ABOUT THIS BOOK

Political Black Girl Magic explores black women’s experiences as mayors in American cities. The editor and contributors to this comprehensive volume examine black female mayoral campaigns and elections where race and gender are a factor—and where deracialized campaigns have garnered candidate support from white as well as Hispanic and Asian American voters. Chapters also consider how Black female mayors govern, from discussions of their pursuit of economic growth and how they use their power to enact positive reforms to the challenges they face that inhibit their abilities to cater to neglected communities.

Case studies in this interdisciplinary volume include female mayors in Atlanta, Baltimore, Charlotte, Chicago, Compton, and Washington, DC, among other cities, along with discussion of each official’s political context. Covering mayors from the 1960s to the present, Political Black Girl Magic identifies the most significant obstacles black women have faced as mayors and mayoral candidates, and seeks to understand how race, gender, or the combination of both affected them.

Contributors: Andrea Benjamin, Nadia E. Brown, Pearl K. Dowe, Christina Greer, Precious Hall, Valerie C. Johnson, Yolanda Jones, Lauren King, Angela K. Lewis-Maddox, Minion K.C. Morrison, Marcella Mulholland, Stephanie A. Pink-Harper, Kelly Briana Richardson, Emmitt Y. Riley, III, Ashley Robertson Preston, Taisha Saintil, Jamil Scott, Fatemeh Shafiei, James Lance Taylor, LaRaven Temoney, Linda Trautman, and the editor

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Sharon D. Wright Austin is Professor of Political Science at the University of Florida. She is the author of several articles and books, including The Caribbeanization of Black Politics: Race, Group Consciousness, andPolitical Participation in America and The Transformation of Plantation Politics: Black Politics, Concentrated Poverty, and Social Capital in the Mississippi Delta.

REVIEWS

“An impressive, well-researched, and thorough look at the complex leadership of Black women mayors. The editor and contributors explore the intersections of race and gender in the elections, administrative styles, and media coverage about Black women in positions of power and offer provocative questions and answers about the nature of politics in the United States. With a depth and scope that recognizes the distinct features of region and location, Political Black Girl Magic is essential reading for anyone interested in leadership and racial justice.”—Marcia Chatelain, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian and author of Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America

“Sharon Wright Austin has assembled a dynamic team of mostly women scholars to cover an important yet understudied topic: Black women in American state and local government and politics. Thick with carefully detailed demographic data and individual case studies of Black women’s campaigns and governance, Political Black Girl Magic takes readers from the election of the first Black woman mayor through to the politics of today. This book is an outstanding and significant contribution to the discipline.”—Keneshia N. Grant, Associate Professor of Political Science at Howard University, and author of The Great Migration and the Democratic Party: Black Voters and the Realignment of American Politics in the 20th Century (Temple)

"The book answers the call for research on Black female mayors in an admirably detailed, comprehensive, and instructive fashion.... The book should serve as a valuable sourcebook for future research on this vital topic."—Ethnic and Racial Studies

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

Foreword by Pearl K. Dowe

Preface and Acknowledgments

Part I: Introduction

1. An Opportunity for Us to Rise: Winning and Governing in Cities / Sharon D. Wright Austin

Part II: Black Female Mayors in Small and Medium-Sized Cities

2. Let This “Little Girl” Come In and Clean It Up: Deirdre Waterman of Pontiac and Karen Weaver of Flint / Sharon D. Wright Austin and Marcella Mulholland

3. Progress Comes at a Price: Aja Brown and Acquanetta Warren Govern California Cities / Precious Hall and Sharon D. Wright Austin

4. We Can’t Turn a Blind Eye to Change: Mayor Lovely Warren of Rochester, New York / Angela K. Lewis-Maddox and Stephanie Y. Pink-Harper

5. Others May Not Be Able to See What I See Now: Black Female Mayors in Florida / Ashley Robertson Preston, LaRaven Temoney, and Kelly Briana Richardson

6. There’s No Job Too Big to Benefit from a Small-Town Person’s Perspective: African American Female Mayors in the Mississippi Delta / Emmitt Y. Riley III, Minion K. C. Morrison, and Yolanda Jones

Part III: Black Female Mayors in Major Metropolitan Cities

7. A Woman Whose Father Didn’t Graduate from High School Can Become This City’s First Female African American Mayor: Mayor Vi Lyles of Charlotte / Andrea Benjamin

8. When We Ignore the Will of the People, the People Lose: The Improbable Election of Lori Lightfoot in Chicago / Valerie C. Johnson

9. I’d Rather Go Down Fighting Than Stand as a Loser: Atlanta Mayors Shirley Franklin and Keisha Lance Bottoms / Fatemeh Shafiei and Sharon D. Wright Austin

10. Baltimore Must Develop an Inclusive Solution That Does Not Leave Anyone Out: Black Female Mayors in the Age of #BlackLivesMatter / Jamil Scott, Nadia E. Brown, and Christina Greer

11. The Frustrations Have Been Festering for Twelve Years: Washington, DC, Mayors Sharon Pratt and Muriel Bowser / Linda Trautman

12. Leadership Is Not about Winning a Popularity Contest: Louisiana’s Black Female Mayors / Sharon D. Wright Austin, Taisha Saintil, and Lauren King

13. If You Only Knew What I Had to Go Through to Get Here: London Breed, Political Black Womanism, and San Francisco Politics / James Lance Taylor

Part IV: Conclusion

14. You Have to Work Together: Lessons Learned from Black Female Mayoral Experiences / Sharon D. Wright Austin

Contributors

Index

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