Montgomery Elects First African American Mayor

Steven Reed wins the Montgomery mayoral election. (Flickr)

200 years after its incorporation as a city, Alabama’s state capital elected its first African American mayor on October 8 in a run-off election. Winning 67 percent of the vote, Steven Reed will become the first black mayor of Montgomery when he takes office in November.

Reed won in a run-off election after none of the 12 initial candidates got a majority of the votes. He faced off against David Woods, a local television station owner.

While the election was officially nonpartisan, party distinctions were clear. Reed is a member of the Democratic party, and Woods’s television station has become affiliated with the conservative media outlet Fox News.

Reed became a probate judge—also the first African American to serve in this position—in Montgomery County Probate Court in 2012. During his time as a judge, Reed was embroiled in controversy following the Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage in Alabama. Then-Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore instructed probate judges to not issue marriage licenses to gay couples, but Reed refused to comply. Not only did he begin to issue the licenses, but he strongly condemned Moore’s actions, saying that his defiance of federal jurisprudence was “codes” and “dog whistles,” pointing to segregationist arguments during Jim Crow.

Though Montgomery is 56.6% black, there has never been an African American representative in the mayoral office. This is due to Montgomery’s long and complicated involvement in the Civil Rights Movement of the mid-20th century. Home to activists and segregationists alike, Montgomery was the site of several landmark events during the struggle to end Jim Crow in the Deep South. Rosa Parks initiated the bus boycotts in Montgomery from 1955-1956, and protestors marched all 54 miles from Selma to the state capital in 1965 advocating for a national Voting Rights Act.

Reed has already faced backlash against his electoral success. A local real estate agent was fired for posting an advertisement reading, “Hey Montgomery, Don't Like The Election Results?? CALL ME!! Let's SELL That Home While The Market Is HOT!” directly following the election. While the agent lost his job and position on the board of the Montgomery Association of Realtors, more partisan attacks are sure to follow Reed as he navigates his first term in office.

Despite the strong opposition, Reedoffers a message of hope to the Montgomery community. He based his campaign on “a vision that is inclusive of all citizens regardless of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, socioeconomic status or neighborhood.”