Thursday, Jan. 24, 2008
Flying out of New York to represent his city on a trip to Nigeria 10 years ago, District Heights Commissioner Jack Sims became nervous about his visit, especially when his fellow passengers, local U.S. black mayors, arrived before Ghana International Airlines staff did.
Suddenly an excited murmur in the crowd grew at the sight of Johnny Ford, the first African-American mayor of Tuskegee, Ala., and founder of groups such as the National Conference of Black Mayors Inc. Ford greeted the crowd and embraced Sims, who said he was a bundle of nerves.
‘‘At the time when he hugged me, all my fear was gone,” Sims said. ‘‘And I said to myself, ‘Man, anyone who makes you feel like that, you’ve got to be going to a safe place.’”
District Heights honored Ford for his mayoral accomplishments and his work with both the NCBM and the World Conference of Mayors during a Jan. 19 reception at the city’s municipal building. A short book signing followed for Ford’s 2006 autobiography, ‘‘Let Me Speak to the Mayor!” The book details his struggles as a minority mayor during the civil rights movement.
Ford, 65, served as Tuskegee’s first African-American mayor from 1972 until 1996 and previously worked with New York Sen. Robert Kennedy as a political strategist until his assassination in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968. Ford founded NCBM in 1974, which today has a membership of more than 600 members representing 30 million Americans. Ford returned to his post as mayor in 2004.
Ford, who said he tried to make the role of serving mayor a ‘‘science,” said individuals cannot just wake up and decide one day they will lead their city or town. Ford suggested to anyone aspiring to become a mayor to ‘‘take your campaign to the people” and get to know your residents. Ford added that being an elected official takes a toll on physical health, finances and family.
‘‘It’s not something you expect to get rich on,” Ford said. ‘‘You’ve got to be willing to sacrifice.”
Ford created WCM in 1984 as a way to build trade and tourism relations between local governments in the United States with those across the world in countries such as Senegal, Nigeria and Haiti. District Heights Mayor James Walls, and Commissioners Willie Calhoun and Sims are WCM members and are becoming local diplomats, even traveling to Port-au-Prince Haiti for the WCM annual meeting in December 2007.
Ford did not come to District Heights alone. Five mayors from Haiti, who were visiting the area for a National Policy Alliance Conference held Jan. 17 through Jan. 18 in Washington, D.C., accompanied him.
At that conference, members of groups such as the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, the Congressional Black Caucus and the National Black Mayors Association discussed issues such as affordable health care and finding alternative sources of energy so ‘‘people shouldn’t have to decide between eating and heating,” Ford said.
‘‘We’re tired of sitting on sidelines and let everyone speak for us on public policy,” Ford said. ‘‘This is an agenda you need to be addressing. The right to have health care in this county is something everybody should be afforded.”
Because of relationships formed at the December WCM annual meeting, Commissioner Eddie Martin said the city wants to form a partnership with local governments in Haiti. Martin said mayors in Haiti don’t even have desks or chairs to sit in inside their offices and wants to build the relationship by sending surplus office supplies and equipment.
‘‘Haiti’s close to us,” Martin said. ‘‘It’s not far. It’s within striking distance. We’re looking forward to this. If we’re going to do something right away, Haiti is the right spot.”
Walls said he admires Ford’s efforts to broaden horizons with African-Americans all over the world and to give them opportunities to lead.
‘‘I just think it’s great that District Heights be a beacon of light and we can help put together a part of the policy going on in this nation,” Walls said. ‘‘We have to be more involved and engaged in what’s going on.”
E-mail Natalie McGill at nmcgill@gazette.net.
