Sharon Pratt Kelly
Encyclopedia
Sharon Pratt Kelly formerly Sharon Pratt Dixon and now known as Sharon Pratt, was the third mayor of the District of Columbia
from 1991 to 1995. Pratt was the first African-American woman to serve as mayor of a major American city. She is also to date the only woman to have served as mayor of Washington D.C.
Though she campaigned and was elected and inaugurated mayor as Sharon Pratt Dixon, on December 7, 1991, she married James R. Kelly III, a New York businessman, and changed her name to Sharon Pratt Kelly. After their 1999 divorce she was Sharon Pratt.
Despite her historic election, however, Kelly's administration of Washington is generally regarded as a failure. The city was facing a projected $1 billion budget deficit at the close of her single mayoral term, far greater than that of her predecessor Marion Barry
, with Kelly being criticized for mismanagement and inability to deliver the reforms she had promised in her initial campaign. In addition, she had strained relations with the DC Council
, and allowed the popular Washington Redskins
football franchise to relocate to the suburbs. Washington City Paper
would later characterize her mayoral tenure as "one of the most ignominious periods in modern D.C. history."
Carlisle Edward Pratt and Mildred "Peggy" (Petticord) Pratt. Three years later, a sister, Benaree, was born. After she lost her mother to breast cancer
at an early age, her grandmother, Hazel Pratt, and aunt, Aimee Elizabeth Pratt, helped raise the girls.
Miss Pratt attended D.C. Public Schools Gage ES, Rudolph ES, MacFarland Junior High School, and Roosevelt HS (1961, with honors). She excelled at baseball
but deemphasized that in adolescence. At Howard University
she joined Alpha Kappa Alpha
sorority (1964), and earned a B.A.
in political science
(1965). She received J.D.
degree from the Howard University School of Law
in 1968. She met and dated her future husband there.
She married Arrington Dixon
(1966) and bore daughters in 1968 and 1970. They divorced after sixteen years.
from the District of Columbia (1977–1990), the first female to hold that position. She was DNC Treasurer (1985–1989).
Pratt directed the failed 1982 mayoral campaign of Patricia Roberts Harris
.
At the 1980 Democratic National Convention
, she was a member of the Ad Hoc Credentials Committee, member of the Judicial Council, and co-chairman of the Rules Committee.
In 1983, she was made Vice President of Community Relations at Pepco
, the D.C. electric utility. She became the first woman and first African American to serve in that role. The same year, she won the Presidential Award from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP).
that she would challenge incumbent
mayor Marion Barry
in the 1990 election. Pratt was the only candidate to have officially announced her plans to run for mayor when Barry was arrested on drug charges and dropped out of the race in early 1990. Shortly thereafter, the race was joined by three longtime D.C. Councilmembers. Pratt criticized her opponents on the council, referring to them as the "three blind mice" who "saw nothing, said nothing and did nothing as the city rapidly decayed." She was the only candidate who called on Barry to resign from office, and ran specifically as an outsider to his political machine with the campaign slogan of "Clean House."
Following a series of televised debates during the last few weeks of the campaign, Pratt received the endorsement of The Washington Post
. The day the endorsement appeared, her poll numbers skyrocketed, with many political observers attributing the rise specifically to the Posts backing. On the eve of the election, polls showed Councilmember John Ray
holding the lead, but Pratt gaining ground fast and a large margin of undecided voters remaining. However, even with the smallest campaign staff and least money, Pratt won the election
, defeating second-place Ray by 10%. Pratt then defeated her Republican challenger, former police chief Maurice T. Turner, Jr., in the November 6 general election and was sworn in as mayor of Washington on January 2, 1991.
, reform posture met resistance. She made good on her promises to clean house, requesting the resignations of all Barry appointees the day after her election; however, as she began to slash the city employment payroll, her political support began to weaken. In particular, she angered labor leaders who claimed she had promised not to fire union employees, and made no friends among other employees when she began mandating unpaid furloughs and wage freezes citywide. In addition, even after removing Barry's political cronies from her administration, she was also unable to retain her own high-level staff members: three city administrators, two chiefs of staff, three deputy mayors for economic development, and two Department of Finance chiefs had passed through her cabinet by the end of her term.
