‘Still surreal’: Black SC mayors leaving legacy as firsts to lead their towns

Across South Carolina, African American leaders are defining their moments in history — shaping the beliefs, aspirations and identity of generations to come while accomplishing a feat only made possible through the sacrifices of their ancestors who preceded them.

Those moments can be found in small, quaint towns throughout the Palmetto State, the backdrops of humble beginnings and where community elders still celebrate and echo praise of the generations who came before them, who could not have conceived such a feat were possible — Black political leaders who are the epitome of living their ancestors’ dreams.

And what makes their stories unique — a legacy that will forever be attributed to their names — is the distinction of being the first African Americans to hold the position of mayor for their town. And for more than two dozen of the 70 Black mayors currently leading their communities across South Carolina, this is their living legacy.

“It’s a very important time not only in our city and our community but in our nation that we have representation, especially with our community,” said Robert Woodbury who in 2020 was elected as the youngest and first Black mayor of Mullins.

These Black S.C. mayors — some elected decades ago while others only recently making history in their roles — share this legacy with Lt. Stephen Atkins Swails — born in Pennsylvania in 1832 — a free Black man whose accomplishments include being the first commissioned African American officer in the Union Army, first African American President Pro Tempore of the state Senate as well as Kingstree’s first African American mayor.

And they share this legacy with Janie Glymph Goree — daughter of sharecroppers, educator and public servant who in 1978 rose to become the first African American female mayor in South Carolina.

More than representation — their impact personifies what is possible for those who once could not conceive of its possibility.

“I think that we felt oppressed for so long and held back for so long and conditioned a mindset that we weren’t supposed to be in a place of power of the mayor of a city,” Barnwell mayor Marcus Rivera said. “When you’ve been told ‘no’ for so long…it becomes the norm for you.”

“There were more African Americans who held local office in South Carolina during Reconstruction, or roughly around 1876, then what had been the case in 1966,” political scholar Todd Shaw said.

“There’s always that prospect of African Americans being elected to local office in significant numbers, but we in South Carolina have seen history ebb and flow as to when it actually occurs.”

By the early 1870s, South Carolina had the most Black elected officials than any state of the former Confederacy. However, progress in history does not always indicate a forward motion: many Black leaders in the South were intimidated and removed, often violently, from their positions after federal troops left the South — no longer ensuring fair access to political representation and civil liberties for African Americans, Shaw said.

“African Americans were removed from their roles from roughly the period of 1880 to about 1900, sort of a mass level of disenfranchisement that Black America and America, more broadly, didn’t recover from until the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s,” Shaw said.

However, the recent appointments of Black leaders in small, rural communities across the state reflect the social change that is taking place, though at a different rate than in bigger cities with more significant populations of African Americans where there are more economic, political and social pressures for change, Shaw added.

“I believe in our community … it allowed them to open up their eyes,” Woodbury said. “They were able to see the potential, and what could be not only was plausible, but possible.”

And while seeking history was not their mission, their lives are the manifestation of the freedoms and liberties their ancestors were denied, their stories a reflection of the footwork — humble beginnings — that propelled them into their place in history, some of the more than two dozen Black mayors who are first to hold their positions, according to a review by The State of S.C. mayors using information provided on the South Carolina Municipal Association’s website and by the African American Mayors Association.

Here are some of their stories:

‘Potential of greatness’

Rich, deep red carpets welcomed generations of young and old at the sanctuary door. And the creak of wooden pews could be heard between the soothing sounds of the hymns of the faith played from the bright piano in the corner of the sanctuary that seated the 50-75 parishioners.

Those are just a few of Robert Woodbury’s earliest memories of a small African Methodist Episcopal Church in Marion County — one of his grandfather’s many posts as pastor — which served as the backdrop and foundation of his formative years.

Born in Providence, Rhode Island, the 32-year-old Mullins mayor says he experienced first-hand how to serve and lead a people from the grandparents who raised him in the South — the sanctuary serving as his classroom and conversations during rides home and at the dinner table provided the space for lessons on life, leadership and faith.

“What I noticed a lot is that no matter the needs of the people, whether it was financial or whether people were hungry or they needed clothes to wear, they always were very aware and did everything they could to help provide those needs,” Woodbury said.

“They were always willing to serve.”

A man whose steps are ordered by God, Woodbury says his journey to becoming mayor was ordained ­— he felt “led” to embark on this endeavor after serving on city council. And while the 32-year-old’s motivation to run was to cultivate change, creating a “stronger” and prosperous Mullins, it was his elders from the community that impressed upon him the greater significance of his run and victory: Woodbury is the youngest mayor along with being the first African American leader of the small city founded in 1872.

However, it is not lost among him the magnitude of his role, especially for the Black community. He says he shoulders the burdens of those who look like him — the high expectations to succeed despite being “the underdog” with the odds seemingly stacked against him for simply breathing while Black.

“Being counted out, being misunderstood, overlooked … even as an African American man, there’s so many things sometimes that’s stacked against me, and people that look like me,” Woodbury said.

“The fact that what I’m carrying, and I guess the pressure of the expectation is kind of what really caused it to sink in … what really gets me going is to be able to see the tables turn, sort of speak, to see that the story shifted.”

