Voters in two metropolitan Atlanta cities have elected the first-ever African American mayors of their towns.
In Douglasville, Ga., less than a year after the suburban Atlanta town elected the first-ever African American police chief (Gary Sparks), Rochelle Robinson defeated incumbent Mayor Harvey Persons. Robinson becomes the first black and the first woman chosen as the Douglasville CEO.
Douglasville, a former rural and country town, is about 20 minutes west of Atlanta.
With all precincts reporting and absentee ballots counted, Robinson had 1,392 votes or 61.62 percent, while current mayor Harvey Persons had 867 votes or 38.38 percent. Vote totals are unofficial until certified, according to the Douglas County Sentinel.
Robinson is not unaccustomed to breaking barriers. You could say she was built for this moment during her collegiate days. She was was also the first cheerleader on the campus of Youngstown State University near Cleveland, Ohio, and she had this to say in victory:
“We won!!! Thank you Douglasville…now the real work begins! God is Awesome,” said Robinson, also an ordained minister.
In Powder Springs, Ga., a town in Cobb County, former City Councilman Al Thurman was elected mayor, the first African-American mayor that town or any town in the history of Cobb County. Thurman, 58, is a business owner who won Tuesday’s runoff with 57 percent of the votes against councilman and family physician Chris Wizner, who had 43 percent of the total 1,237 votes, according to unofficial numbers from the Cobb Board of Elections, reports the Marietta Daily Journal.
Cobb County is connected to Fulton County, which houses the city of Atlanta, the county seat.
Thurman’s victory can be partially attributed to the paradigm shift in demographics in Powder Springs specifically, and Cobb County in general. According to the 2010 census, nearly 50 percent of the city of Powder Springs population is African-American and nine percent identifies as Hispanic or Latino.
“In Cobb County, a number of state legislators are now African-American and they’ve supplanted white Democrats who used to hold those seats, so I look at the Powder Springs mayoral election as the continuation of a trend where the county is becoming increasingly diversified,” explained Kerwin Swint, a professor at Kennesaw State University who lives near Powder Springs in Cobb County, according to WABE.
“Today has been a good day. Today, the people of Powder Springs went to the polls and chose a new direction for their city. They used their ballots to demand greater transparency and greater accountability from their elected officials and I will do everything in my power to deliver on those ideals,” Thurman said.
“Today has been a historic day. Today, the people of Powder Springs elected their first black mayor — the first in Cobb County even. I’ve never made color an issue in this campaign but I embrace the historical significance of the moment and am honored to have attained this distinction.”
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