NORFOLK
It was a historic night – but Kenny Alexander didn’t want to talk about that.
Alexander’s election Tuesday as the first African American mayor of a city with a long history of racism and segregation was on the minds of many people at his victory party.
A couple of hours after the polls closed, the mayor-elect’s campaign Twitter account wrote, “Thank you all who supported me and this historic moment.”
But in an interview 20 minutes later, Alexander said he’d never used the word “historic.”
The contrast reflects a tension at the heart of his campaign.
All along, Alexander avoided talk about race, saying more than a month before the election, “I will be the mayor for all the people” and “forget about race.”
After his win Tuesday, he stayed on message, deflecting questions about the racial milestone and instead talking about his plans for improving schools, reducing crime, building a middle class and fixing the city’s aging infrastructure.
Yet there was no ignoring the significance of the moment – one several people at the party said they never thought they’d see in their lifetimes.
Alexander drew overwhelming support in largely African American communities, winning more than 90 percent of the votes in some precincts. In Rosemont, Alexander received 822 votes to 35 for Bob McCabe and 21 for Andy Protogyrou. The percentages were similar in Chesterfield, Campostella, Young Park and the neighborhood where Alexander grew up, Berkley.
On Wednesday, Alexander said he wasn’t trying to deny the significance of becoming the first African American mayor.
“It is a big moment, and I’m grateful. I’m appreciative,” he said. “We’re forever evolving. … And we have taken another step in that evolution.”
But Alexander said he has tried to keep the focus on his qualifications.
That balance is often a struggle when candidates achieve “firsts,” including Barack Obama’s election as president: recognizing the significance without suggesting candidates won only because of their race or gender.
Obama had to resist people’s desires for him to be “the black president,” said Cassandra Newby-Alexander, a Norfolk State University history professor.
She said Alexander’s stance is a sign of progress: Victories by other African Americans who broke racial barriers around the country have given candidates like Alexander the freedom to focus on policy and qualifications instead of race.
Alexander has been a state senator for four years and was a delegate for 10 years before that. Earlier, he served in a variety of posts in Norfolk, including as a civic league president and a board member for the Economic Development Authority.
“The bottom line is he’s qualified,” said Garnzie West, longtime president of the Coronado/Inglenook Civic League, who is African American and was at Alexander’s election-night party. “I didn’t vote for him because he’s black. I voted for him because he’s qualified.”
But West also recognized the milestone, calling it “amazing to a lot of African Americans in the community.”
Focus on policy
Alexander said he was already beginning to plan for the transition, though he won’t take office until July 1.
He was planning to attend public hearings this week on the proposed city budget and real estate assessments.
Alexander won’t vote on that budget; the current City Council, led by Mayor Paul Fraim, will do so this month. But Alexander is a member of the influential Finance Committee of the state Senate – “a budget guy,” he called himself – and wants to get a head start.
He plans to meet with City Council members and city staffers between now and July 1.
Once in office, he said, he plans to immediately focus on public safety. Among his priorities: making sure police have adequate manpower to investigate homicides, considering a pilot take-home-car program for officers who live in Norfolk, discussing policies to get illegal guns off the street and focusing enforcement in areas with high numbers of police calls.
Alexander wants to focus on schools, too. His ideas include getting a state waiver to allow some schools to start the year before Labor Day, or even go to year-round schedules.
Though the Norfolk School Board is independently elected, Alexander said the City Council can give “guidance,” in part because it funds the schools.
“Lot of pressure”
Norfolk’s election of an African American mayor is a moment of pride for white as well as black residents because it reflects the progress the city has made, said Michael Clemons, a political science professor at Old Dominion University.
It has also inspired hopes among Alexander’s supporters.
Pamela Gibbs, who works for the mayor-elect’s funeral home business, said she was happy at the prospect of young black people seeing a person like them leading the city.
She said she hopes Alexander can help mend ties between young people and police so officers are not seen as the enemy.
Such hopes, while well-intentioned, can be a burden.
“There’s a lot of pressure put on those who are first, because the expectation is that their presence will somehow be so transformative that all issues and problems of the past will somehow be washed away,” Newby-Alexander said.
Norfolk has a painful racial history. White leaders closed public schools in 1958 to avoid having to integrate them, a strategy known as Massive Resistance. When schools reopened the next year, a small number of black students, known as the Norfolk 17, enrolled and faced hostility from white students.
Today, sharp racial divisions remain, with the effects of crime and poor-performing schools disproportionately landing on African American residents.
But at least for a night, Alexander’s win gave people time to reflect on how far the city has come.
Josephine F. Scott, a 93-year-old Norfolk native, came to the next mayor’s party dressed head to toe in American flag garb.
Scott, who is African American, said she served as president of the Norfolk Teachers Association and fought for equal pay for black teachers. She has seen firsthand the slow progress that led to Tuesday night.
“I’m very proud,” Scott said. “When we make history, it’s always a good thing.”
Eric Hartley, 757-932-7511, eric.hartley@pilotonline.com
