, he said.
Foulcard also discussed the dangers of social media and encouraged parents to keep track of what their kids do online.
The Franklin City Council recently passed Foulcard's proposal to designate "safe zones," including the police department, for people to meet to deliver or receive items they ordered from someone online He advised people to advantage of those zones.
"If someone doesn't want to come and meet you at the police department, something is wrong. I've had two nephews that were lost to similar incidents," Foulcard said.
Foulcard quoted King, saying that only light can get rid of darkness, and only love can conquer hate.
"As we celebrate his accomplishments, let us embrace his legacy of non-violence as we move forward," Foulcard said.