EXCELLENCE IN WRITING

SHE'S COMPLEX, SOMETIMES CONFRONTATIONAL AND OFTEN CONTROVERSIAL.

LEXINGTON ACTIVIST SARAH WILLIAMS SAYS WHAT YOU THINK YOU KNOW ABOUT HER IS NOT THE WHOLE STORY.

WILLIAMS IS THE FACE OF PROTESTS THIS SUMMER IN LEXINGTON.   

WE WANTED TO KNOW WHAT DRIVES HER AND HER PUSH FOR CHANGE.

NEW AT SIX ... W-K-Y-T'S CHELSEA JONES LOOKS INTO THE MIND OF AN ACTIVIST.

(PKG)

 Nat: protesters chanting

 Nat: bull horn, Sarah speaks

 You may have seen her in the streets of downtown Lexington.

She and protesters marched for 44 days straight.

 Nat: Sarah talking to protesters

 We wanted to know what drives a person to do this day after day.

 Sarah Williams: "Sarah Williams .... S-a-r-a-h."

 So we spent time with her, one on one ….

 Sarah Williams:  "The fact that I am biracial, right? My mother is white my father is black."

 And to find out who she is.

 Sarah Williams: "You realize that the way in which you are treated in the world, the way in which you are viewed in the world is different than your white mother."

 This is Sarah Williams

 Growing up in Fayette county, attending Lexington public schools is where Sarah first experienced racism.

 Sarah Williams: "You do have teachers that will treat you differently, grade you differently."

 But it wasn't until she graduated from Western Kentucky University with a bachelor's in nursing and two master's degrees that she started to make sense of it.

 Sarah Williams:  "You know, also my career as a nurse, starting out at UK and going to Good Sam."

 Treating some patients, she'll never forget.

Sarah Williams: "You're called the n-word, or I don't want this n-word taking care of me."

 Sarah was suspended from her job after a disagreement with a white co-worker.

 Sarah pushed for them to do an investigation but says that did not occur.

 Sarah Williams: "Once I found out that UK was on open records institution and all I needed was my driver's license or ID to go to the office of legal affairs and obtain all the permanent files of all of these white nurses that I knew had been treated differently than me, they then offered me my job back."

 But her principles wouldn't allow her to do that.

 Sarah made a fresh start as a travel nurse.

 While working in St. Louis, she met the love of her life, a corrections officer,

 Sarah Williams: "The one thing that connected us to even have further conversation was both of our ability and desire to treat this person like a human being."

 But their union ended in tragedy in 2011 when someone found Javelins Lewis dead from a gunshot wound. Police ruled it a suicide.

 Sarah Williams: "The funeral director said I've done hundreds of autopsies in the past year and I know for the way that wound is on his head, that was not self-inflicted."

 Sarah felt authorities were too quick to dismiss the possibility of a crime.

 She fought for more answers but ...

 Sarah Williams: "I reached the point where I had to ....(gets emotional)....begin to find peace outside of that."

 After moving back home, another incident moved her to tears. Caught on camera former Lexington police chaplain Donovan Stewart punching a restrained teenager.

 Sarah Williams:  "If any one of us had been caught doing that to our children in public, even if they had inflicted physical harm on us, CPS would come take our kids and be completing an investigation."

 Sarah, a mother of 6, she says she could relate to his family.

 Sarah Williams: "When I was talking to the mother and she started crying and she said what people did not know is that he is autistic. It lit a fire in me."

 In the months to follow, she went on a crusade for police accountability.

 And in the spring, George Floyd and Breonna Taylor's deaths sparked an even bigger movement: a  brighter spotlight on Sarah's activism.

Work that's been the source of some controversy and conflict with police.

Sarah Williams: "Why, why have you been silent, and why have you not done anything about former chaplain Donovan Stewart?"

 She was even arrested for inciting a riot.

Nat

 and even how we covered what happened.

 Sarah Williams: Sarah reading, "They also advise however that tensions are rising to the point that some protesters are engaging in illegal and dangerous actions." 

 Sarah Williams:  "What are those illegal and dangerous actions?"

 She says video clips, whether on the news or social media, don't always tell the entire story

 Nat: Sarah yelling at officers

 Sarah Williams: "There are a lot of personal experiences that tie in to this for me. Can I say that at every moment I'm going to remain the most composed, politically correct kind of person, obviously not."

 But Sarah is an activist and says she'll keep fighting for the things she hopes to see.

 Sarah Williams: "LPD accountability.

We want a complete change in the way LPD currently operates."

 In Lexington, Chelsea Jones, WKYT.

WILLIAMS AND HER SISTER, APRIL TAYLOR, HAVE BOTH BEEN NAMED IN A LAWSUIT BY FORMER LEXINGTON POLICE OFFICER DONOVAN STEWART ACCUSING THEM OF DEFAMATION.

WILLIAMS HAS SAID SHE STANDS BY HER COMMENTS.

STEWART'S ATTORNEY SAID FAYETTE COUNTY PROSECUTORS CLEARED HIM OF WRONGDOING FROM THE FAYETTE MALL INCIDENT.

STEWART IS BEING SUED BY THE TEEN'S FAMILY CLAIMING HE USED EXCESSIVE FORCE.