Kelly also frustrated D.C. Council members with her expensive proposal to temporarily move the city government to the building at One Judiciary Square
, ten blocks away from Washington's incumbent city hall, the District Building
, while the latter underwent renovations. When Kelly moved her office and administration departments to One Judiciary Square in 1992, the Council refused to leave the District Building, although they had approved the proposal that spring; in February 1993, after accusing Kelly of deliberately neglecting maintenance in order to force them out, they voted to take full and exclusive control of the District Building.
According to the Washington City Paper
, Kelly "was never able to get control of a city government still loyal to Barry, and she often mistrusted the advice she got from aides." In the spring of 1992, just over a year into her term, Barry loyalists mounted a recall campaign, which, although unsuccessful, weakened her administration and forced Kelly to tread more carefully with the public, backing away from her reform efforts.
Kelly also faced some racial opposition because she is a light-skinned black, often cited as a hallmark of elite African Americans in the District, thus distancing her from poor and working-class blacks in the city.
of DC statehood legislation depleted her capital with the federal government. She also lost standing with the DC Council when she supported Councilmember Linda Cropp to serve as acting Chair after the suicide of John A. Wilson
in May 1993; instead, the Council chose John L. Ray
.
owner Jack Kent Cooke
moving the Redskins out of the city. Cooke attempted to pressure the city to build a new stadium for the team, instead of the aging RFK Stadium where they then played, with the threat of moving the team to nearby Alexandria, Virginia
. After negotiations stalled and Cooke was publicly courted by Virginia's governor, Kelly denounced Cooke vocally, saying that "I will not allow our good community to be steamrolled by a billionaire bully.". Although an agreement was ultimately reached, it fell through in late 1993 when Cooke became frustrated with Kelly and the District government. He ultimately moved the team to Landover, Maryland, where as of 2011 it still resides.
In February 1994, in the face of a ballooning deficit, Kelly faced heavy criticism when the Washington Post reported that she regularly spent taxpayer funds on makeup for cable television appearances. Kelly was reported to have set aside $14,000 of city money to pay her makeup artist. In the weeks following, Kelly came under fire for other inappropriate uses of city funds, including the addition of bulletproof glass and a marble fireplace in her office and a series of 1993 televised town hall meetings that she had promised would be paid for with private financing. The stories were seized by her opponents in that year's mayoral race, particularly the comeback campaign of Marion Barry
.
The GAO's report on DC finances was published on June 22, 1994, and estimated that the city would run out of money in two years and "may be forced to borrow from the U.S. Treasury by fiscal year 1995." The report specifically singled out Kelly's administration for gross mismanagement of city funds and agencies, and accused her of concealing the city's perilous fiscal condition from Congress for two years, "using gimmicks and violating the federal anti-deficiency act, which prohibits over-spending of a federally approved budget." The report, coupled with Congress' subsequent assertion of power over DC's budget (including deep cuts and new requirements for mayoral compliance), provided political ammunition for her challengers and effectively destroyed Kelly's reelection campaign.
The Washington Post, which had sealed Kelly's victory in 1990 with its endorsement, turned on her in 1994, reflecting that the mayor "has not been a coalition builder, which a mayor - and perhaps particularly the mayor of a city under enormous financial and social stress - needs to be...the most aggressive members of the city council, those most sympathetic to her cost-cutting message, are not with her. Nor are key elements in the business community. She has lost them and with them, we believe, her chance to enact the measures she has stood for." The paper instead endorsed Councilmember John Ray.
In the Democratic primary that September, Kelly finished a distant third, with only 14% of the vote. Barry won the primary and would go on to win the general election in November.
