It sure does feel good to be in the room when history has been made. On the evening of Tuesday, November 7, 2023, around 10:15 p.m., I sat at a table inside the main ballroom of the Sheet Metal Workers Union Hall, where a couple thousand people waited with electricity and anticipation in the air for Democrat Cherelle Parker to take to the stage and offer her victory speech.
She will be sworn in as Philadelphia’s 100th Mayor and first woman Mayor, and she’s African American. Well educated and prepared for the job, Cherelle Parker, many believe, and others pray and hope, is on the precipice of turning Philadelphia around and moving this city forward in a productive, progressive, and positive way. Will she get everything done overnight? No. Let’s be fair. Let’s give our next Mayor a chance to walk into City Hall, deep clean her office, and then hit the ground running.
Without a question of doubt, there were people at the beginning of this Mayoral campaign who said out loud, “There’s no way a poor Black girl from Northwest Philadelphia, raised by her grandparents, without a lot of money, could ever win a Mayor’s race in Philadelphia.” Simple as that. There were those folk who counted Cherelle Parker out before the campaign officially started. Perhaps that is why others lost in their bid to become the Centennial Mayor. Maybe, just maybe, one or two of the candidates in this most recent past Mayoral campaign were a little too cocky.
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