Black mayors meet in Selma to discuss community issues

SELMA, Ala. (WSFA) – Round 20 mayors from throughout the state had been in Selma on Friday for the Alabama Convention of Black Mayors.

The assembly was an opportunity for leaders to debate points that have an effect on their communities, equivalent to failing infrastructure, schooling and the employee scarcity.

“These are simply the tip of the iceberg,” Selma Mayor James Perkins mentioned.

A number of the issues mentioned had been associated to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“These are some difficult instances,” Perkins mentioned. “We’re not going out of a pandemic. We’re transferring into an endemic. Pandemics come and go, endemics come and keep, and it appears like COVID might be right here for some time.”

The group gathered in an effort to work towards options. It’s one thing they’ve been doing since 1972.

“Again in these days, we knew that as African American mayors, there was energy in numbers,” mentioned Former Tuskegee Mayor Johnny Ford.

Whereas the mayors in attendance primarily serve residents inside their cities, they careworn they’re additionally working for all Alabamians, no matter the place they reside.

“We come collectively to seek out options to the issues which are issues all through Alabama,” mentioned Tuskegee Mayor Tony Haygood. “Sure, they’re in our group and a few are highlighted in our group, however most communities, they encounter the identical issues that we do in only a completely different method.”

Leaders additionally tackled extra controversial points – like vital race principle.

“It might be troublesome for me to share my historical past, my private historical past, in a classroom with vital race principle legal guidelines in place,” Perkins added.

It was simply certainly one of many discussions attendees consider will advance their communities.

The Alabama Convention of Black Mayors is not only for mayors. It additionally welcomes metropolis council members and former mayors.

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