Mayor of the District of Columbia
The Mayor of the District of Columbia is the head of the executive branch of the government of Washington, D.C. The Mayor has the duty to enforce city laws, and the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the Council of the District of Columbia...
from 1991 to 1995. Pratt was the first African-American woman to serve as mayor of a major American city. She is also to date the only woman to have served as mayor of Washington D.C.
Though she campaigned and was elected and inaugurated mayor as Sharon Pratt Dixon, on December 7, 1991, she married James R. Kelly III, a New York businessman, and changed her name to Sharon Pratt Kelly. After their 1999 divorce she was Sharon Pratt.
Despite her historic election, however, Kelly's administration of Washington is generally regarded as a failure. The city was facing a projected $1 billion budget deficit at the close of her single mayoral term, far greater than that of her predecessor Marion Barry
Marion Barry
Marion Shepilov Barry, Jr. is an American Democratic politician who is currently serving as a member of the Council of the District of Columbia, representing DC's Ward 8. Barry served as the second elected mayor of the District of Columbia from 1979 to 1991, and again as the fourth mayor from 1995...
, with Kelly being criticized for mismanagement and inability to deliver the reforms she had promised in her initial campaign. In addition, she had strained relations with the DC Council
Council of the District of Columbia
The Council of the District of Columbia is the legislative branch of the local government of the District of Columbia. As permitted in the United States Constitution, the District is not part of any U.S. state and is instead overseen directly by the federal government...
, and allowed the popular Washington Redskins
Washington Redskins
The Washington Redskins are a professional American football team and members of the East Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team plays at FedExField in Landover, Maryland, while its headquarters and training facility are at Redskin Park in Ashburn,...
football franchise to relocate to the suburbs. Washington City Paper
Washington City Paper
The Washington City Paper is a U.S. alternative weekly newspaper serving the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.Founded in 1981, and published for its first year under the masthead 1981, taking the City Paper name in volume 2, by Russ Smith, it shared ownership with the Chicago Reader from 1982...
would later characterize her mayoral tenure as "one of the most ignominious periods in modern D.C. history."
Personal life
She was born to D.C. Superior Court judgeJudge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...
Carlisle Edward Pratt and Mildred "Peggy" (Petticord) Pratt. Three years later, a sister, Benaree, was born. After she lost her mother to breast cancer
Breast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas...
at an early age, her grandmother, Hazel Pratt, and aunt, Aimee Elizabeth Pratt, helped raise the girls.
Miss Pratt attended D.C. Public Schools Gage ES, Rudolph ES, MacFarland Junior High School, and Roosevelt HS (1961, with honors). She excelled at baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
but deemphasized that in adolescence. At Howard University
Howard University
Howard University is a federally chartered, non-profit, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university located in Washington, D.C., United States...
she joined Alpha Kappa Alpha
Alpha Kappa Alpha
Alpha Kappa Alpha is the first Greek-lettered sorority established and incorporated by African American college women. The sorority was founded on January 15, 1908, at Howard University in Washington, D.C., by a group of nine students, led by Ethel Hedgeman Lyle...
sorority (1964), and earned a B.A.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
in political science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
(1965). She received J.D.
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...
degree from the Howard University School of Law
Howard University School of Law
Howard University School of Law is one of the professional graduate schools of Howard University. Located in Washington, D.C., it is one the oldest law schools in the country and the oldest historically black college or university law school in the United States...
in 1968. She met and dated her future husband there.
She married Arrington Dixon
Arrington Dixon
Arrington Dixon is an African American former city council member of Washington, D.C. In 2008, he was D.C.'s male representative on the Democratic National Committee and a thus a superdelegate to the Democratic National Convention...
(1966) and bore daughters in 1968 and 1970. They divorced after sixteen years.