And the story and legacy the husband and father of three daughters hopes to leave with Mullins involves bridging the gap between generations and cultivating an inclusive place for entrepreneurship and economic development for all members of the community, the senior pastor of The House of God Church said.

Since his November swearing-in ceremony, Woodbury says he and members of city council immediately got to work, strategizing about how to address the issues that burden their community. The current challenge and what might persist is simply unifying the city, Woodbury said.

“I really do see the potential of greatness … we can do what small towns are not supposed to be able to do. And that’s what I look forward to.”

‘We finally got a change’

Nearly four years ago, LaDonna Hall faced one of the hardest experiences of her life — losing her mother, the matriarch of their family. And while her mother was not physically there to celebrate one of the greatest moments of her life, the married mother of three says she still feels her warm presence which continues to guide her as she navigates through her new role as mayor of Salley.

“I just wanted to be the mayor, just wanted to make a change … if it took being a council member or just being more involved in town, then I was willing to do it,” Hall said.

“We had sat back for the longest … well, we finally got a change.”

After more than two decades of her predecessor leading the community that is his family’s namesake, Hall, a write-in candidate, made history as the first Black and first female mayor, beating her opponent by only a few votes. A win in 2019 that still feels “surreal” today.

“Oh man, that was not comparable to anything else,” Hall said.

Moving back to her hometown known for the Chitlin Strut, a legendary festival in South Carolina, was something the accountant and nonprofit chief financial officer said she would never do. However, after graduating from Winthrop University and working in Rock Hill for 15 years, the 41-year-old returned to the small Aiken County community where she was born and raised, this time with her husband and two daughters.

And now, as mayor, her vision and mission for the town is inspired by what she hoped to see from Salley before leaving as a young adult: community outreach from members of leadership and economic growth.

Recently, the town of Salley applied for and received the Hometown Economic Development Grant through the Municipal Association of South Carolina to conduct an engineering study to survey the potential for a wastewater system downtown, bringing much needed businesses into the area.

“That’s my focus now, is to create what we can have in the future so that the younger generation, my generation, can have those things we look forward to on a daily basis … a coffee shop uptown … smaller restaurants, nothing too big because we’re still a little small town,” Hall said.

The changes she seeks are for the betterment of the community entrusted to her care. And equally important for her as a woman, a mayor, is showing others what is possible — a symbol of strength and success for young girls to admire and aspire to. It makes a difference, said Hall, who is also a fellow with the Riley Mayors’ Design program, which equips qualifying mayors across the state with tools to successfully plan and implement projects that benefit the needs of their municipalities.

“Whatever it is that they’re looking forward to doing, or that they have a desire to do and they have in their little hearts to do, they can do it because there’s no limitation. They see that Auntie Donna can do this. They can do it too.”

‘It’s still surreal to me’

Driving through the city of Barnwell, one may overlook the significance of a modest, newly renovated, wooden panel interior home on the 900 block of Allen Street, but those who resided within its small structure say it was the epicenter for love, knowledge and faith.

The home on its original foundation, still stands. And hundreds of people have lived there throughout the years — including Marcus Rivera — a product of the community he now leads as the first Black mayor.

Lessons were learned in the house just beyond the stop sign at the corner of the dirt road, the home his grandmother helped raise him in, Rivera said. A home where two to three children bathed in the tub at a time and during the colder months, the oven would be let down to heat the entire home.

“I’m thankful for what God has blessed me with. Being an African American male with all the challenges that I’ve been faced with … everything from my childhood to how I was raised up. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”

And his humble beginnings provided him the strength to withstand the challenges he would face throughout his life — from being homeless for a week, sleeping in his car having not enough money to pay for his college tuition to almost losing a child from a horrific car accident five years ago.

“Our miracle kid…he had a stroke on his brainstem, we lost him three times, he flatlined on us and he didn’t have any brain activity for 30 days,” the 38-year-old HBCU grad said.

“But through the grace of God and through a praying community and a praying family, he’s still here with us and he’s progressing every day.”

Those life lessons — perseverance and desire to succeed despite insurmountable odds — are shared on the basketball court with the Barnwell High School student athletes he coaches as well as with the young men of the community who participate in his nonprofit Boys to Men. Representation is important, especially for the young people in our community, Rivera said.

“Being the first African American mayor, Black mayor of Barnwell is big to me.”

“I want to be, especially for our African American males, I want to be that role model that they really never ever had…to say this guy really gives me hope. He inspires me to be even more than what I think I can do.”

Sewing himself back into the community that raised him is important to Rivera. On a typical weekday after spending time with his children, ensuring they’re squared away with virtual school, he can be seen at the local barbershop, catching up with his constituents or at his dad’s little store operating out of an outbuilding – sort of a neighbor’s solution to going into town for a can of corn or a fishing rod. His connection to the community feeds his resolve to “bridge the gap” between those of different social and economic backgrounds.

“All that stuff prepares you for now. It has prepared me for the challenges of being able to sit down with my white brother…and have real conversations about…racism, systemic racism,” the husband and father of five said.

“This is a place that has evolved. It’s a place of chance. It’s a place of change, positive change.”

Tracy Glantz contributed to this story.