Black mayors main a few of the nation’s largest cities got here collectively in the course of the 54th Black Congressional Caucus Annual Legislative Convention, vowing to proceed to face up in opposition to the Trump administration and struggle what they see as an try and uphold white supremacy.
“The task is to lastly bury white supremacy and construct Black wealth,” stated Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, whose nationwide profile has grown since defiantly standing in opposition to President Donald Trump and his menace to ship the Nationwide Guard to his metropolis.
Johnson was joined by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, Baltimore Metropolis Mayor Brandon Scott, Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and Savannah Mayor Van Johnson for a panel on the ability of Black mayors moderated by activist Angela Rye.
Mayor Johnson, a former social research instructor, referred to as out the truth that Black mayors lead all the cities that President Trump has threatened to militarize–he says that’s by design.
“That could be very intentional as a result of there may be an extremism on this nation that has not accepted the outcomes of the Civil Conflict,” stated Johnson. Given Trump’s MAGA agenda, which has included dismantling enforcement of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, eliminating federal racial fairness applications, and makes an attempt to sanitize Black historical past, the Chicago mayor stated pointedly, “They’re totally engaged of their rematch.”
Johnson stated Black Individuals can draw inspiration from their ancestors in as we speak’s political local weather, telling the packed room, that previously enslaved Black Individuals executed “the most important act of dissidents on this nation…when [they] led the most important strike within the historical past of this nation, when slaves determined to place down the instruments that white supremacy was utilizing to construct this so referred to as democracy.”
Baltimore’s Mayor Scott, who beforehand confronted insults from Republicans that he was a “DEI” mayor, stated that it’s clear that white conservatives “don’t suppose our Black asses needs to be in [office] within the first place.”
“They is likely to be out right here attempting to erase us and to erase Black historical past, however as I at all times remind them, they, too, come from Africa, as a result of they arrive from us. You can’t erase from which you come from,” stated Scott.
Like Chicago, Scott’s Baltimore has been on the receiving finish of Trump’s menace of militarization over the difficulty of crime, regardless of town seeing a historic decline in violent crime.
Scott informed theGrio after Friday’s panel that whereas the president has seemingly backed off the menace for now, “The one factor which you could count on with this administration is the surprising.” He stated town and the state of Maryland, led by Governor Wes Moore, should “be ready to take no matter authorized and different choices that we will.”
On this political local weather that’s seen as a wholesale assault on Blackness, Mayor Scott informed theGrio it was necessary for Black Individuals to “arm ourselves and know the place we come from.”
“We’re the descendants of the creators of civilization. All the pieces price salt and on this Earth was created by Black individuals. We have now to know and know our energy…We have now been by occasions like this earlier than. As a lot as they attempt to erase us, they can not,” stated Scott.
The position of Black mayors is essential as they’re closest to the individuals and face the problem of delivering wanted companies, from financial stability and housing to well being care and transportation infrastructure, even because the Trump administration makes main federal funding cuts.
Mayor Barbara Lee, who was elected Oakland’s first Black feminine mayor in April, stated now greater than ever, Black Individuals, led by Black mayors, should be brave.
“We don’t have the spirit of concern however the spirit of energy, and so now we have to do not forget that as we navigate these treacherous moments,” stated Lee, a former U.S. congresswoman and member of the Black Panther Occasion. “
“Who else can do this however those that had been made for this second, who’ve a historical past of being enslaved and being oppressed and being fighters for freedom and justice. In order that’s how I hold my hope up, and that’s how I hold my braveness intact to struggle for our individuals.”
Regardless of Trump’s assault on DEI, Atlanta Mayor Dickens stated he was proud that his metropolis deliberately helps Black, minority, and women-owned companies by its contracting with Atlanta’s bustling financial system, pushed by Atlanta’s airport and metropolis building investments.
“While you see any individual doing a heck of a job like that, and you bought all this contracting that has to go to minority and women-owned companies, [they say] how can I…claw that again, pull that again, threaten it, and say this DEI as if it’s not high quality work, that isn’t substantive supply,” stated Dickens.
Dickens stated Black and different minority contracting is constructed into town of Atlanta’s DNA. “It’s inescapable, and we stand firmly on the ideas of financial inclusion,” he stated.
Equally, Mayor Scott informed theGrio that in Baltimore, the “birthplace of redlining,” his administration is establishing tax breaks on vacant housing to permit Baltimore to construct extra inexpensive housing, together with town’s “Purchase the Block” program to create “generational wealth” for Black residents.
“We’re taking renters…in our neighborhoods, permitting them to be householders,” stated the 41-year-old Baltimore native.
Mayor Scott stated town will even proceed to “unbundle contracts” to “enable Black and women-owned companies in Baltimore to be part of the infrastructure work that’s being achieved in order that we will create that system that all of us need.”
Savannah Mayor Van Johnson stated that it’s not simply white supremacy that Black mayors are up in opposition to, but in addition the “intersection of white concern and Black expectation.”
“It’s white concern that we’re doing an excessive amount of, and Black expectation that we’re not doing sufficient. It’s a very exhausting and really lonely place,” defined the Georgia mayor, who can also be chair of the African American Mayors Affiliation.
Van Johnson stated that Black mayors have stood robust collectively as a result of they’re up in opposition to the identical threats.
“I pray for these of us…as a result of it’s straightforward when you recognize any individual who’s going by the identical factor. While you mess with one in all our mayors, you’ve received an issue from all of us, and since it is likely to be them as we speak, it is likely to be us tomorrow,” he defined.
Emphasizing the political penalties of “white concern,” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson defined that has confirmed to be “extremely harmful.”
“White concern may have you scaling partitions, staging a coup to declare that an election didn’t exist,” he stated, referring to the Jan. 6 revolt dedicated by Trump supporters who had been repeatedly and falsely informed by Trump that the 2020 election was stolen on account of voter fraud dedicated by Democrats.
“Our nation actually was being infiltrated from inside by the…president of the USA of America to disrupt and to dismantle our authorities as we all know it, and now it will get much less consideration than 9/11,” stated the Chicago mayor. “These are unbelievable acts of evil.”
Mayor Johnson recalled Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s calling out of what he noticed because the “three evils of the planet,” which had been racism, militarism, and materialism.
“We have now to do every part in our energy to eradicate these evils from the planet,” stated Johnson. “And the individuals who know them one of the best are Black of us.”