Career
Initially her political energies were drawn to national rather than local politics. She was a member of the Democratic National CommitteeDemocratic National Committee
The Democratic National Committee is the principal organization governing the United States Democratic Party on a day to day basis. While it is responsible for overseeing the process of writing a platform every four years, the DNC's central focus is on campaign and political activity in support...
from the District of Columbia (1977–1990), the first female to hold that position. She was DNC Treasurer (1985–1989).
Pratt directed the failed 1982 mayoral campaign of Patricia Roberts Harris
Patricia Roberts Harris
Patricia Roberts Harris served as United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and United States Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare in the administration of President Jimmy Carter...
.
At the 1980 Democratic National Convention
1980 Democratic National Convention
The 1980 National Convention of the U.S. Democratic Party nominated President Jimmy Carter for President and Vice President Walter Mondale for Vice President...
, she was a member of the Ad Hoc Credentials Committee, member of the Judicial Council, and co-chairman of the Rules Committee.
In 1983, she was made Vice President of Community Relations at Pepco
Potomac Electric Power Company
The Potomac Electric Power Company, known as Pepco, is a public utility supplying electric power to the city of Washington, D.C., and to surrounding communities in Maryland...
, the D.C. electric utility. She became the first woman and first African American to serve in that role. The same year, she won the Presidential Award from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, usually abbreviated as NAACP, is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909. Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to...
(NAACP).
1990 Mayoral Election
Upset with the decline of her hometown, Pratt announced at the 1988 Democratic National Convention1988 Democratic National Convention
The 1988 National Convention of the U.S. Democratic Party was held at The Omni in Atlanta, Georgia from July 18–July 21, 1988 to select a candidate for the 1988 United States presidential election. At the convention Gov. Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts was nominated for President and...
that she would challenge incumbent
Incumbent
The incumbent, in politics, is the existing holder of a political office. This term is usually used in reference to elections, in which races can often be defined as being between an incumbent and non-incumbent. For example, in the 2004 United States presidential election, George W...
mayor Marion Barry
Marion Barry
Marion Shepilov Barry, Jr. is an American Democratic politician who is currently serving as a member of the Council of the District of Columbia, representing DC's Ward 8. Barry served as the second elected mayor of the District of Columbia from 1979 to 1991, and again as the fourth mayor from 1995...
in the 1990 election. Pratt was the only candidate to have officially announced her plans to run for mayor when Barry was arrested on drug charges and dropped out of the race in early 1990. Shortly thereafter, the race was joined by three longtime D.C. Councilmembers. Pratt criticized her opponents on the council, referring to them as the "three blind mice" who "saw nothing, said nothing and did nothing as the city rapidly decayed." She was the only candidate who called on Barry to resign from office, and ran specifically as an outsider to his political machine with the campaign slogan of "Clean House."
Following a series of televised debates during the last few weeks of the campaign, Pratt received the endorsement of The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
. The day the endorsement appeared, her poll numbers skyrocketed, with many political observers attributing the rise specifically to the Posts backing. On the eve of the election, polls showed Councilmember John Ray
John L. Ray
John L. Ray is a lawyer and Democratic politician in Washington, D.C. He was an at-large member of the Council of the District of Columbia from 1979 to 1997...
holding the lead, but Pratt gaining ground fast and a large margin of undecided voters remaining. However, even with the smallest campaign staff and least money, Pratt won the election
Primary election
A primary election is an election in which party members or voters select candidates for a subsequent election. Primary elections are one means by which a political party nominates candidates for the next general election....
, defeating second-place Ray by 10%. Pratt then defeated her Republican challenger, former police chief Maurice T. Turner, Jr., in the November 6 general election and was sworn in as mayor of Washington on January 2, 1991.
Mayor of the District of Columbia
Once in office, Pratt's grassrootsGrassroots
A grassroots movement is one driven by the politics of a community. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it are natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures...
