Mayors

By: Shirley M. Geiger

Source:

 Black Women in America, Second Edition

Mayors

Taking her place as mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, one of the largest cities in the United States, Shirley Clark Franklin said, “I proudly represent all of the women who have toiled in the fields, worked in the kitchens, fought for our rights, and challenged our society.” Elected in November 2001, Mayor Franklin joined “the great sisterhood” of over 125 black women heading cities and towns in the United States. Their ranks have grown in unprecedented number since the 1972 election of Ellen Walker Craig-Jones, of Urbancrest, Ohio, as the first black woman mayor. The election in Urbancrest came more than 350 years after the first African woman set foot on these shores, 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, 100 years after the election of the first black man as mayor of an American town, and almost 50 years after the election of the first white woman mayor.

From having numbers “too small for reliable analysis,” and “not being a viable force,” at the start of the twenty-first century black women constituted a fourth of the 451 black mayors of America's cities and towns. They led cities ranging in population from 56 citizens in tiny Neylandville, Texas, to 428,000 in rapidly growing Atlanta, Georgia. The states of Mississippi (13), Oklahoma (12), and South Carolina (8) had the highest numbers of black women mayors. While it is true that these women mayors served at the local level (sometimes viewed as less prestigious), devolution at the national level, in particular, makes their leadership of greater importance to the quality of life of their citizens.

Sharon Sayles Belton, former mayor of Minneapolis. She was elected in 1994 and was the first African American and the first woman to hold the office.

Courtesy of City of Minneapolis Department of Communications

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Perhaps it is the nature of mayorship itself that makes it attractive to black women. Murphy explains that the political process is distinctly more personalized for the mayor. Local policies have a more immediate and tangible impact on constituents, and constituents have more personal knowledge of the mayor's performance. In terms of relationships with citizens, women mayors may benefit from the perception of women as more caring and concerned than their male counterparts. Further, Burns suggests that women are more likely to be transforming leaders than men are, meaning that they tend more often to pursue goals aimed at changing the situation for the better rather than maintaining the status quo.

Where They Serve

As Darling and others note, black women's chances of being elected have been best for municipal positions in small towns in the South and Midwest. Nearly three-fourths of them are mayors of towns with populations under three thousand. However, the elections of Doris Ann Lewis Davis as mayor of Compton, California (1980), Loretta Thompson Glickman as mayor of Pasadena, California (1982), and Carrie Saxon Perry as mayor of Hartford, Connecticut (1987), showed that black women could win in larger cities and in cities outside the South. In 2002, thirteen black women were elected to lead cities with populations over thirty thousand. According to Census Bureau data, nearly one-fourth of black women mayors represented majority white cities and more than one-third served in cities and towns outside the South. Darling suggests that the increasing numbers reflect the interests, training, and leadership strengths of African American women elected to public office in the South since 1969, when they first began to break into the system.

Sharon Pratt Kelly was elected mayor of Washington, DC, in 1990, becoming the first African-American woman to be mayor of a major city. Before that, she served for thirteen years as the District of Columbia's representative to the Democratic National Committee.

Reuters/Bettmann, from the Austin/Thompson Collection

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Black women seeking public office benefited from the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as did black male politicians. Morrison notes that in Mississippi, for example, just prior to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a mere 6 percent of the black population was even registered to vote. By 1966, the state had only one African American elected official. But in the following decades, African American men and women expanded their participation as voters and as officeholders in the South. Census 2000 data suggest that an important factor in the increase may be the return migration of African Americans to the South, with six of the top growth states being in the South.

If the election of Shirley Franklin as mayor of Atlanta is indicative, black women voters are often key to the elections of black women mayors. Walton and Smith assert that the emerging significance of black women voters is an important part of Franklin's story. They note that from October 2000 to October 2001, Atlanta's black (and white) women registered to vote in high numbers. Oral accounts from other black women mayors note the centrality of the support by black women as campaign workers and as voters.

Survey of Black Women Mayors

Face-to-face interviews of twelve women mayors in December 2002 and a national mail survey of 125 black women mayors yielded the following profile.

Background

. The majority of black women mayors interviewed grew up in rural areas (69 percent), most in the same cities where they served as mayor (or nearby). While most of the respondents grew up in large families (average of seven siblings), they had fewer children themselves, with two children being the average. By and large, these women are the children of working-class parents; only 17 percent of their fathers and 15 percent of their mothers had professional jobs. A third describes their mother's occupation as housewife. One woman mayor surveyed wrote, “Our parents were not educated. They instilled values that shaped our lives and helped make us who we are. I taught my mother to read and write.”

Marital Status

. Only 30 percent of the respondents were married at the time of interview, 23 percent were widows, and 23 percent were divorced. This finding is consistent with patterns observed by Carroll and Strimling that compared with white women politicians, black women officeholders are much less likely to be married and more likely to be divorced or separated.

In terms of age, the women mayors in the survey averaged fifty-seven years of age, ranging from thirty-four to seventy-seven; 70 percent of them are over the age of fifty. Murphy argues that older mayors have fewer years to advance their careers and are less likely to use city hall as a stepping stone to higher office. In a reversal of the stepping-stone model, Dayton, Ohio, mayor Rhine McLin ran for the mayor's seat after a successful tenure in the Ohio state legislature. While not yet a trend, it is worth noting that younger black women may begin challenging older black women incumbents. For example, seventy-one-year-old Unita Blackwell, longtime mayor of Mayersville, Mississippi, was defeated in 2001 by the thirty-four-year-old Linda Williams Short, who said she ran against Mrs. Blackwell as the candidate who communicates better with the town's young people.

