(Source: South Florida Times)
MIAMI – Ciara Smith made history when she became the first Black and youngest mayor of Anniston, Alabama, winning a four-way race to lead a small city, where African Americans have been fighting for equity and inclusivity.
On May 6, Smith, 26, was sworn in as mayor of the Calhoun County’s city, where she was raised and made a commitment to give back to the community after she graduated from Spelman College in 2020.
Smith also earned a master’s degrees in public administration from Jacksonville State University.
Surrounded by her husband, mother, and extended family, Smith said her inauguration felt like a much larger celebration of historical progression and shattered glass ceilings.
The oath of office was administered by Ms. Gloria Floyd, Calhoun County’s first Black female attorney, which only deepened the significance of the moment.
Smith takes over a city, where racial tension peaked during the Civil Rights Movement during the 1969s.
In 1961, a mob bombed a bus filled with civil rights activists, who called themselves Freedom Riders, on board.
They were protesting Alabama’s Jim Crow segregation laws that denied Blacks their civil rights. As the bus burned, the mob held the doors shut, intent on burning the riders to death. An exploding fuel tank caused the mob to retreat, allowing the riders to escape the bus.