, reform posture met resistance. She made good on her promises to clean house, requesting the resignations of all Barry appointees the day after her election; however, as she began to slash the city employment payroll, her political support began to weaken. In particular, she angered labor leaders who claimed she had promised not to fire union employees, and made no friends among other employees when she began mandating unpaid furloughs and wage freezes citywide. In addition, even after removing Barry's political cronies from her administration, she was also unable to retain her own high-level staff members: three city administrators, two chiefs of staff, three deputy mayors for economic development, and two Department of Finance chiefs had passed through her cabinet by the end of her term.
Kelly also frustrated D.C. Council members with her expensive proposal to temporarily move the city government to the building at One Judiciary Square
One Judiciary Square
One Judiciary Square is a highrise office building at 401 Fourth Street NW in the Judiciary Square neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Designed by architect Vlastimil Koubek, the building is tall and has approximately 10 floors...
, ten blocks away from Washington's incumbent city hall, the District Building
John A. Wilson Building
The John A. Wilson Building, popularly known simply as the Wilson Building or the JAWB, houses the offices and chambers of the Mayor and Council of the District of Columbia. Originally called the District Building, it was renamed in 1994 to commemorate former Council Chair John A. Wilson...
, while the latter underwent renovations. When Kelly moved her office and administration departments to One Judiciary Square in 1992, the Council refused to leave the District Building, although they had approved the proposal that spring; in February 1993, after accusing Kelly of deliberately neglecting maintenance in order to force them out, they voted to take full and exclusive control of the District Building.
According to the Washington City Paper
Washington City Paper
The Washington City Paper is a U.S. alternative weekly newspaper serving the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.Founded in 1981, and published for its first year under the masthead 1981, taking the City Paper name in volume 2, by Russ Smith, it shared ownership with the Chicago Reader from 1982...
, Kelly "was never able to get control of a city government still loyal to Barry, and she often mistrusted the advice she got from aides." In the spring of 1992, just over a year into her term, Barry loyalists mounted a recall campaign, which, although unsuccessful, weakened her administration and forced Kelly to tread more carefully with the public, backing away from her reform efforts.
Kelly also faced some racial opposition because she is a light-skinned black, often cited as a hallmark of elite African Americans in the District, thus distancing her from poor and working-class blacks in the city.
Statehood
Kelly's drive to achieve D.C. statehood in order to improve the District's financial and political standing created fierce opposition from Republican members of Congress, who unleashed a barrage of attacks on the District as a "national disgrace" of "one-party rule...massive dependency, hellish crime...and unrelenting scandal." The attacks brought unwelcome negative press to DC, and the ultimate failure in the House of RepresentativesUnited States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
of DC statehood legislation depleted her capital with the federal government. She also lost standing with the DC Council when she supported Councilmember Linda Cropp to serve as acting Chair after the suicide of John A. Wilson
John A. Wilson
John A. Wilson was an American politician.Wilson served in 1974 as the chairman of the drive to approve the referendum to adopt the Home Rule Charter for the District of Columbia...
in May 1993; instead, the Council chose John L. Ray
John L. Ray
John L. Ray is a lawyer and Democratic politician in Washington, D.C. He was an at-large member of the Council of the District of Columbia from 1979 to 1997...
.
Redskins stadium controversy
Kelly was also blamed for then-Washington RedskinsWashington Redskins
The Washington Redskins are a professional American football team and members of the East Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team plays at FedExField in Landover, Maryland, while its headquarters and training facility are at Redskin Park in Ashburn,...
owner Jack Kent Cooke
Jack Kent Cooke
Jack Kent Cooke was a Canadian entrepreneur and former owner of the Washington Redskins , the Los Angeles Lakers , and the Los Angeles Kings , and built The Forum in Inglewood, California and FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland.-Early career:Born in Hamilton, Ontario, Cooke moved with his family to...
moving the Redskins out of the city. Cooke attempted to pressure the city to build a new stadium for the team, instead of the aging RFK Stadium where they then played, with the threat of moving the team to nearby Alexandria, Virginia
Alexandria, Virginia
Alexandria is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of 2009, the city had a total population of 139,966. Located along the Western bank of the Potomac River, Alexandria is approximately six miles south of downtown Washington, D.C.Like the rest of northern Virginia, as well as...
