The Year Of The Black Woman Mayor

Today’s Political Climate Is Pushing More and More of Us to Run for Office.

- Donna M. Owens

As the celebrated Women’s March unfolded in the nation’s capital this past January, Minneapolis mayoral candidate Nekima Levy-Pounds was on the other side of the country at a companion demonstration in Minnesota, firing up the crowd. “If women ran the world,” the civil rights attorney and Black Lives Matter activist said during a speech about racial injustice, “it would be a better place.” Then Levy-Pounds, 40, roused folks with a boisterous call and response. “What time is it?” she shouted. “The time is now!” the audience hollered back.

That sentiment—the time is now—has some political experts dubbing 2017 The Year of the Black Woman Mayor, a nod to a fresh crop of candidates seeking to lead American cities, and the dozens who already hold top spots.

This election cycle, we have declared our candidacies in places like Detroit, Cincinnati and St. Louis. And there’s buzz about African-American women potentially joining the race for mayor in New Orleans and Cleveland. Meanwhile, according to the U.S. Conference of Mayors, 25 Black women currently head cities with populations over 30,000. Several of these women helm the top 100 cities nationwide. 

“Black women are running and winning,” says Jessica Byrd of Three Point Strategies, a Washington, D.C.–based consulting firm that recruits and trains progressive candidates of color. “[In my experience] Black women run for two reasons. One, they either want to fix something or they’re mad as hell.”