“Whether you live in Penrose or Holly Hills, South Broadway or Natural Bridge…I will be a mayor for you and your family, whether you supported me or not.”~ Mayor Tishaura Jones
This week, Tishaura Oneda Jones was sworn in as mayor in the City of St. Louis, becoming the first Black woman to hold this office.
The leadership of a Black woman in a racially polarized city whose racial demographics are 45 percent Black, 48 percent white, four percent Hispanic and three percent Asian and where Black residents are three times more likely to live in poverty than their white neighbors matters.
The leadership of a Black woman who graduated from area public schools matters when Black students and white students in St. Louis have vastly different educational resources, experiences and outcomes.
Yet representation is not the sole reason grassroots organizations― led largely by Black women who were also responsible for mobilizing voters to elect County Prosecutor Wesley Bell, Congresswoman Cori Bush and Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner as well as shifting public policies in this region―chose to put their political force behind Mayor Jones. They did so because St. Louis is facing a political precipice, and all the people of St. Louis need a mayor.
As we enter this year with our highest homicide rate in the last 50 years and our lowest confidence level between the people and police, a poorly-managed pandemic and vaccine rollout which exposed the fragility of our safety nets for the most vulnerable of our citizens, the people need a mayor who has a plan.
Mayor Jones knows, first hand, the disproportionate distribution of resources in this city. She knows we cannot simply celebrate charity and not work to implement policies and programs that provide a hand up and not just a hand out. She understands that petty politics hinder the advancement of people-centered politics. The people need a competent mayor who is not afraid to lead.
The above quote from her inauguration speech makes it clear she intends to do more than occasionally visit the marginalized areas of our city. Mayor Jones intends to center her services on the people who dwell in those margins. We need a mayor with such empathy and compassion.
I celebrate this coming era of open doors. From the very start, this mayor is inviting to the table voices that have not been allowed in the room. As she stated Tuesday, change will not be easy or swift, but change will come if we persevere with courage and grace. All the people finally have a mayor. Her name is Tishaura Oneda Jones, and she is the mayor of St. Louis.
Rev. Traci Blackmon is the Associate General Minister of Justice & Local Church Ministries for The United Church of Christ.
