Johnny Ford, the longtime mayor of Tuskegee, Ala., stood near the podium, scanning the conference room filled with African-American mayors the way a father looks at his children when they have made him proud.
As one of the founders of the National Conference of Black Mayors, Ford, 64 (the age as published has been corrected in this text), the man some call the “daddy of black mayors,” has seen the organization go through ups and downs.
The organization has branched out to 640 cities, including 21 in Illinois, each with an African-American mayor. It’s an outgrowth of the Alabama Conference of Black Mayors, started by eight mayors.
That was in 1973, when Southern states like Alabama were still clinging to the horrific legacy of segregation, and these budding young politicians felt they could better fight the battle together than taking it on individually.
“George Wallace was governor,” Ford said. “I don’t need to say any more.”
This year, the conference gave Baton Rouge Mayor Melvin “Kip” Holden a chance to showcase a city that is still working to deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The mayor didn’t waste any time talking about the good things the city has done to absorb more than 200,000 evacuees who fled New Orleans, about 60 miles away.
More than any other city, Holden said, Baton Rouge was challenged by the impact of evacuees. In the weeks after the storm, this quiet city doubled in size to about 500,000 residents, flooding schools and placing unprecedented demands on housing and city services.
While the number of black mayors has grown, some longtime members said the conference has struggled to hold on to the prominence that marked earlier years. Still, one thing has remained constant — the organization has been a lifeline to mayors when everything around them seemed to be caving in.
When Chicago Mayor Harold Washington became the target of the “Council Wars” in the 1980s, other black mayors came to his rescue, fanning out among the city’s black wards urging his constituents to stay united.
When Washington Mayor Marion Barry, a former president of the group, was caught smoking crack cocaine in 1990, his friends supported him and gave him a place to land when he hit bottom.
New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin, wrapped up in Hurricane Katrina controversy, received rock star treatment recently when he attended the group’s annual convention in Baton Rouge. Entering late to a luncheon where New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democratic presidential candidate, was supposed to be the star attraction, mayors jumped from their seats, cameras in hand, to greet Nagin as he made his way through the room.
Struggling to keep pace
At this conference, young mayors, who make up the overwhelming majority of African-American mayors, learn the ropes from people like Holden. It is most likely one of the few times the mayor of the village of Maywood, Ill., Henderson Yarbrough Sr., would get to exchange notes with a big-city mayor such as Kwame Kilpatrick of Detroit.
They attend workshops and speeches all day and night, and they hobnob with celebrities such as singer Erykah Badu, actor Danny Glover and entertainer Harry Belafonte.
It is this kind of camaraderie that has helped keep the group together for more than three decades. But in a changing society, the organization has struggled to keep up with the pace, some members said.
Ron Leverett, the former mayor of Prairie View, Texas, said he joined the organization in 1984 just after being elected to his first term. Over the years, he said, the group has not always remained focused.
“It was exciting to come and check out all these black mayors,” Leverett said. “I saw this as an opportunity for black people to do their thing, to hear people talk about how to get grants to help our cities and discuss other issues. … But I was disillusioned because I didn’t get the cooperation of my constituents. They were too laid-back.”
“We just don’t get it,” said Leverett, who served for 10 years in a town dominated by mostly black Prairie View A&M University. “We had Barack [Obama] here, Hillary [Clinton] came and John Edwards, and black mayors should be making a difference. But we don’t have an agenda. We’re a force, but not the force we could be.”
Leader: On the right track
The group’s president, Mayor Robert Bowser of East Orange, N.J., said the group is on the right track. The presidential candidates came, he said, because mayors are closest to the people.
Bowser said the conference enables black mayors to focus on issues that are important in their communities, such as crime, public safety, education, housing and pollution.
We are elected to represent the people,” Bowser said. “This is where the rubber meets the road.”