Education and Income

. At least half of the respondents had a bachelor's degree, another finding consistent with Carroll and Strimling's survey results. About a third of the women were teachers before entering politics. The husbands of the married women were less likely to be college graduates and more likely to hold skilled jobs such as electrician, dye setter, and truck driver. Few of the women were married to teachers or preachers. The median income of the respondents was $41,000, with 42 percent of the women contributing at least half of the family income.

Religion

. Respondents emphasized the centrality of religion in their lives. Eighty percent identify themselves as Baptists. Two described being mayor as their “ministry.” Yet one woman pointed to the traditional gender roles sometimes seen in the African American community. She wrote, “the men in my community don't believe in women as leaders in church. They think women should be seen and not heard. I believe you can be what you desire to be and do.” Their religion was described as a “source of strength,” and they said that decisions were made, and difficult situations handled, with prayer.

Mayoral Campaign and Duties

. For just under half of the women (43 percent), being mayor was their first public office, although the most recent election was the first election for only one of the women. In general, the women had a five-year average of service; only 10 percent had been mayor for ten years or more. Of those who had held prior public office, nearly half (48 percent) had served on the city council before being elected mayor. Not surprisingly, more than 63 percent of the black women mayors said they ran at the urging of their citizens. In general, these women relied on family and friends for campaign support, although three of the women identified young voters as being especially helpful in the last election, and one mentioned the white community as being very supportive. Among national organizations that helped them in their campaign for mayor, the women cited the National Conference of Black Mayors (20 percent) and the NAACP (15 percent).

The majority of the towns they served were described as strong mayor jurisdictions (68 percent); that is, the mayor can hire and fire workers. About 69 percent believed they had the power, if not the resources, they needed to accomplish things. The number of council members ranged from a low of three to a high of nine, with an average of five members. Among council members, men dominated, holding 57 percent of the total council seats (black men, 39 percent, and white men, 18 percent). Black women held 36 percent of the seats, and white women, 7 percent.

Over half of the women mayors defeated male candidates to win their seats, 34 percent of whom were white men and 23 percent black men. In most cases (80 percent), the elections could be said to be landslides (defined as winning 60 percent or more of the votes).

Leadership Style and Motivations

. Asked to characterize their leadership style, the majority of black women mayors described themselves as process-oriented, predictable, task-oriented, loyal, assertive, attractive, frank, and team-oriented. Their motivations for running for mayor included service, responsibility, and challenge, in that order. Similar to the black women in the study by Geiger and colleagues, service was the highest scoring factor for 66 percent of the black women mayors. The comments of Emma Gresham, mayor of Keyesville, Georgia, are typical: “Anybody who knows me knows I wasn't doing it to get money or my name in the paper. I was doing it to improve the quality of life.”

In addition to the economic and social challenges of their communities, black women mayors also faced problems related to attitudes about race and gender. A mayor from the South noted that the local media criticized her for saying that minorities and women are held to a higher standard than white men when elected or appointed to positions of authority. In an editorial she was accused of playing the race card. As to white women, the relationship is mixed. One woman noted the support of white women for the candidacy of Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin. Another stated that in her experience, black women with education appear to be a threat to white women politicians.

One mayor said, “The only real problem I have experienced is locally from the men on my council. When I became mayor, the attitudes changed.” Another commented that “We fight more with our black males.” Similarly, some black women mayors said that problems were experienced in cities that have always been controlled by white males and the “good ole' boy” network. Another noted that “Caucasian males are the biggest problem. I have had to work extremely hard to prove that I was capable of getting things accomplished. Change has been hard for this group to accept.” Nearly all the women cited black male politicians at the state level as having been most helpful.

Challenges and Hopes

. Like mayors elsewhere, the black women mayors had a long list of concerns. Their top three problems were: lack of money, crime, and declining economic development and jobs. The majority of black women mayors served in small (three thousand to thirty thousand) and very small (under three thousand) cities. In the rural South in particular, the black women mayors were moving into leadership positions in communities once dominated by white males (cotton-planter elites). One observer asserts that more blacks in City Hall means the South is slowly but surely changing.

More realistically, Morrison argues that black elected officials often attempted to reverse years of neglect of African American concerns. In the past, federal funds, in particular, strengthened the hand of the earlier cohort of African American mayors in the South. As those resources diminished under a succession of national administrations intent on cutting the federal role in local government, these towns were hard hit. In the past, many of these jurisdictions could seek federal assistance for infrastructure and social-program support. Budget shortfalls at the federal and state levels exacerbate the problems of many cities, including those headed by black women mayors. They are responding to the challenges in creative ways, seeking funding wherever they can get it, partnering with other black mayors, especially through the National Conference of Black Mayors, and asking citizens to help produce the changes needed in their communities. In spite of the challenges, one black woman mayor urged more black women to get involved with public office and “show the world that we are a force to be reckoned with.”

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