. After negotiations stalled and Cooke was publicly courted by Virginia's governor, Kelly denounced Cooke vocally, saying that "I will not allow our good community to be steamrolled by a billionaire bully.". Although an agreement was ultimately reached, it fell through in late 1993 when Cooke became frustrated with Kelly and the District government. He ultimately moved the team to Landover, Maryland, where as of 2011 it still resides.
City finances and re-election campaign
As fiscal year 1994 began for DC government (in October 1993), DC faced a $500 million budget deficit, with financial experts predicting a cumulative $1 billion deficit by 1999. Kelly had begun her term having extremely good relations with Congress, successfully lobbying them to increase federal aid for D.C. by $100 million and to authorize the sale of $300 million in deficit reduction bonds. However, when in early 1994 Kelly admitted that the District could not pay its bills, Congress commissioned a federal audit of the city finances by the GAO.In February 1994, in the face of a ballooning deficit, Kelly faced heavy criticism when the Washington Post reported that she regularly spent taxpayer funds on makeup for cable television appearances. Kelly was reported to have set aside $14,000 of city money to pay her makeup artist. In the weeks following, Kelly came under fire for other inappropriate uses of city funds, including the addition of bulletproof glass and a marble fireplace in her office and a series of 1993 televised town hall meetings that she had promised would be paid for with private financing. The stories were seized by her opponents in that year's mayoral race, particularly the comeback campaign of Marion Barry
Marion Barry
Marion Shepilov Barry, Jr. is an American Democratic politician who is currently serving as a member of the Council of the District of Columbia, representing DC's Ward 8. Barry served as the second elected mayor of the District of Columbia from 1979 to 1991, and again as the fourth mayor from 1995...
.
The GAO's report on DC finances was published on June 22, 1994, and estimated that the city would run out of money in two years and "may be forced to borrow from the U.S. Treasury by fiscal year 1995." The report specifically singled out Kelly's administration for gross mismanagement of city funds and agencies, and accused her of concealing the city's perilous fiscal condition from Congress for two years, "using gimmicks and violating the federal anti-deficiency act, which prohibits over-spending of a federally approved budget." The report, coupled with Congress' subsequent assertion of power over DC's budget (including deep cuts and new requirements for mayoral compliance), provided political ammunition for her challengers and effectively destroyed Kelly's reelection campaign.
The Washington Post, which had sealed Kelly's victory in 1990 with its endorsement, turned on her in 1994, reflecting that the mayor "has not been a coalition builder, which a mayor - and perhaps particularly the mayor of a city under enormous financial and social stress - needs to be...the most aggressive members of the city council, those most sympathetic to her cost-cutting message, are not with her. Nor are key elements in the business community. She has lost them and with them, we believe, her chance to enact the measures she has stood for." The paper instead endorsed Councilmember John Ray.
In the Democratic primary that September, Kelly finished a distant third, with only 14% of the vote. Barry won the primary and would go on to win the general election in November.
Post-Mayoral activities
Pratt is now involved in Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness planning through her privately held company, Pratt Consulting.Awards
- Falk Fellow
- Glamour magazineGlamour magazineGlamour magazine means:* Glamour magazine, a U.S. publication aimed at a predominantly female readership* a girlie magazine aimed at a male readership featuring photographs of women...
’s Woman of the Year Award - Congressional Black CaucusCongressional Black CaucusThe Congressional Black Caucus is an organization representing the black members of the United States Congress. Membership is exclusive to blacks, and its chair in the 112th Congress is Representative Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri.-Aims:...
’ Mary McLeod BethuneMary McLeod BethuneMary Jane McLeod Bethune was an American educator and civil rights leader best known for starting a school for African American students in Daytona Beach, Florida, that eventually became Bethune-Cookman University and for being an advisor to President Franklin D...
-W. E. B. Du Bois award - Clean Cities Award