Callie Carney, the first Black Sacramento city councilwoman and a tireless advocate, dies
Callie Carney, the first Black woman to serve on the Sacramento City Council and a tireless champion of her Oak Park neighborhood, died Nov. 4.
Carney was 88, her daughter Mary Nance Harris said. She had Alzheimer’s disease.
Carney was appointed to the Sacramento City Council to represent Oak Park and District 5 in 1975 by then-Mayor Phil Isenberg. Isenberg, the former mayor and California state assemblyman, died Oct. 26 at the age of 84.
Carney was described as outspoken and candid by some, a formidable force by others, but Isenberg found a more apt description for the pioneering community leader, Nance Harris recalled.
“He described her as like the 1906 earthquake. She was ready to shake things up,” Nance Harris said. “She was a fierce protector of her community. She was true to herself. Nobody gave as much as she gave or worked as hard as she worked to make sure things were OK.”
Carney served one two-year term, 1975-1977. She was defeated in a runoff election by council challenger Dan Thompson, but her service to Sacramento and her beloved Oak Park would continue for decades.
“For 50 years of her life in Oak Park, she wore many different hats for her community,” Nance Harris said.
Callie Carney was born July 12, 1935, in Mobile, Alabama. She moved at 13 with her family to Sacramento, first to Del Paso Heights, then, in the early 1950s to Oak Park.
Carney married James Leo Carney in 1951. Together they had 10 children. Her Oak Park community family were legion, the family home a haven for the neighborhood’s children.
“She engaged in every activity we did. My mother always had an open-door policy,” Nance Harris said. “You need a place to sleep, a place to rest, toothpaste for your toothbrush, the door was open. We never had an empty house.”
Carney’s open arms extended to the organizations and causes she served. The Oak Park Neighborhood Council, Women’s Civic Improvement Center, the Greater Sacramento Urban League, National Council of Negro Women and the Greater Sacramento NAACP make up but a partial list.
Carney advised a newly elected Gov. Jerry Brown during his first term and worked with youth in the state’s Department of Corrections. McClatchy Park’s stage for years has borne her name: The Callie Carney Amphitheater.
“She assisted everybody, actually,” her daughter said. “She was a person who, if there was an inequity, she was going to help you address it.”
That quality led Carney to the Sacramento City Council dais all those years ago.
“She was the grassroots advocate for District 5 before she was on the council, and she did it wholeheartedly,” Nance Harris said. “Isenberg said, ‘We know somebody who knows the community and will be a true warrior. We’re picking her.’”
Carney is survived by sisters Patricia and Lydia Culpepper, and brother-in-law Henry Williams; three daughters, Carolyn Carney-Clark, Nance Harris, and Shirelle Jeffery; 13 grandchildren; 17 great-grandchildren; and a great-grandchild, nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in death by her parents Rosabelle and Richard Kennedy; husband James Leo Carney Sr.; sister Willamae Lash; brother-in-law Frank Lash; sister Eunita Culpepper Williams; brothers Anderson Culpepper and Peter Culpepper; her children James Carney Jr., Joseph Carney, Richard Carney, David Carney Sr. and Kimberly Carney; and grandchildren David Carney Jr. and Suelynn Carney.
A funeral service will be 11 a.m. Tuesday at Shiloh Baptist Church, 3565 Ninth Ave. A viewing will be 4 to 7 p.m. Monday at Morgan Jones Funeral Home, 4200 Broadway.
