Historically, Black women have been an essential force in the struggle for women’s rights as well as the fight against structural racism in all aspects of society including politics, but most often not in executive leadership. Now we are seeing more Black women move beyond their important, traditional roles as organizers and voters (Black women are the largest single demographic group of supporters for the Democratic party) to lead as elected officials, particularly as mayors in some of the nation’s largest cities.
As recently as 2013, there was only one Black woman serving as a mayor in a major city in the entire country. Now we have several Black women in charge in many major cities including Washington, D.C., Charlotte, N.C., Atlanta, Ga., New Orleans, La., Baton Rouge, La., Chicago, Ill. and San Francisco, Ca. Moreover, Kim Janey, president of the Boston City Council, is likely to become acting mayor of the city of Boston if the incumbent mayor, Marty Walsh, becomes the United States Secretary of Labor. He has been nominated by President Biden and is expected to be confirmed.
Black women have long been the most solid bedrock in the Black community and its institutions. That includes their front line activity in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s and the Black Lives Matter movement that came to fruition as a powerful political movement in the aftermath of the police shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. in 2014. The strength and resolve of this historic movement continues to resonate today. Importantly, it was led by strong, determined Black women, often at great personal sacrifice, uncertainty and even physical danger over many months.
We know, because he has told us, that the social and political activism of LeBron James came from his upbringing by his mother, Gloria James. When he was born in Akron, Ohio, his mother was only 16 years old and his maternal grandmother (with whom he and his mother lived) died just three years later of a heart attack. The young mom and her child had to move 12 times in three years. LeBron attributes his steadfastness as a champion of his people as well as a champion on the basketball court to his mother’s influence. He says it was his mother who helped build his strength and perseverance, while instilling in him his commendable values that include his unyielding social conscience and his concern for those other than himself. This story of an extraordinary Black mother and her child exemplifies what so many of us have experienced as a result of our mother’s love, wisdom, guidance, support and inspiration. They taught us early on that we have to be smarter, work harder or be better than anyone else just to stay in the game.
Our response to those who seek to denigrate and undermine Black women leaders is to remind them about what characterizes Black women’s success. Like their mothers, they have self-awareness and pride, are strong and resilient and able to recover from difficult conditions. Black women leaders have had to rely on those qualities more heavily because of the obstacles and attacks they often face and in most cases, have been able to bounce back from. Refusing to be distracted to make progress, Black women leaders for the most part, have demonstrated the agility to transform obstacles into opportunities.
At the moment, the importance of the outcome of the mayoral race in St. Louis on April 6 can’t be over-emphasized. We often see elected officials with a national platform gain more attention than local elected officials. The truth is that the performance and productivity of local elected officials has more direct consequences for regular citizens in their daily lives than elected officials who are more limited in their impact because they are only part of a larger, more difficult to influence, political structure.
We need to be mindful that the mayor of the city of St. Louis is the CEO of a city that may be on the brink of a dramatic change in its fortunes, accelerated by the availability of substantially greater financial resources after the passage of the $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package. The old guard who have controlled the business and politics of the city for many decades will not go away easily. But if the Black women of St. Louis assert their voting strength, along with their progressive white allies, at the polls in April, the outcome will be a wrap. Tishaura Jones would become a colleague of the Black women mayors who are leading their communities to more successful, equitable and prosperous futures.
